Happy 1st Birthday since the grand reopening! You had an entire city - plus some massive global film icons - fighting to bring this venue back to life. How has that immense wave of community ownership and love shaped the way you run the space day-to-day?

We feel so lucky that we had such a huge amount of support and love behind us, and so grateful to everyone who made our reopening possible. Our audiences are incredibly passionate about the venue and every aspect of it – we hear often that people see us as a second home, which makes us incredibly happy! Everything we do is shaped by the people who come to Filmhouse, and we’re dedicated to taking care of such an institution and feel so privileged to do so.  

If you had to pick one film title that perfectly sums up the vibe of this past year, what would it be?

Cinema Paradiso, definitely – it says so much about what we do and why we love what we do. It’s the perfect film for this past year!

In your eyes, what is the intersection between the craft of great independent filmmaking and the craft of serving a really exceptional specialty coffee?

There’s few greater joys in life than a good film, and a good cup of coffee, and there’s things that tie the two together. They are both the result of a huge amount of hard work from dedicated teams, which is often unseen – the right location, the right edit, the right roast, the right brew. You don’t always think about it when you’re enjoying the film and the coffee, but you know it’s there, and it makes the experience all the more enjoyable. 

For us, as a champion of independent film, it was a no-brainer for us to serve Machina coffee – a local roaster not only dedicated to their craft, but also committed to fair trade principles

Your favourite film(s) since reopening?

There’s been some fantastic films in the past year that we’ve had the privilege of showing on our screens, but for us, there was something so special about screening Stanley Kubrick’s seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey from a beautiful 70mm print. It was our audience’s reactions we loved the most – we had people waltzing around the cinema to the end credits, bonding with each other about their shared love for the film in the bar afterwards, and talking to our skilled projectionists about what it’s like to run a film reel.

Every independent cinema has a distinct personality. Now that the dust has settled on the first year back, how would you describe the unique culture/energy of the new Filmhouse?

The dust may have settled, but we’re committed to always evolving! At the heart of Filmhouse our key mission remains the same – we are a place for our community to come together through a shared love of film, and absolutely everyone is welcome here. 

With Year One officially in the books, what are you most excited about as you head into your second year? Any big festivals or screenings we should keep an eye out for?

We’ve got a busy few months ahead of us as our festival season kicks off from September onwards, bringing some fantastic cinema from around the globe to our screens. Before that though, we’re incredibly excited to be screening the only 70mm print in Edinburgh of Christopher Nolan’s latest epic The Odyssey, which you can catch from Fri 17 July!