UK Cinemas Fund

SUPPORT THE UK'S CINEMAS AFFECTED BY COVID-19

MUBI, the online streaming service and film distributor, has created a UK Cinemas Fund to help support cinemas across the UK impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK Cinemas Fund  has been started with a £10,000 donation from MUBI, and the campaign aims to raise £100,000 to help support independent cinemas and film festivals across the UK who are facing severe financial hardship as a result of the ongoing closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 


WHERE WILL THE MONEY GO?

The total raised will be donated to the BFI FAN COVID-19 Resilience Fund, which was set up this month by the BFI and its UK-wide BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) to offer critical relief and business continuity to exhibitors across the UK.

Guidelines for the Fund are available here.

ABOUT THE BFI FILM AUDIENCE NETWORK

The BFI FAN is a network of over 1000 cinemas and other film organisations – led by eight Film Hubs across the UK to bring the best in UK and world cinema to the widest possible audience.  You can read more about FAN here .


HOW WILL DONATIONS BE USED?

Donations will be used to support independent cinemas, film festivals and other organisations whose mission to bring fantastic cinema to audiences across the UK is now impossible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these small and medium sized businesses are now facing permanent closure. These organisations will range in scale and type but they all share a passion for the best and broadest in UK and world cinema.

Donations will be formally received by The Showroom Workstation in Sheffield (which has charity status as THE SHEFFIELD MEDIA AND EXHIBITION CENTRE LIMITED), an independent cinema and key partner of BFI FAN (the administrator for  Film Hub North, one of its eight Hubs). They will work with all BFI FAN Film Hubs across the UK to channel the funds to where they are most needed. The Showroom Workstation will not receive any funding raised by this campaign. Find out more about supporting this beloved cinema in Sheffield directly here . 

MUBI will take no part in the allocation of funding.


A MESSAGE FROM MUBI

“Cinemas unashamedly provide a proscenium for our dreams” - Roger Ebert 

Cinemas and their staff are not just our partners, collaborators, friends; they are the soul of the film industry and we can’t imagine the world without them.

That is why we are launching this campaign to support cinemas in the UK. 

We have teamed up with a few London cinemas - the Rio in Dalston, the Phoenix in East Finchley, the Genesis in Whitechapel and Catford Mews - hiring their marquees to display this message in defiance to the virus: you will not kill cinemas. The message for our cinema friends: you are not alone. 

If, like us, you are a person who dreams in films, please donate to this campaign to support our cinemas. And soon we’ll meet again, in a dark auditorium somewhere, to dream together.

Help us spread the word about this campaign by sharing it on social media, with friends and family, and with all your comrades in dreams.


SUPPORT AND SHARE

Please share this campaign information as widely as possible – time is critical to help these cinemas and film festivals get through this challenging time.