One week left for independent cinemas in England to apply to the Culture Recovery Fund

Last chance for independent cinemas to apply for funding!

Applications are open for one more week for the £30m Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas in England to support non-profit and independent cinemas which are facing prohibitive challenges in being able to reopen and operate whilst social distancing is in place and whose business has been heavily impacted following UK- wide closure since the end of March.

So far, 42 independent cinemas from across England have received a cash boost from the UK government’s £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, in the first awards made by the BFI to support England’s screen sector, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden announced today.

The first tranche of money from the £30m pot is being allocated by the BFI on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It will support cinemas across England from the Jam Jar Cinema in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, down to Devon’s Totnes Cinema.

This important cash boost of more than £650k will help independent cinemas – the cultural organisation closest to home for so many people – weather the storm of the coronavirus pandemic.

Protecting cultural assets

The fund offers support via two strands addressing the high upfront health and safety costs facing venues and the challenges of financial viability in the early months of reopening as social distancing limits the number of cinema seats that can be sold at each performance. Cinemas are able to apply for grants from both strands which will be structured as follows:

£3m for safety grants to enable cinemas (up to £10,000 per cinema) to put the necessary measures in place to ensure the safety of their workforce and the public; and/or
£27m business sustainability grants (up to £200,000 per organisation) to support independent cinemas to operate viably under the restricted conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund’s criteria has been designed to balance the urgent needs of the independent film exhibition sector with DCMS priorities for supporting organisations that play an important part in levelling-up their region, in particular protecting cultural assets in places where they are the only publicly funded organisation and/or a key part of the cultural fabric in their community.

Additional details and guidelines for cinemas looking to apply to the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas in England can be found at www.bfi.org.uk/Culturerecoveryfund.

Cinemas in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland come under the devolved Government administrations.