We believe cinema has the power to change lives
We also believe that cinema should be inclusive and accessible for everyone.
These beliefs underpin all that we do.
Our mission is to bring great screen experiences to remote communities in Scotland
that otherwise have no practical access to cinema. We do this by:
- Operating the Screen Machine mobile cinema, bringing high quality, big screen experiences to 44 communities annually across the Highlands and islands
- Engaging deeply with the communities we visit, focusing on access and working towards a universal cinema experience that is welcoming to all.
- Providing advice and information to local cinemas via our Guide and Mapping Tool, and sharing learning from past development projects.
The Screen Machine visits over 40 communities across Highland, Western Isles, Argyll & Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire and Orkney, half of which are islands. We schedule, coordinate, programme and deliver a cinema programme to a standard comparable to any city centre cinema. For more information, click here.
We provide information, advice, contacts, and support to both individuals and organisations seeking either to start or to develop opportunities for cinema going in their communities. We’re committed to helping to bring people together to share and enjoy exciting, high quality screening experiences, where they live.
At Regional Screen Scotland we work particularly with those communities, across Scotland, which have no access—or only very limited access– to the full range of screening possibilities. We help to develop this access through working with a range of partners, from Film Hub Scotland to the UK Cinema Association and from Cinema for All to Scotland’s Towns Partnership.
Regional Screen Scotland is committed to advancing the principles of Fair Work First, including the Real Living Wage and Effective (Individual and Collective) Voice.
Our history
Regional Screen Scotland was set up in 2008 as an initiative of Scottish Screen, which was one of the predecessors of Creative Scotland. RSS was intended to be the regional and rural counterpart of four city-based ‘hubs’, Glasgow Film Theatre, Edinburgh’s Centre for the Moving Image, Dundee Contemporary Arts, and Eden Court in Inverness. RSS was created for Scottish Screen by HI~Arts, the cultural development agency for the Highlands and Islands. HI~Arts had originally launched the Screen Machine mobile cinema in 1998, and then commissioned a second such vehicle in 2005, and the operation and ownership of this Screen Machine was transferred to the new agency, and still forms a core part of RSS’s remit today.
RSS’s launch coincided with the rapid expansion of digital projection, from multiplexes to film societies, and one of RSS’s main tasks in those first years was to help with the setting up of these new technologies, including managing a grant scheme for community projectors on behalf of Scottish Screen.
In 2025 Regional Screen Scotland began to receive Multi Year Funding from Creative Scotland. We also launched a public fundraising campaign to raise £1.5m – the cost of a new Screen Machine. The target was reached in December 2025 and the build of a new Screen Machine is expected to be completed by autumn 2026.
RSS employs a small office-based team, two full time Driver/Operators for the Screen Machine, and a network of local Screen Machine Ushers across the Highlands and Islands. As a company limited by guarantee and recognised as a Scottish Charity, RSS is managed by a voluntary Board of Trustees who are drawn from across Scotland, and from the different areas of RSS’s remit, including film exhibition and community development. To read about our staff and Board, click here.