Edinburgh's publicly-funded arthouse cinema is a hub for the city's film buffs. The Filmhouse has the most varied programme of alternative film, ranging from arthouse and foreign cinema, to classics and mainstream second-run films.
The Filmhouse re-opened to the public on Friday 27th June 2025, following major refurbishment.
Its Lothian Road location, puts it close to the Edinburgh Odeon, Cineworld, and Edinburgh Cameo Cinema.
The cinema has four screens:
- Screen 1: 186 seats + 2 wheelchairs. Dual 35mm/70mm, 4K digital projection and 5.1 audio.
- Screen 2: 70 seats + 1 wheelchair. 35mm, 2K digital projection with 5.1 audio.
- Screen 3: 57 + 2 wheelchairs. 35mm, 16mm and 2K digital projection with 5.1 audio.
- Screen 4: 22 + 1 wheelchair. 2K digital projection and 5.1 audio.
Tickets *
Tickets: £3 (unwaged) to £12 (adult single). Carers go free.
Discount for annual Filmhouse Members.
* Online booking includes £1.50 booking fee
Filmhouse Café
A natural gravitation point for cinephiles, the Filmhouse Café is the obvious place to hang out for a coffee or pint for movie-goers (fairly good choice of beer on tap), and offers a small selection of pre-film food from breakfast bacon rolls to "Famouse Filmhouse Nachos". Vegetarian options and children's menus are available.
The 100-seater café was part of the general refurbishment following the Filmhouse's rescue and is open morning until night seven days a week.
Under-16s are not permitted entry to the bar after 8pm, and under-18s are not permitted entry to the bar after 10pm.
Background
Edinburgh Filmhouse, on the busy Lothian Road in Edinburgh's West end, has been a hub for Edinburgh film fans for decades.
Filmhouse first opened as a one screen cinema in 1979 in a converted church, built in 1831. The one screen expanded to three screens with a capacity of 280 seats, 97 seats and 72 seats.
As well as its eclectic and varied programme, Filmhouse was the location of the Central Box Office for the annual Edinburgh Film Festival, with other off-beat mini film fests thrown in throughout the year.
The Filmhouse closed after its parent organisation the Centre for Moving Image, announced that it had ceased trading on 6th October 2022. However, a grass roots campaign for the much-loved venue managed to rescue the cinema, which went on to re-open to the public, following extensive refurbishment, on Friday 27th June 2025.
The new cinema features four screens, a refurbished bar, a reconfigured foyer space and a smaller box office desk (the previous one was likened to the control desk of the Starship Enterprise).