For immediate use: 30 January 2025
Regional Screen Scotland is awarded Multi Year Funding from Creative Scotland
- £410,000 is awarded each year for 25/26, 26/27 and 27/28.
- Creates a solid base to build the organisation’s future.
- Fundraising for a new Screen Machine mobile cinema continues to take priority.
Regional Screen Scotland (RSS) is delighted to announce that it has been named as a recipient of Creative Scotland’s Multi Year Funding.
Multi Year Funding (MYF) replaces Regular Funding, which has been in place since 2018. The sum awarded almost doubles the Regular Funding that RSS received in the financial year 2024/25. The application process for MYF was very competitive and has taken almost 18 months to complete. The funding represents a significant proportion of RSS’s running costs, alongside charitable donations and ticket income from the Screen Machine mobile cinema.
Fundraising to raise £1.7 million to build a new mobile cinema, and safeguard the Screen Machine service into the 2040s, remains the top priority for Regional Screen Scotland. The public fundraising campaign – Save Our Screen Machine – which was launched in September 2024, has seen supporters give generously to the fund. Additional fundraising activities are continuing at pace, with the expectation that the build for a new Screen Machine will begin in 2025.
Alyson Hagan, Chair of RSS, said:
“We made a bold application to Creative Scotland and I am delighted that our vision and ambition have today been rewarded by long term support. It’s great that the Scottish Government has listened to Creative Scotland to provide a budget that helps us plan for the future with certainty. Ever since the COVID pandemic operating in Scotland’s culture sector has been extremely challenging. This new long term commitment of funding means that we can now look forward with renewed confidence and continue to deliver our services to people and communities across the Highlands & Islands.”
Media details
For more information please contact:
Fiona Fowler, General Manager, Regional Screen Scotland
fiona@regionalscreenscotland.org
(0131) 550 3734
Editors’ Notes
About Regional Screen Scotland
Regional Screen Scotland is currently a regularly funded client of Creative Scotland, and will receive Multi Year Funding from 01/04/25. It was set up in 2008 as an initiative of Scottish Screen, the predecessor to Creative Scotland. It helps communities to share great screen experiences by: operating the Screen Machine mobile cinema service (using Cinémobile); providing advice and information on setting up local screen facilities; advocating for the social and economic benefits of cinema for local communities. Find out more about us at www.regionalscreenscotland.org.
About the Screen Machine service
The Screen Machine service is provided through the use of an 80-seat state-of-the-art air-conditioned mobile cinema which brings the latest films to remote and rural parts of Scotland. Now in its 27th year of operation, it is the only full-time self-contained digital mobile cinema provision service operating in the UK. In May 2024 Screen Scotland provided funding to lease the Cinémobile which will tour to 30+ communities in the Highlands & Islands of Scotland, including 19 islands. Its use is intended as a stop gap until a new Screen Machine has been built and brought into use. Find out more about us and the Save Our Screen Machine campaign at www.screenmachine.co.uk and via Instagram and Facebook.