Nearly £1m is to be given to selected cinemas across the country by the film agency Scottish Screen.

It announced last night that £750,000 is to be invested in the "best and most accessible cinema provision" to a group of newly defined Cultural Cinema Hubs - certain cinemas which are identified by the agency as being capable of showing a wide range of films to diverse audiences.

Glasgow Film Theatre is among the awardees, as is the newly redeveloped Eden Court Cinema in Inverness, which will receive support to develop a outreach programme for film-lovers in the Highlands.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival will also receive £250,000, as a "cornerstone" film event in Scotland for local, national and international audiences. Last year its funding from Scottish Screen was £150,000.

Edinburgh's Filmhouse, described as "experts in film curation and programming" and Dundee Contemporary Arts, "strong providers of film to children and young people", have also been awarded funds.

Regional Screen Scotland will also receive funding to support its new aims, developing access to cinema in rural and remote areas.

In addition to the finance, each venue or film event will now also be represented on the board of Regional Screen Scotland.

Morgan Petrie, Scottish Screen's head of market development, who organised the strategy, said: "This increase in investment from our grant in aid funds will support cultural cinema programming across Scotland and help sustain our audience development ambitions as we move towards Creative Scotland."

Dundee Contemporary Arts will receive £75,000, and is being recognise for its work with children and young people, as well as its specialism in the showing of video art and other moving images created by visual artists, rather than film makers.

Eden Court will receive £50,000, up from £21,000, and the GFT will get £170,000, up from £108,000. The Filmhouse in Edinburgh will receive £150,000, up from £92,000 and Regional Screen Scotland, a new body, is to get £50,000 in funds.

Each of the hubs will also be given a share of £100,000 to cover costs of the transition to a cultural cinema hub.

Scottish Screen invests just under £6m in the development and promotion of Scotland's screen industries each year.

This includes distributing £2.7m of National Lottery funds.