Film Societies Past and Future [Ian Christie]

Do film societies have a future? My answer would be that they probably have a more promising future than many cinemas. But the future prospects for both societies and cinemas depend on how flexibly and confidently they face up to the current phase of the digital revolution we’re living through. There is little doubt that film viewing remains vastly popular: a BFI -sponsored report in 2011, which I worked on, estimated some 5 billion viewings per year in the UK on all platforms, of which, however, just 6% took place in cinemas.