The organisation behind the Edinburgh film festival has submitted a planning application for a £50m film centre that would be the first of its kind in the UK.

The Centre for the Moving Image has proposed an accessible and environmentally sustainable 11-floor building that it says would be a focal point for Edinburgh’s film community.

The building in Festival Square would replace the Filmhouse, an old church transformed into a film theatre in 1979. The Filmhouse is home to the Edinburgh international film festival (EIFF) and more than 20 other film festivals throughout the year.

Described as a “21st-century temple for film”, the new venue would have twice as many screens and seats as the Filmhouse, as well as dedicated education and learning spaces, workspace for film and cultural organisations and a new festival centre, including an auditorium.

Ken Hay, the chief executive of the Centre for the Moving Image, said he had visited cinema and film centres in the UK and other countries while developing the vision for a new home for film in Edinburgh.

“There’s as far as we can tell nothing like this in the rest of the UK and there are very, very few examples of a dedicated film centre like this anywhere in the world,” he said.

“The closest example I can think of is the Eye in Amsterdam, which was built a number of years ago and architecturally is stunning. We went to visit them to see how it had developed … Building an iconic bit of architecture is one thing, making it work is another.”

A decade ago the EIFF was struggling with funding cuts and under fire for failing to compete with other international events. But attendance has steadily increased since the 2011 low, with 70,000 admissions in 2019.

A public consultation will now run for 12 weeks, from 11 March to 3 June, followed by a formal planning application to the City of Edinburgh council.

An indicative timeline suggests work on the building could start in 2023 and the venue could open in 2025.

Sandy Begbie, the chair of the Centre for the Moving Image, said: “These are very exciting times for the Filmhouse – the opportunity to create a new home for film in Edinburgh, with a landmark building in the city centre. This will provide a new state-of-the art home for Filmhouse and Edinburgh international film festival, but at its heart this is for the citizens of Edinburgh and Scotland and the entire film industry.”

• This article was amended on 11 March 2020 to correct an error in the picture credit.