SCOTT SEDDON – 2026 NEW SOUTH WALES CINEMA PIONEER OF THE YEAR
Inspired to some extent by his late brother, Scott joined and became president of his high school film club. At the age of 15 he was selecting movie titles from the 16mm Australia catalogue, he was putting up posters around the school, setting up the seats in the school hall, chilling cans of coke in garbage cans and running the movie on the Siemens 2000 projectors. As president he made the controversial decision to increase admission from fifteen to twenty cents.
The day after his last School Certificate exam he commenced work at the Newcastle Civic Theatre which had re-opened for the Christmas period. At the end of January when it closed again, he rented a room at a house in Eastwood and started working for Hoyts.
He was stationed at the Mayfair Theatre in Castlereagh Street but also rotated to the Embassy, Century and one shift at the Sydney Regent – the theatre of three thousand lightbulbs.
On his return to Newcastle, he visited the Lake Cinema at Boolaroo one evening when the projectionist quit on the spot and Bob Mason offered him a job. He and Bob became and remain lifelong friends. He remained there for six years before packing his bags and heading for Hollywood.
His employer in Hollywood was a wheeling and dealing character and he found himself rebuilding and repairing equipment in post-production facilities, screening rooms and in the private theatrettes of some of Hollywood’s knowns and unknowns. He also travelled across the country delivering and installing production and projection equipment.
During that time, he became adept at dealing with telecine projectors, which for the old American television system was quite complicated. His employer also owned a telecine transfer company which for some time performed the post-production telecine for The Love Boat. Scott says: “We used to see the same episodes half a dozen times, before the bad acting and the corny bits were cut out”.
Returning to Australia he found himself at the Hoyts Royal for a time before starting with the Newcastle company Showcase Cinemas, run by Margaret and Theo Goumas, which ran the Lyrique, Roma and Kensington Cinemas in the inner city.
One of the other projectionists had worked at the then closed down Heddon Greta Drive-in and in almost a throw-away line spoke of the drive-in sitting empty. By a twist of fate Scott and his family ended up taking a look, with the idea of taking some pictures but ended up re-opening it in March 1996. Scott has operated it ever since – sadly, however, it will close to become a real estate development in late November 2026.
In 2007 Scott took over the three screen complex then known as Raymond Terrace Cinema and in 2016 added two more screen to make it a five-screen location.
Around 2005 Scott was elected to the board of Independent Cinemas Australia, became treasurer, then Vice President, then President in 2014, a position he held until 2025. He is currently Vice President. He has been on member of FEDCAC (Film Code of Conduct Administration Committee for over a decade and represents ICA on the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia.
Scott led a team of dedicated exhibitors involved in the industry’s response to the Covid 19 outbreak and the federal government’s provision of the SCREEN Fund which was key to the survival of many independent cinemas in Australia.
Scott continues to support independent exhibitors with his passion for the industry.
Scotty’s Cinema Centre, Raymond Terrace