NEW research being released this Friday shows that audiences’ appetite for film has not been dimmed during the pandemic.
The BFI is confident that audiences will return quickly to cinemas across the country in May, June and beyond.
People will be returning for blockbuster new releases: A Quiet Place Part II, In the Heights, family films Peter Rabbit 2, Cruella, and awards headliners The Father, After Love, First Cow, Nomadland, Rare Beasts.
The research shows that despite cinema closures during the national restrictions, a third of adults watched at least one film at the cinema or other big-screen venue in 2020.
For cinemas, we have been allocating funding to independent cinemas across England on behalf of the DCMS and the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF).
To date we have allocated £27.6 million from the fund to independent cinemas from Penrith to Penzance, supporting a total of 209 individual cinemas and enabling them to be able to welcome their audiences once more.
The fund has supported cinemas in every part of the country with 87% of the funding going to cinemas located outside London.
Further funding has also been allocated by Arts Council England to independent cinemas which operate as part of mixed art venues.
The BFI’s flagship London venue BFI Southbank will reopen on 17 May with a programme that includes DREAM PALACE: MOVIES MADE FOR THE BIG SCREEN, a season inspired by the ongoing Sight & Sound editorial campaign ‘My Dream Palace’.
The season from 17 May – 30 June, has been curated by filmmakers including Edgar Wright, Gurinder Chadha, Luca Guadagnino, Asif Kapadia, Prano Bailey-Bond, Peter Strickland, Francis Lee and many more.
The special guests, some of whom will introduce their choices in person and some virtually, have all picked the film that they would most like to see at BFI Southbank; the result is a “wonderfully eclectic mix,” all of which will be glorious on our dreamy big screens.
More info on this season and the entire reopening programme is available here.
