Submissions for the 17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (BFMAF) are now open.

The festival is looking for moving image works that disregard boundaries set by genre, form, convention and expectation. Feature, medium and short-length films are all welcome. For full details and to enter your work click here

About the Festival

The 17th edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival will take place from the 9-12 of September 2021.

Presenting an artistically ambitious programme of new cinema and artists’ moving image. BFMAF is a platform for emerging and established artists and filmmakers, BFMAF is inspired by its surroundings to push boundaries and explore the unexplored.

Named by FilmFreeway and Moviemaker magazine as one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World, BFMAF’s premiere online edition took place over the course of three weeks last autumn. Alongside on-demand access to 53 titles (including world premieres, retrospective titles and works-in-progress), the Festival hosted in depth conversations with artists and filmmakers as well as music events and other special presentations. Pre-recorded podcasts and commissioned essays completed the extended online edition.

New Cinema Competition

All single screen films of any length are eligible for the 2021 New Cinema Competition. There will be two Berwick New Cinema awards of £1000. All selected filmmakers will receive a £400 fee

Selected submissions for this year’s edition will compete in the New Cinema Competition strand. Encompassing the festival’s view of the most distinctive works of new cinema being made around the world today. find out more about the competition here.

Past winners:

in 2020, all selected filmmakers shared the award.

Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Maria Anastassiou, Yu Araki, Mariana Caló & Francisco Queimadela, Luis Lopez Carrasco, Rhea Dillon, Jessica Dunn Rovinelli, Mouaad el Salem, Maria Clara Escobar, Elise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky, Luke Fowler, Sky Hopinka, Nelson Makengo, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Phạm Ngọc Lân, Stefan Ramirez Perez and Lisa Spilliaert.

2019, Onyeka Igwe, the names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered, UK,

2018, Callum Hill, Crowtrap, UK, 2018

2017, Sky Hopinka, Dislocation Blues, US, 2016

2016, Camilo Restrepo, Cilaos, France, 2015

Past Jury members include:

Callum Hill (filmmaker); Hyun Jin Cho (programmer, London Film Festival)), Julian Ross (programmer, International Film Festival Rotterdam), Sky Hopinka (filmmaker), Sonali Joshi (film producer and distributor, Day for Night), Gail Pickering (artist), Camilo Restrepo (filmmaker). Amal Khalaf (DIrector of Programmes, Cubitt), Joanna Raczyńska (film programmer, National Gallery of Art, USA), Shama Khanna (curator, Flatness), Rehna Zaman (filmmaker), Sebastian Buerkner (filmmaker), Beatrice Gibson (filmmaker), Salomé Lamas (filmmaker) and Fatos Üstek (curator).

Entry guidelines

- Please ensure your work meets the following criteria before entering:

- Completed after 1st January 2020 (or not previously presented or screened at a film festival)

- No previous or scheduled UK film festival screenings prior to October 2021

- Feature films must not have been theatrically released in the UK before October 2021

- All works in a language other than English must be subtitled in English

- Eligible entries must have no previous or scheduled UK film festival screenings prior to October 2021.

Key dates/fees

- £15 Early Bird: Friday 12 February

- £20 Regular: Friday 26 March

- £25 Late: Friday 16 April

- Selection status: 9th August

For full details including entry guidelines and FAQ’s go to bfmaf.org/call-for-entries. If you have any questions contact us at programme@bfmaf.org.

We look forward to seeing your work!