We’re open! I’m writing this on Monday 17 May – the first day the Showroom Cinema has been open for six months. There’s a real feeling of hope and joy floating around the air, and it genuinely feels great that we can share films we love again. All our staff have worked incredibly hard to make this happen; from the maintenance team who have repainted, sanded and polished the floors, installed new lighting and overseen lots of building improvements; to the cleaners who are working on new procedures to make your visit safe; and our excellent bar and box office teams who are here to offer a helping hand, recommend films and serve you delicious coffee (or a cheeky glass of wine).

I’m also incredibly pleased to see the support we have received from you – our customers. All our evening shows are down to their last few tickets, and though that looks different to what it used to, it’s wonderful to feel so supported on our first day back. Particularly as we’re opening on a Monday, with all films shown with caption subtitles for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. We’ve been running Subtitled Mondays for many years, an offer that is designed to boost the number of captioned screenings that we screen. Every Monday, we show everything that we can with captions, all day. Generally, this includes most of our programme, but sometimes some smaller, more independent films that we book do not have any captions available – this is something that we hope the wider film industry will begin to address as more cinemas offer more captioned screenings. This week, every film that we have booked has captions, so every single showing on our re-opening day is a little bit more accessible. If you would like more information about our Subtitled Mondays programme, or want to check the listings week by week, you can find them at here.

Next week, all the films from our re-opening week will remain on the programme, so if you’ve yet to visit the Showroom you still have a chance to catch Nomadland, Judas & the Black Messiah, Minari, Ammonite and Sound of Metal. These are all well worth your time, but from this Friday we’ll also be opening with Billie Piper’s directorial debut Rare Beasts – a bold, pitch-black romantic comedy, a stunning archival documentary surrounding Stalin’s funeral State Funeral; and My New York Year a big-hearted drama about an aspiring writer working at the literary agency of JD Salinger.

This article first featured in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 20 May 2021.