Andrew Macdonald, Danny Boyle’s long-time producer, recalls the first time he met with U.K. exhibition icon Clare Binns, who will receive the BAFTA Special Award on Sunday for her Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.
Macdonald met Binns at the time he and Boyle screened their first-ever feature, “Shallow Grave.” They had hoped to have the film selected at Cannes in 1994, but failed, so showed it as a market screening there instead. Binns attended, and loved the film, Macdonald tells Variety. “She was incredibly enthusiastic about it, and she was an exhibitor who actually wanted to put the film in a cinema, and I was so delighted. And since then, we’ve always been in touch.”
Macdonald, whose films also include Alex Garland’s films such as Oscar-nominated “Ex Machina,” commends Binns for her no-nonsense approach. “She’s one of those people who is brutally honest. She tells you if it’s too long, and she tells you if it’s boring,” he says.
“Shallow Grave” was released the following year, and by that time, Macdonald and Boyle were already underway with “Trainspotting,” and Binns came for a set visit, one of very few people to do so. “She was just super supportive right from the beginning, and super excited about British films playing,” Macdonald says. “And they both did great business, so it worked well for her, and, since then, I’ve always seen her at festivals, always listened to her, and it’s so pleasing that she’s getting this award. Somebody who really has made a difference. She’s so supportive of films, if she can be.”
Binns, the creative director of film exhibition company Picturehouse Cinemas, and its distribution and film financing arm Picturehouse Entertainment, elicits many such plaudits from those in the industry.
“Iron-clad resolve, huge energy, a wicked sense of humor, deep curiosity and a fierce intellect are all qualities Clare has in spades (along with many more), but one that stands out is taste – she has impeccable taste and her passion for a film gives everyone involved huge confidence – an incredible ballast in the making and distribution of any film,” Ed Guiney, the producer of Oscar nominees “Room,” “The Favourite,” “Poor Things” and now “Bugonia,” tells Variety, in a statement co-written with his colleagues Andrew Lowe and Emma Norton at Element Pictures.
“This was absolutely the case with ‘Pillion,’ which Clare and her team championed from the start, helped finance and then guided to an amazing result at the U.K. box office – and for which we are eternally grateful.”
Producer Stephen Woolley, whose career encompasses Oscar nominated “Mona Lisa,” Oscar winner “The Crying Game,” Oscar nominated “Michael Collins” and Oscar nominee “Carol,” among others, tells Variety, “It’s such a struggle, and always has been in our 40-plus years of doing so, to release independently financed films in the U.K., and Clare has been a terrific ally and enthusiast for so many of the films we have produced. Consistently helping us to preview our movies and championing the best of British and international films whenever they appear at festivals and on the release calendar. Not just a great cheerleader for our films but for all U.K. producers. She has helped build the Picturehouse brand in the last two decades with her fervent devotion to movies especially Great Indie Cinema.”
Selling Carrot Cake at the Ritzy
Binns’ love of cinema famously dates back to when she was an usher in the early 1980s at the Ritzy, an independent movie theater in Brixton, South London. She then worked her way up to projectionist and manager. So, Variety asked her whether that experience has informed how she has approached her roles as, first, an exhibitor, and now as a distributor and film financier.
“Yeah, absolutely, completely. It really is the bedrock of everything I’ve done in so many ways: Talking to customers, dealing with customers, watching customers, seeing films, how they react to films, being able to see the kind of films that I saw there, the number of films that I saw.
“We might have a film on for a week, and I might see it four or five times, to go in because I like certain sections of it, or watching how people responded to the films, and also the balance between the cultural and commercial and how important it was that you did sell people pieces of carrot cake and tickets and whatever, but you have the trust and faith that you could do that in a way that was meaningful. So, you know, all of that. And, also, now I know how hard it is to work in a cinema.”
What COVID Taught the Exhibition Sector
In the years following COVID, Picturehouse – like other movie theater chains – had to persuade people to come back into the movie theaters. How did it change her perspective of what the barriers are for people to come into a theater and how the chains can change things to encourage them to do so?
“Clearly we’ve had an uphill struggle for all sorts of reasons, but people just got completely out of the habit of seeing films, and I have noticed that we have to work even harder than we did before to make people… it’s almost like you’re bringing people in to see an event. What I hope is that eventually we will get to the point that we were at before COVID, which is people are interested in a director, or they’re interested in just seeing what’s out there, whereas now we have to persuade people that the film has something very special about it, which is very difficult if you want to have people come in June and July, when there’s no awards films, there may be very good films out there, but I think everybody’s hedging their bets as to when they release films, how they release films, so it’s much harder to persuade people to get off their couches into the cinema. We’re succeeding, but it’s difficult.”
Clare in the Community
Binns has built a reputation as an innovator in the U.K. exhibition sector, introducing a number of changes that have improved the experience for cinemagoers or made it easier for people to come into Picturehouse theaters.
“I think it’s about the offer of a cinema that is welcoming to everybody with food and drink and cafes and restaurants, and that there’s an opportunity for people to feel that it’s a part of their daily life,” she says. “So it’s not just that they will come in to see a film on a Saturday night; that they’ll drop by for a cup of coffee, that we’re welcoming. We have to be welcoming, and we have to go the extra mile to make people feel that they are number one. They are a VIP. Every person has to be a VIP I think would be the difference that’s what we aim to achieve. And the reason why the Ritzy is that template for me is because it is in the heart of the community, and has always offered that. And I think we have to replicate that, not just at Picturehouses, but multiplexes, every cinema, and I see it in a lot of local cinemas, people that I talk to who run smaller venues, it’s really important that we’re offering to our customers a friendly, welcoming service.”
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