It has been such and fascinating and fecund year in Scottish culture - with Generation and the Referendum, with the James Plays and the National Collective, with books, festivals, poems, albums, exhibitions, films (Under The Skin being among the best), plays, operas and more - that this column is too short to review or highlight it all.

There was also the disastrous fire at the Glasgow School of Art, funding rows and misjudgements, cultural/political rows and another Turner Prize winner from Scotland.

But on to 2015. And to one of the lingering and unanswered cultural questions from 2014 - will Scotland ever have its own film studio? We were all meant to hear by now. But there has instead, as the recent open letter signed by many actors, film makers and producers says, "inertia and procrastination." And now some of those close to the decision making, I understand, are increasingly pessimistic that any such facility will be built at all. One told me: "I would say it is looking worse than 50/50 that it will ever happen."

The Scottish Government set up a Film Studio Delivery Group early in 2014.

As yet nothing has been delivered. Scottish Enterprise, a key part of this group, has been, we have been told, analysing the business case for five sites in Scotland. But Scottish Enterprise - much to the extreme frustration of some key parties involved in the process - have not said anything since March, when it published its options appraisal of various kinds of business plans which could support such a facility.

What is the hold up? It could simply be money. Creative Scotland has already declared that it thinks a studio is vital to the future of the film industry in Scotland, and has set aside £1m for the purpose. But £1m is not much when the cheapest business model, a "foundation studio", has been costed at £15m. It could cost as much as £74m. Does Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise have the cash for a studio which may, or may not, prove successful? There is already talk, I hear, of UK government money being sought.

But there is also the question of State Aid. I know it is a big concern for the government, as a civil servant made sure to brief me on it earlier this year. Essentially, the government could find itself exposed to a real tangle with European law if it gives large amounts of public funds to something that will be run as a business, in competition with other facilities across Europe. A film studio in Spain backed by public money, Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, had to close after legal challenges from commercial rivals under the State Aid rules.

Perhaps the square can be circled. Maybe the Cumbernauld home of the Outlander TV series can be expanded to provide broader film facilities. A Foundation Studio in Govan, next to or part of Film City, near the BBC and the M8 and the airport, does seem to make some sense. Ultimately it will be the decision of the Government. The only noises I am hearing aren't positive. I will believe it when I see it.