A public vote from 50,000 people has created a longlist of 15 venues for the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa)’s cinema of the year award.
The venues include Edinburgh’s Filmhouse, which reopened last year after a £2m refurbishment having been closed for almost three years.
Scroll down for the full longlist
Also selected are The Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford; Penistone Paramount in Penistone, South Yorkshire; and Theatreship, a cinema on a boat in Canary Wharf, London.
More than 70 cinemas entered the award, with submissions detailing what makes the venue special to the local community. A shortlist of five cinemas will be announced as part of the full Bifa nominations on Tuesday, November 3; with the winner revealed at the ceremony at the Camden Roundhouse on Sunday, December 6.
Last year’s inaugural award went to The Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn, Wales.
“Tens of thousands of audience members voted and told us how much their local cinemas mean to them,” said a statement from Bifa directors Amy Gustin and Deena Wallace. “This longlist for Cinema of the Year is a fantastic showcase of the exceptional cinemas up and down the UK that are - in the words of one voter - what community feels like.”
Bifa Cinema of the Year longlist 2026
Abbeygate Cinema, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Astoria Cinema, Ayr, South Ayrshire, Scotland
Campus West, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire
Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland
Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness, Falkirk, Scotland
The Kinema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire
Lonsdale Cinema, Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Mockingbird Cinema, Birmingham, West Midlands
The Odyssey Cinema, St Albans, Hertfordshire
Penarth Pier Pavilion Cinema, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales
Penistone Paramount, Penistone, South Yorkshire
The Silver Screen Cinema, Folkestone, Kent
Theatreship, Canary Wharf, London
The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford, Oxfordshire
Wellington Orbit, Wellington, Shropshire
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