19th Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival Poster

The 19th edition of Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (7-10 March 2024) presents 47 films across 5 programmes chronicling desires for liberation. The programme grapples with the potency and ambivalence of hope – across complex emotional, social, and political entanglements.

Spearheaded by a new identity stemming from a collaboration between designer Tom Joyes and illustrator Lucia Pham, we invite you to join us in an exploration of the multiplicities of liberation.

We are opening the Festival with a New Restoration of Ghassan Salhab’s Phantom Beirut (Lebanon, France, 1989). This features as part of the Essential Cinema programme, alongside works by Nadia el-Fani, Heiny Srour, Ledia Laius, and new addition Bye Bye Love (Japan, 1974) by Isao Fujisawa.

This year’s New Cinema Awards features 14 UK Premieres, 2 European Premieres, 4 World Premieres, and 3 World Festival Premieres.

Eduardo Williams will be joining Basma al-Sharif as a Filmmaker in Focus, presenting the complete cycle of The Human Surge. Select screenings will feature Q&As with the filmmakers.

We have a programme of free Exhibitions, featuring works from Adam Piron, Cécile B Evans, Chloë Delanghe & Mattijs Driesen, and Filmmaker in Focus Basma al-Sharif.

In 2024, we will be introducing The Burr of Berwick, a new social space, screening library and discussion series named after the local Northumbrian language. On each day of the Festival, we will come together to collectively explore different topics with guests, through moving image.

Writer and artist Maria Fusco has been added to the Propositions line-up alongside Onyeka Igwe and Emilia Beatriz, with a curated programme of three short films. Artist-run, Brussels-based film and distribution platform elephy will host a peer-to-peer roundtable conversation.