Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival Programme Announced

The 19th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival looks to sustain a tension between hope and entangled ambivalences in a moment defined by the oscillation between despair, uncertainty and the realisation of potential.

Necessarily figured in a global context, the programme features World premieres from over 9 countries, including Alee Peoples, Aurélien Froment, Farah Al Qasimi, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Razan AlSalah, Isao Fujisawa and Philip Widmann.

“This year’s programme centres narratives of struggle and desire for personal, collective and political liberation. We look to films capable of grappling with complex entanglements, expressing disciplines of hope that may draw us closer together. We’re deeply grateful to all the artists, filmmakers and their collaborators for making it possible to share their work with you in Berwick this March.” said Peter Taylor, Festival Director

The festival will open with Ghassan Salhab’s Phantom Beirut (Lebanon, France, 1989). This features as part of the Essential Cinema programme, alongside works by Nadia el-Fani, Heiny Srour, Ledia Laius, and Isao Fujisawa.

This year, BFMAF celebrates the works of two internationally acclaimed filmmakers in their Filmmakers in Focus programme strand. Respectively, Basma al-Sharif and Eduardo Williams present histories that demand remembrance, and cyclical narratives of the perpetual present.

Meanwhile, the New Cinema Awards will feature 14 UK Premieres, 2 European Premieres, 4 World Premieres, and 3 World Festival Premieres. This exciting programme presents audiences with some of the most distinctive works of new cinema being made around the world today.

The Propositionsstrand is a discursive setting for filmmakers to expand on their work, demonstrating research, contexts and perspectives as a means to dig deeper into the questions, ideas and complications encountered through the film-making process. This strand includes Maria Fusco, Onyeka Igwe and Emilia Beatriz.

A programme of free exhibitions will be available throughout the festival, featuring works from Adam Piron, Cécile B Evans, Chloë Delanghe & Mattijs Driesen, and Basma al-Sharif.

Finally, 2024 will see the launch of The Burr of Berwick - a new year-round programme of community film events produced by BFMAF. The Burr is a new free, drop-in social space, screening library and discussion series named after the local Northumbrian language. During the festival, we will come together to collectively explore different topics with film and guests at a pop-up space in The Marygate. Following the festival, this programme will continue through the year, using spaces in Berwick to bring different generations together to explore everyday life in Northumberland.