It won the award in 2003, 2013 and 2016.

This year it shared the award with Darwin Deck Chair Outdoor Cinema.

The cinema was announced as the regional winner at the Australian International Movie Convention held earlier this month.

Members of AIDA, the Australian Independent Distributors Association voted for the award.

The cinema was judged on its content, website, presentation and day to day running.

“Independent regional cinema is such an important part of the industry so we’re pretty proud to be acknowledged as the best of that group,” Empire Cinema partner David Graham said.

Gerard Aiken, who is also a partner, thanked their third partner Richard Ruhfus, who bought the Empire Cinema in 1993 as a one screen cinema.

He said the key to their business success was the solid foundations laid down by Richard.

Gerard and David have been partners with Richard since 2006.

He also thanked staff at the cinema who had helped build an excellent relationship with the community.

“The staff go above and beyond.

Gerard said they often had requests from the community to screen films and worked hard to provide its audience with films of interest to them.

“The fact we get contacted a lot to run independent films is a testament to the Highlands cinema goers that they love their film.

“Our patrons trust that if its worth getting on the screen we’ll do everything we can to bring it to Bowral.”

The Empire cinema will introduce new gift cards in time for Christmas and Gerard said they hoped to have new seating installed in Cinema 2 by then as well.

Many events are held at the cinema throughout the year and Dave said it was important to give back to the community which provided continued support for its local cinema.

“We try and support the local community as much as we can.

‘Winning the award is really in a big way thanks to all our local audience support.”