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 New Cinema Awards push against the boundaries of genre, form, and convention with liveness and agency. Since dispelling with a jury and competition selection in 2020, BFMAF offer a uniquely equitable spotlight on feature length and short films, each awarded a cash prize.

In 2025, we will be welcoming 16 UK Premieres, 1 International Premiere and 3 World Festival Premieres to the Festival.

We will be opening the Festival with the UK Premiere of Rajee Samarasinghe‘s Your Touch Makes Others Invisible (Sri Lanka, 2024), a fusion of allegorical magical realism and investigative documentary set in militarily occupied Sri Lanka. Made collaboratively, and secretly, with impacted Tamil communities, the film lyrically examines enforced disappearances in a nation marked by 26 years of civil war.

The 20th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival New Cinema Award Winners are:

The Pleasure is Mine • Sacha Amaral • Argentina, France, Brazil • 2024 • UK Premiere

Full Out • Sarah Ballard • United States • 2025 • UK Premiere

Shuruuk • Amie Barouh • France, Germany • 2024 • International Premiere

BAN♡ITS • Omar Chowdury • Bangladesh • 2024 • UK Premiere

Half Memory • Ufuoma Essi • United Kingdom • 2024 • World Festival Premiere

Melted into the Sun • Saodat Ismailova • Uzbekistan • 2024 • UK Premiere

The Moving Garden • Inês Lima • Portugal • 2024 • UK Premiere

The Birds Choose the Cards • Basim Magdy • Egypt, Switzerland • 2024 • World Festival Premiere

My Senses Are All I Have to Offer • Isadora Neves Marques • Portugal • 2024 • UK Premiere

An Oscillating Shadow • Celeste Rojas Mugica • Chile, Argentina, France • 2024 • UK Premiere

Oceania • Valentin Noujaïm • France • 2024 • UK Premiere

Underground • Kaori Oda • Japan • 2024 • UK Premiere

Language of the Entrails • Luciana Decker Orozco • Bolivia, United States • 2025 • UK Premiere

When the Phone Rang • Iva Radivojevic • Serbia, United States • 2024 • UK Premiere

Your Touch Makes Others Invisible • Rajee Samarasinghe • Sri Lanka, United States • 2025 • UK Premiere

Invention • Courtney Stephens • United States • 2024 • UK Premiere

a river holds a perfect memory • Hope Strickland • United Kingdom, Jamaica • 2024 • UK Premiere

Archipelago of Earthen Bones – To Bunya • Malena Szlam • Canada, Australia • 2024 • UK Premiere

nobody’s word • Camara Taylor • United Kingdom, Jamaica, Barbados • 2025 • World Festival Premiere

A Thousand Waves Away • Helena Wittmann • Germany • 2025 • UK Premiere