The 9th annual Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival runs 25 – 29 September 2013 featuring three Finnish films.

27 September festival presents long shorts programme: Coast to Coast featuring the UK Premiere to Finnish Tellervo Kalleinen’s ja Oliver Lochta-Kalleinen’s film Archipelago Science Fiction. The Turku archipelago islands located in the Baltic Sea provide the framework for future scenarios. The islanders themselves perform the four hilarious and sometimes chilling episodes they scripted based on their own fears and hopes. The visions are surprisingly contemporary and universal. Coast to Coast features total of four longer short films, each exploring life by - and on - the sea.

As part of the growing youth programme and also as a free screening for schools, the festival presents 28 September Tove Jansson’s latest animated Moomin adventure, Moomins and the Comet Chase. In a film Moomin Valley is threatened by a comet. With the help of his father, Moomintroll and his friends build a raft and embark on a challenging journey to the observatory.

Suddenly, Last Summer is Juha Mäki-Jussila’s experimental animation film which is based on a play by Tennessee Williams. Fragments of the original play are restaged with new botanical performers. Mäki-Jussila took part to festival launched inaugural short film and video competition Inntravel Award for Best Short Film. North by Northeast theme received hundreds of submissions. Mäki-Jussila is one of the eight shortlisted artists entries compete for a cash prize of 500 pounds. All eight films will be presented as part of a gala screening 28 September.

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival is an international celebration of the art of film, in the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The inaugural festival took place in September 2005. The 9th annual Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival will return 25th - 29th September 2013, with the theme, North by Northeast - celebrating region’s cultural and historical links to Northern Europe and to the North Sea.

More information:

Long shorts programme: Coast to Coast 27 September 2013, 1pm

Moomins and the Comet Chase 28 September 2013, 11am

Inntravel Award for Best Short Film 28 September 2013, 6pm