The 17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (BFMAF)

Now in its 17th edition Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival presents an artistically ambitious programme of new cinema and artists’ moving image. A platform for emerging and established artists and filmmakers, BFMAF is inspired by its surroundings to push boundaries and explore the unexplored. Named by FilmFreeway and Moviemaker magazine as one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World, BFMAF’s premiere online edition took place over the course of three weeks last autumn. Alongside on-demand access to 53 titles (including world premieres, retrospective titles and works-in-progress), the Festival hosted in depth conversations with artists and filmmakers as well as music events and other special presentations. Pre-recorded podcasts and commissioned essays completed the extended online edition. ‘Berwick Film Festival was the best online festival, in terms of programme, but also cost, playback, site navigability, presentation of films and info, supporting materials’. — Matt Turner, 2020 Last year, Filipino master of contemporary slow cinema Lav Diaz flew 17 hours to attend a screening of his 2016 film A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery. If that level of commitment by one of our greatest living moviemakers isn’t a ringing endorsement, we’re not sure what is. — MovieMaker Magazine, 2020 'BFMAF was like a potion that, once consumed, transformed the whole world into a cinema.' — Christopher Small, MUBI, 2019 'Berwick’s bristling artistic spirit—contesting, contorting and re-shaping the traditions of the medium to tell bold new stories and challenge the status quo.' — Ben R Nicholson - Mubi, 2018