Sheffield’s Showroom Workstation To Lead Film Hub North

Sheffield’s Showroom Workstation has been announced as the Film Hub North ‘Hub Lead Organisation’ in the BFI’s (British Film Institute) ambitious Film Audience Network to boost audience choice and to increase and broaden audiences for specialised and British independent film across the UK.

The independent cinema will be focusing its scope on partnerships with local providers in Cumbria, Yorkshire, County Durham, Northumberland and Tyne & Wear, as the ‘cultural leader’ for the region. Working in collaboration with other members of the BFI Film Audience Network, the Film Hub North will work to open up the world of specialised, independent film to a wider audience. “This is an exciting development for us," says Ian Wild, Showroom Workstation Chief Executive. "We’re looking forward to broadening our scope and working with partner’s right across the North. This is great news for audiences in the region. All those film fans and potential film fans out there will find a world of film opening up to them.”

Using the £1.17 million grant which has been awarded to them to spend over the upcoming four years, the Film Hub North will be offering film activities to the local, youth audience and financial investment in audience developed projects, as well as mentoring and sector specific development training. Membership to Film Hub North is free, and membership entitles individuals to apply for project investment and training opportunities. The organisation has already funded 11 audience development projects in the region, and has awarded numerous bursaries to film professionals for development programme's which the Hub will be able to provide.

The Showroom Workstation, which celebrates its 20^th anniversary next year, will also be hosting ‘The Cinema of Childhood’, a season of 17 movies curated by filmmaker Mark Cousins. Inspired by his latest feature documentary ‘A Story of Children and Film’, the season covers films from twelve countries and spans over seven decades. The Sheffield cinema will be bringing the many of the films to UK screens for the first time, offering its audience a rare opportunity to explore the tales of children in global cinema beyond the tales of Hollywood childhood.

Speaking about ‘The Cinema of Childhood’, Cousins described the films as some of the best unknown masterpieces in cinema, adding: “There’s a world of great cinema about kids which is hardly known, but just as brilliant. Welcome to that world. Jump into it.”

Little Fugitive kicks off ‘The Cinema of Childhood’ season at Sheffield’s Showroom Workstation on Tuesday 1 July 2014. For information on how to purchase tickets, and for further listings of the collections pieces, please click here.