Save the date for Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, taking place 20 – 22 March 2026 !

In 2025, we had a bumper 20th Anniversary Edition, with over 50  films, 3 Focus programmes, our inaugural New Cinema Forum, the first in-person Early Career Critics programme and the opening of our new venue for year-round programming at 22 Bridge Street. 2025 also marked the beginning of the long-awaited redevelopment of our much-loved partner venue The Maltings’ Berwick.

After 20 years in the Maltings Main House and Henry Travers Studio, we’ve been thinking about how our 21st Edition might look while our main venue undergoes an exciting period of redevelopment. We are immensely fortunate to be able to host the Festival at the Maltings’ temporary Cinema, nestled in the historic Berwick Barracks. First built in the 18th Century as a military instalment, the Berwick Barracks are now a hub of arts and culture, brought into conversation with and building on significant local histories.

This new venue is smaller than The Maltings Main House, but such limitations can prove to be the wellspring of creativity, and we’re taking this opportunity to reimagine the 21st Edition.

With a smaller venue, we’ll be presenting a more intimate and discursive Festival experience. With one film at a time in one space, BFMAF 2026 will be an invitation to contemplate, question and take inspiration in the collective environment of the cinema.

With a focus on a smaller programme, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause the Call for Entries this year. However, we’ll soon be announcing a programme of new cinema and artists’ moving image that is no less ambitious, featuring works that push against the boundaries of form and genre, transcending normative conceptions of what cinema can be with radical, reflective and pluralistic verve. The Festival will continue with the same dedication we’ve cultivated over the last two decades, refined and relaxed.

BFMAF has always been a work-in-progress and we’re excited to continue experimenting with this next iteration. Learning from the liveness and agency of the filmmakers who make the Festival possible each year, we’re taking this opportunity as a reminder of the essentially communal experience of cinema. We look forward to welcoming you to Berwick-upon-Tweed over 20 – 22 March 2026.