experimental film festival uk

Alchemy Film & Arts

Using film as a way to come together, have conversations and strengthen community.

ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL

Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival is the UK’s festival of experimental film and artists’ moving image, and the flagship event of Alchemy Film & Arts, taking place in a warm, intimate and inclusive setting in Hawick each spring.

Presenting an international programme of cinema screenings, moving-image exhibitions, live performances and a ceilidh in venues around town, the event is known for the openness, solidarity, humour and non-competitive nature with which it is delivered.

The fourteenth edition of Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival took place 2 – 5 May 2024. You can browse the programme here.

The call for entries to our fifteenth edition (1 – 4 May 2025) closed on 1 November 2024.

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“A film festival unlike any other in Scotland, with a distinctive focus on unusual, experimental filmmaking that blurs the boundary between cinema and visual arts.” — The Skinny

“I caught a glimpse of something invaluable that weekend at Alchemy: that another world is possible, in some ways already here and being imagined.” — Little White Lies

“All films were captioned, and many had audio descriptions too, demonstrating that the festival team’s verbal commitments to questions of access and the democratisation of experimental film are not merely theoretical.” — Art Monthly

“Over four days of symposia, screenings, installations and performances the festival delivered a wealth of intellectual and artistic stimulation, but it was the experiential encounters that particularly stood out” — Sight & Sound

ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL ARCHIVE