We would love to have you attend the Festival and hope the following options may make visiting more financially viable for anyone who would like to attend.

Request a concession Festival Pass – if you are facing financial barriers, please email info@bfmaf.org to get further guidance on receiving a concessions pass.

For early-career filmmakers and artists, we have a limited number of free Festival passes and can advise on the cheapest accommodation options. These passes are reserved for unwaged or low waged guests who would otherwise not be able to attend. Contact us directly at info@bfmaf.org for more information.

Please do contact us directly at info@bfmaf.org if you have any individual requirements and we will do our best to assist.

This year, we are aiming to have Descriptive Subtitles available for all dialogue across the programme. Exceptions to this are:

• Propositions events Black & Arab Encounters on Screen and Available Light
• Exhibition programmes Some Strings and Endless Love Tapes
• New Cinema Awards film Half Memory.
• Essential Cinema film Nightshift will have English subtitles only.
• Q&As following Eri Makihara’s films will be presented with JSL, BSL, Live Captioning and spoken English.
• The subtitles for Endless Love Tapes have been auto-generated and may contain errors.

What are Descriptive Subtitles?

Subtitles incorporating all of a film’s dialogue with descriptive elements (e.g. sound and music labels and speech identifiers). Primarily used by Deaf audiences for access purposes, descriptive subtitles are also widely used by neurodivergent viewers, people for whom English is their second language, and increasingly by fully hearing, native English speakers in various contexts. Descriptive subtitles are also known as captions, SDH, HoH.

Content notes are listed where appropriate for each film listing.

Additionally, you can email us about any concerns at info@bfmaf.org, or ask a member of staff or volunteer on site at the Festival for further information.

All films in the cinema are recommended for audiences ages 15 years of age and older.

Content notes for all films are listed on their programme pages.

Large print and text only versions of our Catalogue and User Guide will be available from our website. Pick up physical copies at our welcome desk at The Maltings during the festival.

Our main venue is The Maltings and we use a variety of additional venues around Berwick-upon-Tweed which have various levels of accessibility.

The venue has power-assisted doors

Level and ramped access is located to the far left of the front entrance

Disabled parking spaces are available in the public car park in front of the venue

Disabled seating is available in both the Main House and Henry Travers Studio. Please let us know when booking your tickets so we can reserve these spaces.

Lift located in the foyer with access to all floors

Adapted toilet facilities and baby changing facilities are located on floor -3.

Baby changing facilities are located on floor -3 (accessible by lift).

The Maltings supports the rights of women to discreetly breastfeed in all public areas of the building.

We accept the CEA card

Volunteers & Venue Staff will be present throughout opening hours.

The Main House has a fixed number of wheelchair spaces, which we recommend pre-booking at Box Office

The Henry Travers Studio has centre handrails. Seating in the studio is unassigned, however disabled seating in the front row can be reserved through the Box Office.

Guide dogs are warmly welcomed

If you need any additional information or you’d like a large print version of our brochure, please contact the Box Office as we can print these for collection upon request.

Northumberland County Council Public Toilets in Berwick-upon-Tweed:

• Castlegate Car Park, TD15 1JS. Accessible, RADAR Key required, 20p honesty box, babychanging facilities are located in the Female toilet
• Eastern Lane superloo, TD15 1AT. Fee 20p.
• Magdalene Fields Golf Club, TD15 1NE. Accessible, RADAR Key required
• The Promenade Spittle, TD15 1RN. Accessible, RADAR Key required, and babychanging facilities are located in the Female toilet
• Woolmarket, TD15 1DH

Detailed information is available at Accessable

We welcome Guide dogs, hearing and registered assistance dogs in all our venues.

The Festival aims to be a safe and inclusive space, if you experience behaviour which makes you feel uncomfortable when using our facilities, please let a member of staff know.

Visitors are welcome to wear face coverings if they wish to in all of our venues. Face coverings and hand sanitiser will be available for visitors at the Festival hub.

Carers accompanying audience members receive free tickets to screenings. Please enquire at The Maltings’ Box Office if buying tickets on-the-day or email info@bfmaf.org for further guidance.

Please visit our venues page to find more information about the accessibility of our Festival venues.

You can also download a PDF with images and detailed access information for each venue: VENUE ACCESS DOCS BFMAF 2025.

Need a breather? The Berwick Youth Hostel will have a quiet spot to step away from the festival buzz, take a moment, and gather your thoughts. Some films can be intense, bringing up big emotions or difficult themes – if you need space to process, unwind, or just sit, this is here for you. You’ll also find resources if you want to explore things further. Drop in anytime, no pressure – just a place to pause…

Find the Chill Out Zone on the mezzanine level of the Berwick Youth Hostel at Dewars Lane Granary, Dewars Lane, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, TD15 1HJ. There is ambient noise from the cafe downstairs, but we encourage people not to make unnecessary noise in the Chill Out Zone e.g. no music playing or talking on mobile phones.

You can view live captions for the Eri Makihara Q&As on your phone from this link: https://121captions.1capapp.com/event/bfmaf