A work in progress, leading through collaboration, BFMAF has a resolute commitment to the mutual development of the artists, audiences, filmmakers and programmers that make the festival possible.

In past 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).

Past curated programmes include our regular retrospective strand Essential Cinema,  Animistic Apparatus, Fantastika, and Screening the Forest.

As if to answer the question ‘what can moving images be and do in this disquieting moment?’, BFMAF suggests they can be time machines, maps, love letters, poems, ghosts, fever dreams, missives, manifestos. They can also explode.

Elena Gorfinkel, Art Monthly

Please ensure your work meets the following criteria before entering

• Completed in 2023 (or have had no public screening prior to 2023)
• No previous or scheduled UK film festival screenings before March 2024
• Not previously entered to the Festival
• Feature films must not have been theatrically released in the UK before March 2023
• All works in a language other than English must be subtitled in English

Partially finished films which can be completed in time for the festival are eligible for entry.

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

All selected entries will be considered for the 2024 New Cinema Awards, which celebrates some of the most distinctive works of new cinema being made around the world today. Since 2020 the prize has been equally shared rather than a single winner, with all filmmakers receiving an award of £400.

Previous winners:

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

We can provide alternative versions of the guidelines and FAQs including large print and text only. 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

1. Read the entry guidelines and criteria.
2. Login or create a account with Filmchief *1.
3. Fill out details and credits of your film entry
   Pay the relevant entry fee *2.

The final entry deadline is midnight on Monday 6 November 2023.

Enter your film for the 19th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival here

*1 Filmchief is BFMAF’s’s cloud-based festival management system and database. If you have an account from previous entries, this will save you some time in the entry process.

*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.