Selection
Over 500 applicants
Domesticity and banality, voyeurism and sexuality, navigating the Internet and our relationships within the urban environment — all themes that occurred naturally through the selection process.
Curatorial approach
The seventh edition of the BF Artist Film Festival was drawn from more than 500 applicants. The programme was curated to highlight current technical approaches in moving image art, grouping the selected works by the concerns they share rather than by form or length.
Two parts structure the programme: Part I gathers films concerned with private space and the body, while Part II looks outward towards networks, cities and the Internet.
Programme
Two parts
Each part of the programme focuses on a different thematic concern, with running times listed alongside each title.
Part I
Works dealing with domesticity, banality, voyeurism and sexuality.
| Film | Artist | Running time |
|---|---|---|
| 00II | Ankita Anand | 4.00 |
The programme also featured work by Laura Rouzet and Izzy McEvoy.
Festival VII gathered a programme selected from a substantial open submission pool, curating moving image works by early and mid-career artists working nationally and internationally. The archive page for this edition documents how a large field of applicants was narrowed to a focused programme of screenings, each entry reflecting contemporary technical approaches and the thematic preoccupations that surface in contemporary film practice across experimental, documentary, essay, animation and collage forms.
The curatorial approach for this edition centred on concerns that emerged naturally through the selection process rather than being imposed in advance. Domesticity and banality, voyeurism and sexuality, and the navigation of the internet and our relationships within the urban environment all appeared as recurring threads. These motifs gave the programme a coherent editorial spine, connecting intimate domestic observation with questions about online life and the texture of contemporary cities.
Presenting a curated programme of artist film means giving filmmakers a platform for exhibition that conventional distribution routes rarely allow. By programming shorts and single-channel video works alongside longer-form pieces, the festival creates screening opportunities for artists whose practice exists at the edges of mainstream exhibition culture, and it builds audiences for moving image work in spaces that encourage attention, discussion and shared viewing.
The BF Artist Film Festival operates as a critical platform for artists working with moving image, supporting selected works through screenings, screenings programmes and associated conversations. Its remit extends beyond exhibition to community and cultural activity, encouraging collaboration between artists, audiences and arts organisations, and reinforcing the role of independent curatorial platforms in sustaining the wider ecology of contemporary moving image practice.
Beyond the programme itself, a festival edition offers opportunities that reach well past the screening room. Open calls for entries, associated lab and project spaces, and conversations with visiting artists and practitioners provide practical support for career development, shared research and new collaborative work. These supplementary activities help sustain a durable network for artists working across experimental film, video, performance and digital projects.
Part II
Works addressing navigation, the Internet and relationships in the urban environment.
Filmmakers working across documentary, experimental, essay and animation forms appear alongside narrative and video collage.
About the festival
The BF Artist Film Festival was established in 2016 and is curated by Beth Fox. It is a critical platform for artists working with moving image, giving films a cinema setting in which they can be screened in their entirety, in partnership with artist-led spaces in the UK and abroad.
Selections are made through an international open call; the full back-catalogue of festival films is documented in the Archive.
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