The Keswick Alhambra has been shortlisted for Cinema of the Year by the UK Screen Awards, set up in 2010 to celebrate excellence in all the ‘behind the scenes’ businesses in the film industry: distributors, promoters, marketers and brand creatives, as well as two Cinema of the Year awards, which recognise one site in each of two categories: those run by companies operating 25 or more screens and those run by companies with 24 screens or fewer.
The UK Cinema Association(UKCA), which represents over 90 per cent of UK cinema operators, nominated a panel of UKCA members supported by Screen magazine and award sponsors MUBI to make the decisions on the cinema awards. Phil Clapp, UKCA Chief Executive, told the Alhambra that “it was a hellishly competitive process,” and that the award has considerable standing, most importantly as “one of precious few chances to shine a light on best practice in the sector.”
The winner in each category will be announced at the Screen Awards event in Central London on Thursday 28 November. “With our single screen, we are the very smallest possible operator,” said cinema owner Carol Rennie, “but in terms of our submission, where we presented our achievements of the last year in terms not only of increased box office, but hugely increased membership of our Friends of the Alhambra scheme, subscriptions to our weekly email, online ticket sales, and engagement on social media and in response to our crowdfunding campaign, the Alhambra must be one of the cinemas to have demonstrated the most support from our community, for which we would like to thank all our loyal customers, near and far!
