Major big screen releases will play a 100-year old Aberdeenshire venue on opening weekends following a fundraising campaign for a community-run cinema.
The film fanatics behind the running of Ellon’s Victoria Hall have secured their very own digital projector for the venue, meaning the latest film releases can be screened more frequently and even on opening day.
The group successfully raised £47,000 for the projector.
Currently the hall screens films just once a month in partnership with the Edinburgh-based Film Mobile Scotland, who offer them slots which often do not correspond with when the hall is free for use.
However, with their very own projector they will be able to screen films every two weeks.
The secretary of Victoria Hall’s management committee, Keith Hart, said: “We now hope to have the advantage of showing a film after first release.
“We are taking cinema back to really where it started in that they were showing in places like Victoria Hall before cinemas were built. We discovered in our historical records that the first film showing was in the first year opened which was 1901.”
Film Mobile Scotland will still supply them with the movies for screening, only the company’s other commitments across Aberdeenshire will no longer dictate their own screenings.
The money was raised with funding from Creative Scotland along with cash raised from cinema profits, donations and contributions from the hall fund.
Vicki Morgan, chairwoman of the hall’s management committee and a volunteer with Ellon Cinema, said: “We’re delighted that we’ve got the funding.
“It means that we can do so much more for the town and show things a lot sooner. It’s so good for the town and we’re over the moon.”
The projector will be up and running in September.