New Mills Community Cinema gets a £4,000 grant

The cinema based out of St George’s Parish Church Hall which shows free films for family is expanding thanks to a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.

The pop up movie-theatre was set up a couple of years ago and has grown from strength to strength.

Sean Whewell, from Visit New Mills which launched the project, said: "A family could be looking at paying £40 or £50 just to go a regular cinema which is too expensive.

“We knew there was a gap in the market for free family activities in the area so we set up the cinema and it’s proved so successful.”

The cinema has been showing already released family-friendly films in the church hall and has catered for up to 70 families during one showing.

Sean said: “It’s great to see people together, having fun and doing an activity which they may otherwise not have been able to afford.”

Since the popularity of the community cinema has grown the committee applied and were successful in securing a substantial grant to improve services.

Sean said: "Now we have secured a £4,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund which is amazing.”

The money has gone to buying a projector screen which is three times the size of the previous screen and the group hope to be able to offer a wider choice of films for the whole community.

He said: "Not everyone wants to watch kids films so we now are looking at expanding our offering and showing films to suit different ages and tastes.

"All this costs money which we previously have not had so it’s so nice to have money in the pot to do this now.”

The next free family film, which includes popcorn, will be on Saturday August, 21 at midday but due to the current licensing laws for the community cinema they are unable to advertise but again this is hoping to change with the new grant money.

To find out the next listing join the New Mills Community Cinema Membership Group on Facebook.

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