Edinburgh has an undoubtedly vivid film scene, from the recent Edinburgh International Film Festival and upcoming BFI London Film Festival screenings, to historical establishments such as The Cameo and Edinburgh Filmhouse, the public can easily access everything in between new releases and retrospect cinema. Among the many creative individuals and organisations that have established Edinburgh as a film city, the Edinburgh Film Guild has been much overlooked, including the organisation’s founding of the first Edinburgh International Film Festival in 1947 and its major shareholder position in the investment and maintenance of the Edinburgh Filmhouse.
The Edinburgh Film Guild was founded in 1930, on the necessary belief that unusual films should be given a platform other than the usual commercial cinema. Held at the Caley Picture House on Lothian Road, the guild also facilitated discussion groups after screenings, and has advocated for local Scottish productions as the majority of films were made by English companies. The flourishing of Film Guild was halted to a stop with the start of WWll, yet the film screenings have never stopped—the Sunday screenings have moved to daytime, and films were brought to hospital patients and evacuated children.
In 1947, the first international festival of music and drama in Edinburgh was in talks, yet film was excluded as it was not considered an art form. The Film Guild took it upon themselves and started the first Edinburgh International Film Festival, which focused solely on documentary films. The first festival was entirely crowdfunded and received no subsidiary from the government, and has since expanded in scope to include films from different countries.
The Film Guild reached monumental success during the early 1990s, where it was awarded ‘Film Society of the Year’ by the British Federation of Film Societies in 1992. In this year, Film Guild even took their arthouse screenings to the Glastonbury Arts Festival as a complement to their outdoor commercial programmes. They’ve also started running SCOTVEC certified film courses to popularise film education, some of these educational initiatives are ongoing to this day, aiming to introduce unheard-of films and directors to the public. The Film Guild has always recognised the importance of a social scene to enrich audiences’ enjoyment of films, running events such as wine receptions, film’n’food nights, and Christmas discos.
As financial investor and board member of the Edinburgh Filmhouse, Film Guild has hosted screenings and facilitated meaningful conversations there up until Filmhouse’s closing in 2022. Now, as a registered charity, they are situated at different local film scenes—from the French Institute, Grassmarket Community Picture House, to James Gillespie’s High School—aiming to support and fund all forms of cinema watching in this city.
Film Guild has also continued on with their education programmes including Contemporary Native American Films and Non-American Noirs, striving to broaden the public’s understanding of less popular film movements and niches. As Edinburgh Film Guild is soon approaching its centennial, their contributions in building Edinburgh as the film city it is today should be recognised and celebrated.
*This feature would not have been made possible without the support of Edinburgh Film Guild board members Jim Dunnigan and Phil Denning.
Image By Edinburgh Film Guild