Cumbria cinemas share government culture emergency funding

The family-run Alhambra in Keswick is one of many independent cinemas to benefit

Cinemas have welcomed additional emergency Covid funding which will "keep them afloat".

The latest round of the government's Culture Recovery fund provides nearly £400m in grants and loans to arts organisations and independent cinemas.

Dame Judi Dench said local cinemas were "a vital part of our cultural lives".

Keswick Alhambra owner Carol Rennie said the money was a "very welcome acknowledgement of the value and importance of our sector".

"It has helped keep us afloat in these very hard times," she said.

Dame Judi Dench said local cinemas offered inspiration

Cinemas in Cumbria and the North West will receive £358,857, on top of £2.5m already awarded from the fund to independent cinemas in the region.

They include:

• Alhambra, Keswick - £9,747

• Alhambra, Penrith - £64,934

• Cinemac, Macclesfield - £45,997

• Regent Cinema, Marple - £19,155

• Roxy Cinema, Ulverston - £26,313

• Royalty Cinema, Windermere - £67,031

• The Island Cinema, Lytham St Annes - £43,567

• Zeffirellis/Fellinis, Ambleside - £82,122

Dame Judi, who is a patron of the Theatre by the Lake which hosts the Keswick Film Festival, said local cinemas were "places where people come together for a shared experience and have inspired many to make their careers on screen".

"We need to make sure that generations today and in the future have the same opportunities to enjoy and take part in the communal big screen experience," she said.

British Film Institute chief executive Ben Roberts called the funding a "lifeline to survival".