Cinema of Scotland


The cinema of Scotland consists of motion pictures made by the Scottish film industry. It is largely supported by Screen Scotland, the executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which provides financial support, direction and development opportunities for film production in the country. The Screen Commission of Screen Scotland provides support for incoming productions to Scotland, ranging from scripted, unscripted, live-action and animation productions. Devolution laws in Scotland allow the country to offer tax reliefs for high-end film and TV productions.
Productions for film and screen in Scotland generated over £52 million to the economy of Scotland in 2016. In 2019, an estimated £398 million was spent on the production of film, television and other audio content in Scotland. The top grossing Scottish films at the UK box office include Trainspotting, The Last King of Scotland, Shallow Grave and Sunshine on Leith.
The country has produced a number of world–renowned actors who have achieved critical acclaim and commercial success for their roles in film. Sean Connery was the first actor to Portrayal of [James Bond in film|portray James Bond in film], appearing in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Other notable Scottish actors of film and screen include Tilda Swinton, Ncuti Gatwa, Alan Cumming, Ewan McGregor, Karen Gillan, Robert Carlyle, David Tennant, Gerard Butler, James McAvoy and Kelly Macdonald.

History

The first movie to be screen in Scotland occurred at the Empire Palace Theatre in 1896. The initial screening failed to enthuse the audience which attended, however, was credited with beginning an affectionate relationship with screen, particularly during the 1930s which resulted in a major investment in cinema infrastructure to meet increased demand for the public going to cinema screenings. The number of Scottish towns and other settlements which had their own cinema had increased considerably by the time of World War I, including small communities such as Bo’ness, Fort William and Dumfries. In contrast, Edinburgh, the country's capital city, had a combined total of forty-three cinemas across the city. The first phase of purpose built cinemas to be constructed in the country began in 1910, and by 1920, there were a total of 557 cinema screens across Scotland.
The first films to be made in Scotland occurred in the 1930s when Glasgow hosted the Empire Exhibition in 1938. The inaugural Films of Scotland committee was established afterwards in order to promote Scotland both nationally and internationally, depicting all aspects of Scottish life. A total of twelve million people viewed the first Films of Scotland at the Empire Exhibition, with screenings including Wealth of a Nation, which showcased Scottish town planning and industry. The films were screened to the public at the Empire cinema building in Bellahouston Park.

Scottish Film Council

The Scottish Film Council was established in 1934 as the national body for film in Scotland. Its founding aim was to 'improve and extend the use in Scotland of films for cultural and educational purposes and to raise the Scottish standard in the public appreciation of films'. A strong focus on film in the service of education, industry and the betterment of society shaped the SFC for a considerable part of its history and it was this that led to the establishment of the Scottish Central Film Library, one of the largest and most successful 16mm film libraries in Europe. The council's strengths in educational film led in the 1970s to its incorporation as a division of the newly created Scottish Council for Educational Technology.
From the late 1960s, the SFC's central strategy was to take and sustain major initiatives in each of four main areas where the health of a national film culture could most readily be measured: education, exhibition, production and archiving. It made use of the British Film Institute's 'Outside London' initiative to set up Regional Film Theatres across Scotland. Established in collaboration with local authorities, these were to become more important in the Scottish context than elsewhere in the UK. A commitment to engage with film producers led to the SFC's involvement in film training, through the setting up of the Technician Training Scheme and later the Scottish Film Training Trust, both of which were joint ventures with the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians and producers.
In the late 1970s, the SFC used Job Creation Scheme funding to establish the Scottish Film Archive. Though initially conceived as a short-term exercise, its value was soon recognised and on the exhaustion of the original funding a Scottish Education Department grant was forthcoming to secure the Archive as a permanent part of the SFC's work. During the 1980s, SED funding allowed the SFC to support courses, events, the production of material for media education, Regional Film Theatre operations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Inverness and Kirkcaldy, film societies, community cinemas, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Celtic Film and Television Festival, the Scottish Film Archive, film workshops, general information services and a range of other initiatives.

Scottish Screen

The success of the Republic of Ireland in luring the filming of Braveheart from Scotland to Ireland by offering tax concessions and the use of Irish Army reserves as extras prompted the Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Forsyth to commission a report, Scotland on Screen, on the future of the film and television industries in Scotland. This led, in April 1997, to the Scottish Film Council, Scottish Screen Locations, Scottish Broadcast and Film Training and the Scottish Film Production Fund being merged to form the non-departmental government body Scottish Screen. In an address to American tourism executives in New York, Forsyth stated that the measures he had put in place were designed to make Scotland a more attractive location for foreign filmmakers, to develop and indigenous film industry, and to ensure that the allocation of resources supported a shift from a cultural to a commercial emphasis.
At the same time, the Scottish Film Archive was renamed the Scottish Screen Archive. In 2007, Scottish Screen merged with the Scottish Arts Council to form Creative Scotland and the Scottish Screen Archive transferred to the National Library of Scotland. The merge was finalised in 2010, with the new body, Creative Scotland, becoming operational and subsuming the responsibilities of both the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen on 1 July 2010. In September 2015, the name of the Scottish Screen Archive changed to the National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive.

Production and distribution

The film production sector has grown considerably in Scotland in recent times, with major investment in infrastructure to support the increase in film production in the country. As such, it boasts several large and smaller scale production and film studios capable of accommodating major feature film productions, including The Pyramids, The Factory, Wardpark Film and Television Studios, FirstStage Studios and Kelvin Hall. In March 2025, it was announced that American animation company, Halon Entertainment, is to spend £28 million to develop a new studio in Glasgow.
Distribution of film is considerably distinct from film production, however, some production companies may also operate distribution services. Production companies including Friel Kean Films, Hopscotch Films, Raise the Roof Productions and Synchronicity Films are some of the most significant distribution and rights exploitation operation companies of Scotland in 2019. The distribution sector in Scotland had an estimated turnover of £8 million in 2022; and contributed £5 million in GVA to the Scottish economy that year.

Scottish cinema

Directors

A considerable number of film directors, animators and screenwriters have originated from Scotland, some of whom have won multiple awards or enjoy a cult reputation. Director Bill Forsyth is noted for his commitment to national filmmaking; his best-known works include Gregory's Girl and Local Hero. The former won an award for Best Screenplay at the BAFTA Awards. Lynne Ramsay, after achieving success with her Scotland-based films Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, received attention and acclaim abroad with We Need to Talk About Kevin, You Were Never Really Here and Die My Love all being shortlisted for the Palme d'Or.
Norman McLaren is considered a pioneer in numerous areas of animation and filmmaking, including hand-drawn animation, drawn-on-film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound. John Grierson is often considered "the father of British and Canadian documentary film. He coined the term "documentary" in 1926 during a review of Robert J. Flaherty's Moana. In 1939, Grierson established the all-time Canadian film institutional production and distribution company The National Film Board of Canada controlled by the Government of Canada. William Kennedy Dickson, whose father was Scottish, devised an early motion picture camera under the employment of Thomas Edison.
While mostly recognised as actors, Peter Capaldi and Peter Mullan have ventured into directing. Capaldi won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film for the 1993 short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life before directing the feature-length Strictly Sinatra in 2001. Mullan won Best Director at the 2011 BAFTA Scotland Awards for the acclaimed 2010 drama film Neds, the film itself won the Golden Shell in the same year. Tom Vaughan achieved considerable success for his directing of What Happens in Vegas and Extraordinary Measures. Jamie Doran's 2016 film, ISIS in Afghanistan, won two Emmy awards in the outstanding continuing coverage of a news story in a news magazine, and the best report in a news magazine categories, as well as a Peabody award.
Frank Lloyd was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its president from 1934 to 1935. He is Scotland's first Academy Award winner and is unique in film history, having received three Oscar nominations in 1929 for his work on a silent film, a part-talkie and a full talkie. He won for The Divine Lady. He was nominated and won again in 1933 for his adaptation of Noël Coward's Cavalcade and received a further Best Director nomination in 1935 for perhaps his most successful film, Mutiny on the Bounty.
Other notable film directors from the country include Michael Caton-Jones, Paul McGuigan, and Alastair Reid, who was described by The Guardian at the time of his death as "one of Britain's finest directors of television drama."

Film & television actors

A considerable number of actors from Scotland have achieved international success. Considered an icon of the country, Sean Connery was the first actor to portray British secret agent James Bond in film, appearing in six Eon Productions films from Dr. No until Diamonds Are Forever, although he would later reprise the role for a final time in the non-Eon film Never Say Never Again. For his role as Jimmy Malone in The Untouchables, Connery won the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, becoming the first Scot to win an acting Oscar. He also received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in The [Name of the Rose (film)|The Name of the Rose]. Other notable film appearances include Murder on the Orient Express, Time Bandits, Highlander, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The [Hunt for Red October (film)|The Hunt for Red October], The Rock, and Finding Forrester.
Alongside Connery, actors such as Ewan McGregor, Robbie Coltrane, David Tennant and James McAvoy have found success in mainstream, independent and art house films. McGregor achieved international recognition for his performances as heroin addict Mark Renton in Trainspotting and as a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Coltrane and Tennant have also gained international recognition; Coltrane for his role as Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series and Tennant for the 10th and 14th incarnations of the title character in Doctor Who. McAvoy is best known for his roles as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series and as Kevin Wendell Crumb in M. Night Shyamalan's Split and its sequel Glass.
Although not born in Scotland, Tilda Swinton considers herself to be Scottish "first and foremost" citing her childhood and her links to Clan Swinton in the Scottish Borders. She has become a reliable character actor in Hollywood and independent cinema and has worked with several prominent auteurs, most often Wes Anderson. New York Times">New York City">New York Times named her amongst the 21st century's best actors in 2020.
Other notable actors from Scotland include Robert Carlyle, Alan Cumming, Ncuti Gatwa, Karen Gillan, Deborah Kerr, Rose Leslie, Kelly Macdonald.

Film awards and festivals

In Scotland, film and television production is celebrated at the annual BAFTA Scotland award ceremonies. It was estimated in 1988 and holds two annual awards ceremonies recognising the achievement by performers and production staff in Scottish film, television and video games. The BAFTA Scotland Awards are separate from the British Academy Television Awards and British Academy Film Awards. Other associated film awards recognised in the country include the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards.
Currently, two major film festivals occur in Scotland on an annual basis – the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Glasgow Film Festival. The Edinburgh International Film Festival was established in 1947 and is the world's oldest continually running film festival. The Glasgow Film Festival was established in 2005, and in 2024, the festival held a 20th anniversary edition with submissions exceeding 400. The line-up featured 11 world and international premieres, including İlker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, Giacomo Abbruzzese's Disco Boy and Rose Glass's Love Lies Bleeding, the latter of which opened the festival. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland, over thirty film festivals operated on an annual basis in Scotland. By 2022, Scottish based film festivals contributed £7.4 million in GVA to the Scottish economy, with a core audience attendance figure of 177,624 people. Other notable film festivals in Scotland include the Festival of St Andrews">Festival (2005 film)">Festival of St Andrews, Alchemy Film & Moving Image Festival, the Celtic Media Festival, the Screenplay Film Festival, the Hippodrome Silent Film Festival and the Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams. Animation film production in the country is celebrated during the Scotland Loves Animation festival.

Film polls

In 2004, The List ran a poll to determine the best Scottish films. The top five ranked by the public were:
  1. Trainspotting
  2. Gregory's Girl
  3. American Cousins
  4. Local Hero
  5. ''Whisky Galore!''

    Scottish films

Domestic film

Scotland's success as a film industry is apparent through its popular national films. Bill Forsyth is a prominent director in Scottish cinema - his films Gregory's Girl and Local Hero have won acclaim both domestically and worldwide; both are regarded as cult classics and were ranked by the British Film Institute in their 1999 Top 100 British Films list.

Scots-language films

In addition to the works of Scottish directors, there have been many successful films set in Scotland but not directed by Scots and/or shot elsewhere; Braveheart being perhaps the best-known and most commercially successful example. The film was a major success, grossing $350,000,000 worldwide and winning five Academy Awards; including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director for Mel Gibson. The film's depiction of the Battle of Stirling Bridge, a focal point of the film's story, is often regarded as one of the greatest battles in cinema history.
Much of the filming for the Harry Potter film franchise occurred in Scotland, given that the fictional school of Hogwarts is diegetically set in the country. Additionally, many James Bond films have been filmed at locations around Scotland, such as Skyfall, which was partly filmed at Glen Coe. Other James Bond movies to be filmed in Scotland include The Spy Who Loved Me, The World Is Not Enough and No Time to Die.
In 2012, Disney and Pixar released the animated film Brave, set in medieval Scotland. It is the first major animated film to be set in Scotland. Animators involved in the film were said to be "deeply affected by the real country's raw beauty and rich heritage". In 2013, it was estimated that the release of Brave would generate £120 million towards the Scottish economy in the next five years.

List of films shot in Scotland

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