Our Values

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Our Values

“Great films deserve a great home”

We are Filmhouse, a proudly independent cinema and charity in the heart of Edinburgh.

Committed to screening the full diversity of cinema from across the globe, we exist to celebrate the magic of film in all its forms, and aspire to provide a safe and inclusive space for our community to meet, socialise, learn, and enjoy themselves.

A four-screen cinema presenting a year-round, world-class programme of independent new releases, retrospectives, filmmaker Q&As, live events and community discussions, Filmhouse also delivers educational programmes for thousands of young people from Edinburgh and beyond each year, as well as providing a social and community hub via a vibrant bar café.

As an organisation, the following principles guide the way that we work. Designed to benefit Filmhouse and everyone who engages with us, they enable Filmhouse to fulfil its mission, guiding the decisions we make:

Independence

Filmhouse is a proudly independent organisation, and a registered charity, with no investors or shareholders. The profits we make, and the funding we receive, are used to improve Filmhouse for everyone.

Central to Filmhouse’s independence is the spirit in which we go about our work. The decisions we make are entirely driven by the values we express here, and are shaped by the Filmhouse team, its directors and board of trustees, with our audiences, cultural mission, and the future in mind.

A Love of Film

Existing to celebrate the magic of cinema in all its forms, our programming is wide ranging, exploring the full diversity of global cinema, from the earliest days of the moving image to the present day.

Encompassing new releases, festivals, retrospectives, and screenings on formats ranging from digital to 35mm and 70mm, Filmhouse is particularly committed to creating a space for learning and connection, and to creating an environment where audiences, filmmakers and advocates for cinema can meet, discuss, and celebrate the power of film.

In doing so, Filmhouse offers a world class, ambitious cultural cinema programme for Edinburgh, Scotland and beyond. We platform films and events available nowhere else, giving audiences the chance to connect with cinema in a variety of ways, from the escapist and the playful to the uncompromising, the revelatory, and the socially conscious.

Community

As well as championing the power of film, Filmhouse strives to present a programme reflecting the world in which we live. We do this by offering the broadest possible programme of films and events we can.

Celebrating stories and ideas from every part of our complex and increasingly interconnected world, the cinema we seek to champion represents a diverse range of communities. In doing so, we aspire to make our offer pluralistic, diverse and representative of the audiences we are here to serve; representative of artists and communities facing significant barriers to having their stories heard; and which speak to our values as an organisation.

Central to this approach is a commitment to community collaboration: by working with dozens of partners, festivals, external curators and guest speakers each year, we hope to widen the scope of what is screened at Filmhouse, support the work of a variety of communities, and champion stories and conversations that come from the perspective of lived experience.

Dedicated to creating a welcoming environment to a diverse community of filmgoers, Filmhouse is fully committed to inclusivity. We oppose all forms of discrimination including racism, islamophobia, ableism and antisemitism, as well as all forms of discriminatory behaviour, harassment and bullying towards anyone.

From the prices we charge to the physical provisions of our building, and from the way our team welcomes audiences and partners to the programmes that we present – from family programmes to relaxed screenings to daily subtitled performances to community programmes – we aspire to be an inclusive and sustainable space for people to meet, socialise, learn, and enjoy themselves, a place welcoming to all, and a safe environment for our staff, audiences, partners and participants.

Our People

Filmhouse recognises that it cannot achieve its mission to create an inclusive space where all can connect through a shared love of film without first creating a supportive and collaborative staff culture.

Committed to being a great place to work, Filmhouse’s commitment to its people includes:

Paying a Real Living Wage. Filmhouse is proud to be an accredited Real Living Wage Employer.
Offering fair contracts. Filmhouse does not employ staff on low or zero hours contracts. 
Unlimited free cinema tickets for employees, including a monthly allocation for friends and family.
Free meals for staff on shift, and generous staff discounts on food and drink when outside of work.
A commitment to developing routes for staff to contribute to the future of the organisation, from programme to policy development, guided by Effective Voice and Fair Work principles.
A comprehensive Employee Assistance Programme, giving team members access to a qualified counsellor to speak to about whatever is on their mind, and access to a variety of supportive resources.
Trained mental health first aiders at numerous levels of the organisation, as well as additional training for managers to support staff with their mental health.
A commitment to team development and improvement at all levels of Filmhouse, including regular training, three full days of closure per year to support team and ‘good culture’, and a commitment to creating routes to professional growth for Filmhouse employees.
Zero tolerance towards bad behaviour, or any form of abuse or harassment towards our staff.
Striving to be transparent about the decisions we make, why we make them, and being open to dialogue and challenge.

These working principles are guided by Filmhouse’s organisational values:

Film is for everyone, so we must remove barriers to access and inclusion.
Our work must be guided by the highest ethical standards.
Film will be as important in the future as it has been in the past. Long-term sustainability therefore underpins everything we do. 
People everywhere need a healthy and sustainable world to live in, meaning we see all our work through an environmental lens.
We promote cultural and individual diversity, celebrating and protecting difference in all that we do.