About us
A cross-media celebration of the moving image.
First staged in 2005, the Berwick Festival Film and Media Arts Festival is an inspiring, diverse and international celebration of the moving image, exploring the boundaries of film and art in one of the most unique locations in the UK.
Since it’s inaugural event, the Festival has rapidly captured the imagination of the public, with over half of the 9000 visitors attending the last Festival, coming from outside of the region. Many were visiting Berwick for the first time, attracted by the prospect of experiencing contemporary cinema and artists’ video in some spectacular historic and site-specific locations.
Our ambitions for the Festival have always been to create a world-class event and in working with our guest curators and programmers we aim to showcase a range of diverse work reflecting the theme of each Festival. Some of it is accessible - some of it more challenging – but all of it thought provoking and stimulating.
The 2007 Festival showed a total of 100 films and individual art works over a 9-day period. This featured 46 programmes and exhibitions, from 26 different countries and seen in 15 different locations. Our cinema programme features the latest in new independent films together with retrospectives of classic films, rare archival screenings, short films and documentaries. Alongside this is the Artists’ Trail, which uses a backdrop of ice houses, prison cells, fortifications and other features of the Elizabethan Ramparts, to show the very best in cutting edge work (including newly commissioned pieces) from a range of internationally renowned artists using the medium of film and video. Our education and event’s programme includes a range of seminars, workshops, educational screenings, competitions and performances, all of which provide a context to the work seen, opening it up to new audiences of all ages.
Preparations are currently underway for our next Minifest in November 2008 – please see our news page for updates on that programme and our next major Festival in 2009. You can find out more about our vision here.
Visit our festival sites for programme information, highlights and news.
