The Cinema Theatre Association was founded in 1967 by journalist Eric George, who wanted to draw attention to the magnificent "cinema theatre" movie palaces of the Twenties and Thirties that were beginning to disappear from our towns and cities. Since then, the association has widened its horizons to encompass all cinema and theatre buildings, from the humblest converted hall to the most modern multiplex. Our many and varied activities include providing information, through our Casework sub-committee, on the historical importance of cinemas, especially when they are being considered for listing or when alterations to listed cinemas are being proposed. Our regional groups in Scotland and Wales perform similar functions in their countries. We also organise visits to cinemas and theatres around the UK and overseas and our extensive Archive is available for anyone researching the history of these fascinating buildings We publish a tri-monthly Bulletin and, once a year, a full colour, high quality magazine, Picture House. We also publish books on cinema history, including the acclaimed series of definitive UK circuit histories by well-known author, and CTA Committee member, Allen Eyles.

We’re building the world’s largest guide to movie theaters.
We’re passionate about movie theaters and going to the movies. Since 2000, Cinema Treasures has united movie theatres and patrons to build the world’s most comprehensive guide to movie theatres, and help celeb​rate and preserve the moviegoing experience.

If you love cinema… London’s Cinema Museum is devoted to keeping alive the spirit of cinema from the days before the multiplex. Set in historic surroundings in Kennington, close to the Elephant & Castle, The Cinema Museum houses a unique collection of artefacts, memorabilia and equipment that preserves the history and grandeur of cinema from the 1890s to the present day.
‘The Cinema Museum is culturally very important to the history of movies and gives insight into how things have changed. It was the work house where Charlie Chaplin went as a child. It is a monument of great importance to anyone interested in Cinema.’ – Sylvia Syms

We programme a network of over 20 cinemas, festivals and mixed arts venues so that anyone can access a shared experience of life-changing cinema in their community, offering a wider range of films to a wider range of people.
We offer training so that independent cinema professionals can benefit from high-level knowledge that ensure our sector is successful, innovative and progressive.
We offer consultancy to help start, save and grow cinemas, making sure they stay economically viable and build their capacity.
We distribute films that make a contribution to the diversity of cinema culture in the UK and make a cultural intervention into the marketplace.
We offer free advice and information to make sure that everyone can show films and take part in our sector.
We run events for cinema professionals that help build a robust sector and encourage collaboration.

Here is a selection of redundant cinemas photographed since 2003. Some have been demolished, a few facades retained, whole buildings turned into churches and others remain in pretty well the same sorry state since first photographed. This cinema page was updated in June 2021. Read about their fortunes (or not).

The museum is dedicated to the preservation, restoration and exhibition of the art, skills and dedication that goes into delivering some of the world’s most successful films and TV shows. 
These artefacts and relics are created and used for only a very short time to make those films before being discarded, and most are never seen again by the audience who cares so much about them. The National Film and Sci-Fi Museum is dedicated to saving these amazing creations and making them available for everyone to see and enjoy, and at the same time telling the story of their creation and the people who helped to revolutionise the way we see films today. Our team of volunteers are very busy working on the exhibits and displays and working with a team of experts from the film industry on the monumental task of bringing them to life, and sharing the magic of the art of film making.

London’s Silent Cinemas explores the history of cinema exhibition in London from the emergence of permanent film venues in 1906 to the end of the silent film era around 1930. It documents the early lives of over 700 cinemas across London and its suburbs, using information gathered from local histories, city council records, film trade journals and directories, cinema programmes, street directories and historic maps and plans. This information can be accessed using the interactive London’s Silent Cinemas Map. Other special features include a guide to the History of London’s cinemas, and online Exhibitions, including an in-depth view of Cinema and the West End, 1906-1930. London’s Silent Cinemas is intended as a resource for cinema researchers and teachers, historians and anyone interested in the early days of film exhibition in London.  

Welcome to the Scottish Cinemas project, a volunteer-led, non profit site dedicated to recording and archiving our historic cinema architectural heritage - an often overlooked part of our social history. We try to provide a photographic and historical record of all Scottish cinema buildings, including those now unrecognisable or otherwise highly altered over the years. Cinemas that have now been demolished are also featured where photographs exist and copyright allows us to use them.
There are now over 1,140 cinemas in the database, of which we have images of over 800 buildings in over 250 different places around Scotland!
We welcome contributions of information, photographs, memories or anything else related to Scotland's cinemas.

British Pathé is considered to be the finest newsreel archive in the world and is a treasure trove of 85,000 films unrivalled in their historical and cultural significance. Spanning the years from 1896 to 1978, the collection includes footage from around the globe of major events, famous faces, fashion trends, travel, science and culture. Over the last 50 years, this material has been used extensively by broadcasters, production companies, corporations, publishers, teachers and museums, among many others. The entire archive is available to view online for free. 

The purpose of this website was always to be the first choices for anyone looking for anything relating to projectors or cinema and that purpose has always guided the direction that site has gone in. However, the second important thing was that this site should not duplicate information which is available on other sites, instead this site tends to link to the relevant site, rather than recreating it here. 

Do you have a favourite cinema? Share a photo of the best movie theatre in your area and tell us why you love it. We'll create a gallery of your best pictures on the Guardian site What makes a great cinema? A varied programme? Comfortable seating? Attractive decor? Polite and dedicated staff? For the last couple of years readers have been telling us about their favourite cinemas for our continuing Cine-files series – and we'd like to hear about more film theatres, wherever they are in the world. 

Matt Lambros is a photographer based in New York City. He remembers:
Abandoned architecture has fascinated me since I was five years old. My grandmother used to take my brother and I in to investigate any old barn she happened to drive past. She was curious about what was left behind, and her inquisitive nature made a lasting impression on me. I’ve spent ten years composing photographic obituaries for once-thriving buildings that are now crumbled and forgotten. My hope for my work is that it will shine light on beautiful, dated architecture and on the equal yet sinister beauty in decay. “After The Final Curtain” is a photographic documentation of the effects of years of neglect and decay in some of America’s greatest theatres as well as a journey into some that have been reborn. 

Kent MOMI is a not-for-profit museum that explores the deep history of the moving image — from the days of candle-lit magic lantern performances and hand-painted slides, through Victorian visual experimentation, to the advent and heyday of the cinema. The museum is situated in the heart of the picturesque Kent seaside town of Deal, two minutes' walk from Deal Railway Station and Deal Pier and Seafront.  We believe in community and access. All of our exhibitions are changing "special" exhibitions — so there will always be something new to see. Follow us on social media and be a part of the project!

When you walk into a movie theatre, you probably don’t think much about what’s going on in the projection booth. You picked the theatre because it was conveniently located, or because it was showing the movie you wanted to see at the time you wanted to see it, or perhaps because it had oversize comfortable seating. You went because you wanted to see a movie — a story told in sound and pictures — not a demonstration of projector technology. But a movie shown in a theatre isn’t just a movie. It’s a presentation. Just as the arrangement of food on a plate is an important part of a restaurant experience, and the framing and placement of paintings is integral to a museum visit, the way a movie is projected can have a meaningful impact on your theatrical experience. Great projection can make a movie sharper, more colourful, more vivid and engaging — while poor projection can be a movie-ruining distraction. Understanding the nuances of movie projection, and the different projection options available to moviegoers, can help you make the most of the cinematic experience you pay good money for. But understanding those nuances means understanding how projection has changed over the years, and how technological advances have affected not only what we see on the screen but how it gets on that screen.

ACMI is your museum of screen culture. Navigate the universe of film, TV, videogames and art with us. Located in the heart of Melbourne's Fed Square, ACMI (formerly Australian Centre for the Moving Image) celebrates the wonder and power of the world’s most democratic artform – fostering the next generation of makers, players and watchers. ACMI’s vibrant calendar of exhibitions, screenings, commissions, festivals, and industry and education programs explore the stories, technologies and artists that create our shared screen culture

The DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum is a leading, forward-thinking international film heritage organization. We are a pioneer in preserving and sharing film culture with a worldwide public, uniquely combining museum, cinema, archives and collections, festivals, digital platforms, research and digitization projects and numerous educational programs. Based in the diverse and dynamic city of Frankfurt, Germany, we actively work toward intercultural understanding, cultivating connections to institutions and initiatives in the film arts and sciences around the world. We link the history, materiality and meaning of film to the digital future. Promoting  film culture, in close collaboration with our audiences, is our mission. As a team of more than 200, we bring our professional knowledge and infinite passion for film to all that we do. For us, everything is film, and film is everything. 

The Hollywood Museum, the official museum of Hollywood, has the most extensive collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. The museum, featuring four floors of breathtaking exhibits, is home to more than 10,000 authentic show biz treasures– one of a kind costumes, props, photographs, scripts, stars’ car collections and personal artifacts, posters, and vintage memorabilia from favourite films and TV shows. The museum also showcases the history of Hollywood and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Don’t miss the lower level to experience Hannibal Lecter’s jail cell from Silence of the Lambs, Boris Karloff’s mummy, Vampira, Frankenstein and his bride, Elvira– Mistress of the Dark, and other cult horror film favorites.

In 1936, Henri Langlois, cinephile and visionary, created La Cinémathèque française in order to save from destruction the films, costumes, sets, posters and other treasures of the movie theatre. He was the first to consider cinema as an art to be preserved, restored and exhibited. Eight decades later, in a resolutely modern building entirely dedicated to the 7th art, La Cinémathèque française unveils cinema in a unique way thanks to to its many activities and one of the most important cinema collections in world. A true crossroads of cinephilies, it constantly revisits cinema through all eras, all backgrounds and all genres. It thus allows spectators to make wonderful cinematographic discoveries and for the young generation to rub shoulders with the history of cinema on a daily basis. 

Among the most important in the world for its rich heritage and the diversity of its scientific and educational activities, the National Museum of Cinema owes its uniqueness to its exhibition set-up. Hosted by the Mole Antonelliana, a landmark monument and symbol of Turin, this "temple of cinema" spirals upwards through several exhibition levels, creating a spectacular display of its extraordinary collections and retracing the history of cinema from its origins to the present time, in an evocative interactive itinerary.
The National Museum of Cinema is always attentive to different audiences’ needs. It adopts measures to facilitate the participation of all visitors and allow them to move around with ease and enjoy the Museum. 

The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum is home to one of the largest collections of material on the moving image in Britain. Both an accredited public museum and academic research facility, we have a collection of over 85,000 items. 1,000 items are on display in our Galleries. The Lower Gallery explores the development of pre-cinema visual culture up to 1910 and the Upper Gallery celebrates cinema from 1910 to the present. Everyone is welcome to visit our galleries seven days a week (except bank holidays and between Christmas and New Year) and our research facilities are open to all each weekday. The museum chronicles the development of optical entertainment from shadow-puppets and 17th century manuscripts to the most recent Hollywood blockbusters, including artefacts such as Magic Lanterns, rare books, prints, and an extensive variety of publicity materials. The diversity of this collection provides an insight into the changing dynamics of the moving image and the history of our relationship with it.

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the largest museum in the United States devoted to the arts, sciences, and artists of moviemaking. Global in outlook and grounded in the unparalleled collections and expertise of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy Museum offers exceptional exhibitions and programs that illuminate the world of cinema. They are immersive and dynamic and tell the many stories of the movies—their art, technology, artists, history, and social impact—through a variety of diverse and engaging voices. The Academy Museum will tell complete stories of moviemaking—celebratory, educational, and sometimes critical or uncomfortable.Designed by Pritzker Prize—winning architect Renzo Piano, the Academy Museum’s seven floors feature exhibition spaces, education and special event spaces, a conservation studio, a café, and a museum store. In addition, the museum’s 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and 288-seat Ted Mann Theater will present a year-round calendar of screenings, film series, member programs, panel discussions, family programs, and symposia. Programs will include retrospectives and thematic series that illuminate the artistic and cultural contributions of an international selection of movie artists.

Eye, as the only museum for film heritage and film culture, manages the cinematographic heritage of the Netherlands: an internationally leading collection - with more than 55,000 films, 60% of which are international - spanning the entire history of film. The ever-growing Eye collection also includes hundreds of thousands of photos, posters, sheet music, (pre)cinema equipment, archives of filmmakers and an extensive library collection. Eye is responsible for the long-term preservation, making accessible, contextualizing and keeping the film collection in the Netherlands alive. 
Film is unabatedly popular and everywhere. We live in a mediated society surrounded by moving images. In this abundance of images and films, we strive to point the way and connect: to and with that which is (historically) important, which is special, wonderful or urgent. We want to highlight the diversity of our collection and our programming.
We show that there are multiple perspectives on (film) history. Not only do we want to be guides ourselves, but we also want to open up our collection and our museum to new and as yet unheard of makers and storytellers. We make educational programs in-house and for education throughout the Netherlands. Internationally, we promote Dutch film culture across the board.

For movie buffs, this is where it all started. Le Cinématographe was born on rue du Premier-Film, in the centre of the Monplaisir district of Lyon, where today only remain, the hangar factory and the Villa Lumière which stands out with its imposing silhouette. The Lumière Museum pays homage to Louis and Augustus and presents their finest finds in the elegant decor of the family home, between ornate ceilings, monumental staircase, and glass roof of the winter garden.
It was in 2002 that Dominique Païni , then Director of the Cultural Development Department of the Centre Georges Pompidou, designed the scenography of the current route, according to the three floors and twenty-one rooms open to the public.
The museum, of course, gives pride of place to the Cinematograph , the most famous invention of the Lumière brothers. He replaces it in the long history of moving images, from magic lanterns to the prototype developed by Louis for his first film tests on paper in 1894. Thanks to the collection of old cameras assembled by Dr. Paul Génard and acquired in 2003, the exhibition presents essential technical masterpieces such as Edison's kinetoscope, the Demenÿ chronophotograph or the Cinematograph Lumière "n ° 1" which screened the first ten films on December 28, 1895, at the Grand Café in Paris, in front of the 33 spectators of the first paying public screening. A few weeks later, "Light operators" left all around the world to film other countries, other lives. The films shown on the museum's screens tell of their curiosity, their sense of framing and aesthetics.