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News

People of various ages and backgrounds enjoying food and conversation at a long table in a warm indoor setting. Group dining event with laughter and social interaction. Community gathering with diverse adults.

5 May 2026

Reviews 2026

The reviews are in for the 21st Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, which took place over 20 – 22 March 2026
film still displaying a close-up of a vintage wooden clown doll with peeling paint and red yarn hair. aged toy with faded face paint. creepy old doll, antique toy, nostalgic object.

4 March 2026

2026 New Cinema

The 2026 New Cinema programme features two international premieres and three World Festival Premieres.
Samuel Delany talking into a microphone

4 March 2026

2026 Essential Cinema

With a non-fiction focus, this year’s Essential Cinema brings together histories born at the borders of nations and across intersections of identity.
Ashley Holmes sitting in a room with books and zines behind him and a table with decks in front, addressing a crowd of people

4 March 2026

2026 Propositions

The 2026 Propositions Programme invites reflections across sonic and textual forms.
Adult watching a man speaking on an old CRT television screen. Person seated at a desk with VHS player and tapes nearby. Watching vintage media in a home setting.

4 March 2026

2026 Queer Care Caravan

Experience the closing weekend of the Queer Care Caravan across screenings, workshops and morning meetings.
Colorful vintage Indian movie poster featuring expressive women in traditional attire, a giant painted face, and a boat on water. Classic Bollywood drama art style, cultural and cinematic theme.

4 March 2026

2026 Focus: Mohaiemen + Sagar

Focus: Mohaiemen + Sagar showcases the breadth of work by Naeem Mohaiemen and Molla Sagar, offering a dialogue between their respective practices
illustration of the berwick barracks entrance in blue and pink

19 February 2026

Tickets Now on Sale

Book your Pass for the 21st Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, taking place 20 – 22 March 2026.
Video production monitor displaying multiple camera feeds including a close-up of a man's eyes and an empty chair setup. Studio recording environment with technical overlays and audio levels.

20 November 2025

Save the Date for BFMAF 2026

We look forward to welcoming you to the 21st Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, taking place 20 – 22 March 2026

1 November 2025

2025 Early Career Critics

Read about the participants on the 2026 Early Career Critics Programme
bright pink BFMAF bear against yellow background, seen through a crack

11 September 2025

BFMAF 2025: Festival Replay

Watch a selection of our 20th Edition programme online with BFMAF 2025: Festival Replay from October 17 – 26
Green foliage

23 July 2025

SCREENTIME

Watch WILD THINGS by young people from Tweedmouth West Middle School, made as part of our 2025 After-School Club
Close up of an essay in the catalgue

8 May 2025

Reviews 2025

The reviews have started coming in! Take a look at what the film critics say about the Festival and the Programme…

28 March 2025

Give us your Feedback!

Thank you for attending the 20th Edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival! We ask all attendees to fill in a survey telling us more about your experience. This is immensely helpful for us, for a few reasons: For Funding Applications We send this feedback to our funders, and your participation helps ensure that […]
Two hands in red hues

4 March 2025

Eri Makihara Programmes: Information for d/Deaf Audiences

Eri Makihara programme information for d/Deaf audiences.
Side profile of a man with glasses eating a sandwich

4 February 2025

2025 Propositions

The Propositions programme features the UK Premiere of Morgan Quaintance’s Available Light, a screening of films by Stuart Marshall curated by Conal McStravick followed by a workshop and hybrid talk and live video essay presented by Abiba Coulibaly.
a public bathroom in disarray, covered in mud and with a bath tub at the centre

4 February 2025

2025 Exhibitions

The free Exhibitions programme features films from around the world, forming a constellation across Berwick-upon-Tweed. Including a World Premiere of Wendy Clarke’s Endless Love Tapes, ensemble work from over 100 artists Some Strings, a World Festival Premiere of Harry Lawson’s Stepney Western and UK Premieres of new work by Adam Piron and Cáit and Éiméar McClay.
someone seen from behind walking up an escalator in a tight red latex dress

4 February 2025

2025 Focus Programmes

This year’s Filmmakers in Focus are Ayanna Dozier and Eri Makihara whose work will be screening alongside Focus: Ways of Seeing Fanon, curated by Philip Rizk.
a woman sat at a desk in a dark room

4 February 2025

2025 Essential Cinema

The Essential Cinema programme is a pluralist retrospective series, proposing revisions and additions to what might be considered canonical cinema. Circadian rhythms of the 80s bring to the fore creative collaborations, familial encounters and working lives.
woman wearing red, against green foliage, looking up and shading her eyes from the sun

4 February 2025

2025 New Cinema Award Winners

At the core of Festival programming is a celebration of some of the most distinctive works of new cinema being made around the world today. The 2025 New Cinema Award winners include 16 UK Premieres, 1 International Premiere and 3 World Festival Premieres.
The Maltings Cinema audience side-on, with a pillar splitting the

22 January 2025

New Cinema Forum

The first edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival’s New Cinema Forum is an invitation to artists, filmmakers, critics and arts/film workers to consider new orientations to creating, exhibiting and working collectively.
Person against blue sky, arms raised, dressed in blue

19 December 2024

First Look: Filmmaker in Focus

Eri Makihara is announced as our first Filmmaker in Focus.
Trees

19 December 2024

First Look: Propositions

Featuring a UK Premiere, unearthed artists video from the AIDS activist archive, and a hybrid talk and live video essay.
Person looks straight to camera with a crowded dinner table behind them.

19 December 2024

First Look: New Cinema Awards

Three UK Premieres announced as part of our keystone programme, the New Cinema Awards.
black and white image of a poster advertising jobs down the mines, it reads "A secure job & big money! Coalmining: it's a job with a future too!" accompanied by an illustration of a smiling miner.

27 August 2024

Mining Berwick’s Archive

Saturday 14 September 2024 11:00 – 12:30 The Council Chamber, Berwick Town Hall, Marygate, TD15 1BN For this years’ Heritage Open Days, The Burr of Berwick will be presenting the essential Northumberland mining film, The Blackhill Campaign, in Berwick’s historic Town Hall. Before the film we will take a moment to reflect together on what […]
Still from 'Wild Relatives' (2018) by Jumana Manna

14 August 2024

The Burr of Berwick presents ‘Wild Relatives’ @ Berwick Food & Beer Festival 2024

17th August 2024 | 2pm | The Straw Yard

BFMAF will be teaming up with Sustainable Food Berwick to bring you a screening of Wild Relatives directed by Jumana Mana and discussion exploring the founding organisation and principles of the Berwick Food and Beer Festival, an offshoot of Berwick Slow Food.
A group of people having a chat in a darkened room. Behind them is the bright pink Berwick bear projected onto a screen.

6 August 2024

Meet the Programmers

  Watch the recording of this session above. With the Call For Entries now open for the 20th edition of Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, we are holding an informal online session for artists and filmmakers who wish to submit a work to BFMAF 2025. In this session, you’ll have the chance to chat […]
A woman sat in front of a touch screen. Posters of the bright pink Berwick bear Festival poster in the background.

31 July 2024

August Public Programme Announced

The Burr Film Library @ Berwick 400 The Burr of Berwick Film Library returns to join celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the Berwick Old Bridge. Sunday 4 August 10:00 – 16:00 On the market at Berwick Quayside. For the Berwick Bridge 400 celebrations come and say hello, at our market stand on Berwick Quayside! […]
Close up of an essay in the catalgue

30 April 2024

Reviews 2024

Take a look at some of the coverage of the 19th Berwick Film & Media Arts festival available to read for free online from Sight & Sound, Corridor8, International Documentary Association, The Quintessential Review, Slant Magazine and Burlington Contemporary.

7 March 2024

Give us your Feedback!

Thank you for attending the 19th Edition of Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival! We ask all attendees to fill in a survey telling us more about your experience. This is immensely helpful for us, for a few reasons: For Funding Applications We send this feedback to our funders, and your participation helps ensure that […]

31 January 2024

Essential Cinema

The 19th Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival will open with Ghassan Salhab’s newly restored debut feature film Phantom Beirut (Lebanon, France, 1989) from the Essential Cinema strand. Phantom Beirut is an extraordinarily articulate film on how the most brutal of power politics impact the psyche and inter-relations of people living through them. We will […]