CURTAINS CLOSE ON TORONTO'S FESTIVAL CINEMAS

The Kingsway, the Royal, the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles and the Paradise theatres are closing permanently on June 30, 2006. A sad summer for film buffs in this city.

The notice at www.festivalcinemas.com states: "It comes with much heartache that we announce that the Festival Cinemas will cease operations of The Revue, Kingsway and Royal theatres at the end of June. If you have any questions or concerns please contact 416-856-2044. It is because of your support we have been able to stay in business for almost 30 years, thank you."

One other Festival theatre – the Fox – will remain open for now. The fate of the buildings themselves is not known at present. The Royal, which has been designated as a Heritage Building, is presently up for sale while there is an online petition to save The Revue. If you go to "Save The Revue" at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/revue/ you'll see their plea -
"Toronto is about to lose a great cultural resource. Festival Cinemas is closing all of its five second-run theatres in less than a month. One of these theatres, located in the quickly developing neighbourhood of Roncesvalles Village, is a 95 year old landmark and the oldest continually running movie house left in Ontario. Please sign the petition ..."

The closing of these discount cinemas mean more to the city than just the loss of a cheap movie ticket, or a place to see older films on the big screen. Film fests, like Colin Geddes's Kung Fu Fridays, are now without a home. In Geddes' case it even puts his film collection in peril as there is no place to store his 500-plus reels of Hong Kong films.

You can read more on his blog here - kungfufridays.blogspot.com

According to the Cinema Treasures website email messages of support can be sent to: kingswaytheatre@yahoo.ca and revuecinema@sympatico.ca .