Please ensure your work meets the following criteria before entering

• Completed in 2024 or due in early 2025
• Not previously entered to the Festival
• No previous or scheduled UK film festival screenings before March 2025
• All works in a language other than English must be subtitled in English

Please refer to Frequently Asked Questions: Call for Entries for more details.

1. Login or create an account with Filmchief.*1
   If you have an account from previous entries, this will save you some time in the entry process.
2. Complete entry form with as much detail as possible.
3. Pay the relevant entry fee *2.

The final entry deadline is 23:59 BST on 1st October 2024.

Enter your film for the 20th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival here.

*1 Filmchief is BFMAF’s cloud-based festival management system and database. 

*2 Payment is via PayPal or credit/debit card. The currency for payment is pounds sterling. You should receive an initial email confirming that the festival has received your entry and a 2nd PayPal email confirming the successful payment transaction.

The New Cinema Awards are a celebration of the most distinctive works of new cinema being made around the world today. Alive to this moment, they transcend boundaries of genre, form, and convention. Since ending jury and competition selection in 2020, BFMAF offers a unique spotlight on feature length and short films. Each film receives a £400 cash award.

Take a look at the 2024 New Cinema Award Winners here.

Previous winners:

2024: Razan AlSalah, Alee Peoples, Aurélien Froment, Nelson Yeo, Sirah Foighel Brutmann & Eitan Efrat, Eva Giolo, Rebecca Jane Arthur, Katja Mater, Maaike Neuville, Shambhavi Kaul, Gala Hernández López, Ion de Sosa, Ali Cherri, Boren Chhith, Kamal Aljafari, Ricardo Alves Jr., Fabrizio Terranova, Asmaa Jama & Gouled Ahmed, Farah Al Qasimi, Rouzbrh Akhbari & Felix Kalmenson, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Margaret Salmon & Maria Fusco, João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora, Tana Gilbert, Felipe Casanova, Valentin Noujaïm, Philip Widmann

2023: Graeme Arnfield, Luis Arnías, Marwa Arsanios, Meriem Bennani, Jenny Brady, Eitan Brutmann Efrat & Sirah Foighel, Jamie Crewe, Luke Fowler, Anya Tsyrlina & Sid Iandovka, Huw Lemmey & Onyeka Igwe, Soda Jerk, Basim Magdy, Lucrecia Martel, Fox Maxy, Éiméar McClay & Cat McClay, Sophio Medoidze, Angelo Minax Madsen, Holly Márie Parnell, Sorayos Prapapan, Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Anhar Salem, Deborah Stratman, Rea Tajiri, Cláudia Varejão, Ariadine Zampaulo.

2021: Sophia Al-Maria, Ane Hjort Guttu, Salad Hilowle, Adam Lewis Jacob, Tim Leyendekker, Jordan Lord, Fox Maxy, Iméar McClay, Cat McClay, Abdessamad El Montassir, Carlos Maria Romero, Suneil Sanzgiri, Fern Silva, Camara Taylor, Amalia Ulman, Rehana Zaman.

2020: 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, Lisa Spilliaert.

2019: Onyeka Igwe • he names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered • UK • 2018

2018: Callum Hill • Crowtrap • UK • 2018

2017: Sky Hopinka • Dislocation Blues • US • 2017

2016: Camilo Restrepo • Cilaos • France • 2015

While all films are primarily considered for exhibition as part of the New Cinema Awards, films may be selected for one of the following strands that make up the Festival Programme:

Exhibitions

BFMAF exhibits single-channel installation works in multiple venues across Berwick for the duration of the festival. We encourage artists to enter single-screen versions of multi-screen works for consideration. At present we don’t have the resources to exhibit multi-channel work.

Propositions

A discursive setting for filmmakers to expand on their work, elaborating research, contexts and perspectives as a means to dig deeper into the questions, ideas and complications encountered through the filmmaking process.

Essential Cinema

A pluralist retrospective strand, Essential Cinema proposes revisions and additions to what might be considered canonical cinema. Our 2024 edition included UK premieres of new restorations of Phantom Beirut (Ghassan Salhab, 1998), A Stolen Meeting (Leida Laus, 1988), The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Heiny Srour, 1974), Bedwin Hacker (Nadia El Fani, 2003), and a World Festival Premiere of Bye Bye Love (Isao Fujisawa, 1974).

Filmmaker in Focus

Timely encounters with artists and filmmakers’ singular bodies of work. Berwick Film & Media Arts’ Festival’s 2024 Filmmakers in Focus were Basma al-Sharif (Palestine) and Eduardo Williams (Argentina).

In previous years the Festival has featured profiles of filmmakers including Nguyễn Trinh Thi (Vietnam), Rajee Samarasinghe (Sri Lanka), Izza Génini (Morocco), Payal Kapadia (India), Angelo Madsen Minax (USA), Ayo Akingbade (UK), Marwa Arsanios (Berlin/Lebanon), Kira Muratova (Ukraine), Shireen Seno & John Torres (Philippines), Ali Khamraev (Uzbekistan), Peggy Ahwesh (USA) and Sophia Al-Maria (Qatar/USA).

BFMAF 2025 Open Call is not the only way to engage with us. We offer ongoing development opportunities for filmmakers and audiences to initiate conversations with our team. The festival runs programmes year-round in Berwick-upon-Tweed and works with other organisations locally and internationally. Join our mailing list and watch our website for current and forthcoming opportunities to engage with us.

We can provide alternate guidelines and FAQs including large print and text only. If you are in need of financial assistance, we can offer a discount or a waiver code. If you have any other additional needs to support your submission or would like to discuss an alternative method of applying, please contact us at programme@bfmaf.org.

We accept audio and video entries that contain all the information requested.