The 2019 Berwick New Cinema Competition was researched and selected by Associate Programmers Letitia Calin and Herb Shellenberger, Programming Fellow Tendai John Mutambu, Festival Director Peter Taylor, and Programme Coordinator Hamish Young.
Disregarding boundaries of genre, form, filmic convention and expectations, the films selected for this year’s Berwick New Cinema Competition are vital works, imbued with a sense of liveness and agency in their resolute visions.
The Berwick New Cinema Competition is kindly and proudly supported by Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council.
Many congratulations to the selected artists and filmmakers:
Back to 2069 · Elise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky · 2019 · Belgium/France/Germany · world premiere
Come Coyote · Dani ReStack & Sheilah ReStack · 2019 · US · world premiere
Culture Capture: Terminal Addition · Adam Khalil, Zack Khalil & Jackson
Polys · 2019 · US · world festival premiere
Dear Babylon · Ayo Akingbade · 2019 · UK · world festival premiere
Distancing · Miko Revereza · 2019 · US · UK premiere
everyday star · Rajee Samarasinghe · 2018 · Sri Lanka/US · international premiere
The Giverny Document · Ja’Tovia Gary · US · 2019 · UK premiere
The Golden Legend · Chema García Ibarra & Ion de Sosa · Spain · 2019 · UK premiere
horizōn · Anya Tsyrlina & Sid Iandovka · 2019 · Switzerland/Russia/US
I Got My Things and Left · Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo · Rwanda/Switzerland · 2018 · UK premier
Meeting Uncle Yuji · Daisuke Kosugi · 2018 · Norway · world festival premiere
the names are changing, including my own, and truths are being altered · Onyeka Igwe · 2019 · UK · world festival premiere
phenomenon · Anya Tsyrlina & Sid Iandovka · 2019 · Switzerland/Russia/US · world premiere
The Prince of Homburg · Patrick Staff · 2019 · US/UK/Germany/Ireland · world festival premiere
Receiver · Jenny Brady · 2019 · Ireland · world premiere
Reynard · Leonor Noivo · 2019 · Portugal · UK premiere
Subtitles or a love poem in plain language · Lesley-Anne Cao · 2017 · Philippines · international premiere
Three Videos by Steve Reinke: Libidinal Empathy, Video to Placate Artaud, Devotional Cinema · Steve Reinke · 2019 · US/Canada · world premiere
the time is now. · Heidrun Holzfeind · 2019 · Austria · world festival premiere
Vever (For Barbara) · Deborah Stratman · 2019 · US/Guatemala · UK festival premiere
You Were an Amazement on the Day You Were Born · Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby · 2019 · US/Canada · UK premiere
More than half of this year’s slate is comprised of films showing in their first festival screening. World premieres include Jenny Brady’s Receiver, a fully-captioned, multi-layered assemblage of Deaf histories, considering how we both speak and listen, and the question of who has the right and capacity to be heard; Dani ReStack & Sheilah ReStack’s Come Coyote, the second chapter in their Strangely Ordinary This Devotion trilogy; Elise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky’s hallucinatory and anachronistic odyssey on the militarized Greek island of Lemnos, Back to 2069; an incisive work of personal archival reconstruction by Anya Tsyrlina & Sid Iandovka; and three powerful and irreverent short-form videos by Canadian artist Steve Reinke.
Several films will make their world festival debuts at BFMAF 2019 after special premiere presentations. Heidrun Holzfeind’s the time is now. was commissioned for a solo show at Secession, Vienna earlier this year; Patrick Staff has received rave reviews for their exhibition The Prince of Homburg, currently on view at Dundee Contemporary Arts; Ayo Akingbade’s Dear Babylon will premiere alongside the other parts of her No News Today trilogy at ICA London; and Onyeka Igwe’s the names are changing, including my own, and truths are being altered premieres as part of her solo presentation at Jerwood Arts, London. Competition filmmakers returning to the festival include Adam Khalil (2018), Miko Revereza (2017), Deborah Stratman (2016 Artist in Profile), Daisuke Kosugi (2016) and Ion de Sosa (2015). We are also excited to present for the first time outstanding films by Rajee Samarasinghe, Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo, Ja’Tovia Gary, Leonor Noivo, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby and Lesley-Anne Cao.
The festival is pleased to welcome Elise Florenty & Marcel Türkowsky, Ayo Akingbade, Miko Revereza, Anya Tsyrlina & Sid Iandovka, Daisuke Kosugi, Onyeka Igwe, Jenny Brady, Leonor Noivo, Steve Reinke, Heidrun Holzfeind, Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby and Deborah Stratman to discuss their work with BFMAF programmers and audiences this September.
This year’s jury is comprised of 2018 Berwick New Cinema Award winner Callum Hill; Hyun Jin Cho, Festival Director, London Korean Film Festival; and Julian Ross, Programmer, International Film Festival Rotterdam & Locarno Film Festival.
The 2019 Berwick New Cinema Competition was researched and selected by Festival Director Peter Taylor, Associate Programmers Letitia Calin and Herb Shellenberger, Programme Coordinator Hamish Young and 2019 BFMAF Programming Fellow Tendai John Mutambu.
