Run entirely by volunteers from a parish hall in the County Down seaside town of Newcastle, the Newcastle Community Cinema is a non-profit cinema and community hub based in St Mary's Hall on Main Street. Founded in 2009 to promote the appreciation of film, it offers an old-fashioned, sociable alternative to the multiplex, complete with a traditional popcorn machine and a well-stocked bar at every show. The cinema screens a varied monthly programme aimed at all tastes, from family films to arthouse and world cinema, in a relaxed and informal setting overlooking Dundrum Bay and the Mourne Mountains. Screenings, originally held in the seafront Annesley Hall, now take place in St Mary's Hall, where the group has built a loyal local following. The venue is more than a cinema. Its facilities include a full proscenium-arch stage with green rooms and lighting, a large airy hall, a kitchen and a front yard onto Main Street, and the space is hired out for private screenings, weekly classes, children's cinema parties, dramatic productions and meetings. In recent years it has also staged live tribute acts and concerts. Its work has been widely recognised within the community-cinema movement, and it has held the British Federation of Film Societies' Film Society of the Year award. Each year it hosts the Fool Moon Film Festival, typically in November, alongside themed and location-specific screenings and strong links with local schools, businesses and voluntary groups. As a registered charity run for and by the town, the cinema reinvests in its role as a community asset, keeping film, arts and live performance accessible in a small coastal town. The combination of a charitable, volunteer-led model and a flexible hall has made it a fixture of cultural life on the Down coast. The hall has long served as a community space in the town, and the cinema's move into it gave both the building and the group a more settled home. As a registered charity, it is funded by ticket sales, hall hire and the efforts of its volunteers, and it has come to be cited within the wider community-cinema movement as an example of the role film can play in the social life of a small town.

Type: Movie Theater

Address: Main Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, BT33 0AD

Website: https://www.newcastlecinema.org

Capacity: 70

Opening Date: 01/01/2009