Morgan Quaintance & Onyeka Igwe have jointly received the 2025 Film London Jarman Award it was announced at a special event at Soho Hotel. The Jarman Award which was first established in 2008, recognises and supports artists working with moving image in the UK. This is the first year that the award has been shared between two artists who were considered equally deserving of the award, with significant bodies of work at the forefront of artists’ moving image practice.
London-born and based, Onyeka Igwe uses film, sound, text and performance to explore complex historical and political questions about how we live together. Igwe draws on in-depth research to investigate overlooked moments in history, telling stories of protest and community through a combination of archival material, performance and a cinematic engagement with space. Engaging with the politics of anti-colonial resistance and her own family history, Igwe’s practice has often explored the connections between Britain and Nigeria, with a particular focus on the propaganda work of the Colonial Film Unit.
The jury praised the impressive breadth and depth of her work, which moves between documentary form, scripted narrative and sculptural installation, and her commitment to positively challenging audiences and herself as an artist.
A Radical Duet (2023) looks back to 1947 London, then a hub of anti-colonial activity amongst diasporic intellectuals, artists and activists agitating for national independence. The film imagines the meeting of two generations of women, who come together to write a revolutionary play that will set the stage for a liberated future.
Currently on show at Tate Britain, Onyeka Igwe’s exhibition our generous mother continues her interest in post-colonial thought, focusing on the history of the University of Ibadan. Established by the British in 1948, it later became a centre for radical thinkers in post-independence Nigeria, and was attended by the artist’s mother in the 1970s.
Artist, writer and musician Morgan Quaintance works across multiple media in an expanded art practice to produce richly layered films with an intense sensory impact. Bringing together the visual language of experimental film with a deft handling of sound and music, his practice is guided by the artistry of the edit, working with disparate material to guide the viewer into unexpected places. While his subject matter is constantly changing, his films are unified by an abstract style, which loops, breaks, jolts and refuses a linear narrative, drawing the viewer into a flow of restless images that tap into the subliminal.
The jury acknowledged the fluency and restlessness of Quaintance’s work as distinctive and singular, and they praised his use of the moving image as a container to hold multiple different disciplines.
Building on the tradition of experimental film, Repetitions (2022) navigates through a series of stuttering loops and fragmented music, propelled by Quaintance’s compellingly rhythmic editorial style. While seemingly abstract on the surface, telephone messages and speech provide a through line that speaks to physical labour, industrial work and fragile bodies.
Quaintance’s current solo exhibition Available Light at Chelsea Space brings together still photography, text, documentation and archival material to reflect on the notion of home to include instances of displacement, foreignness, fiction, incursion and projection, shaped by the artist’s recent travels to Japan.
“We have unanimously decided that the award should be presented to both Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance, with the prize money split equally between them. Both artists have produced significant bodies of work and consistently push the boundaries of what filmmaking can do. We are delighted that the Jarman Award can recognise both artists at a landmark moment in their respective careers, to celebrate the breadth and vitality of two distinct approaches to the moving image.”
Members of the Jury
The award was presented on 25thNovember at a special event at Soho Hotel by Jarman Award patron Hetain Patel, winner of the Jarman Award 2019.
Morgan Quaintance and Onyeke Igwe were chosen from a distinguished shortlist of artists including Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, Karimah Ashadu, George Finlay Ramsay and Hope Pearl Strickland.
‘Congratulations to Morgan Quaintance and Onyeka Igwe. With significant bodies of work at the forefront of artists’ moving image practice, both artists are equally deserving of the Film London Jarman Award. We were delighted to welcome back Jarman Award patron Hetain Patel, winner of the Jarman Award 2019, to present this year’s award and to celebrate the innovative and creative body of work on display. I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to all of this year’s shortlisted artists, whose work celebrates the richness, boldness and diversity of artists’ moving image. A sincere thank you goes to our funders, Arts Council England, and our returning partners Whitechapel Gallery, who this year will host an exciting exhibition showcasing work from all shortlisted artists, providing an opportunity for an even larger audience to gain access to this incredible work.”
Adrian Wootton, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission
On 11thDecember, Whitechapel Gallery will host a special event with the two joint winners, whose work will also be presented from 27th November – 10th December on the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Living Canvas, Europe’s largest digital art screen. Work by all six artists is on view in an exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery until 14th December.
About the artists
Morgan Quaintance has shown work at festivals and institutions including: MOMA, New York; Konsthall C, Sweden; David Dale, Glasgow; European Media Art Festival, Germany; Alchemy Film and Arts Festival, Scotland; Images Festival, Toronto; International Film Festival Rotterdam; and Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami. He was a 2024 MacDowell Fellow. He was the 2023 IFFR Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards; the recipient of the 2022 ARTE Award at Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg; in 2021, the Best Documentary Short Film Award at Tacoma Film Festival, USA; the Explora Award at Curtocircuito International Film Festival, Santiago de Compostela; the UK Short Film Award at Open City Documentary Film Festival, London, the Jean Vigo Prize for Best Director at Punto de Vista, Spain, and the Best Experimental Film Award at Curtas Vila do Conde, Portugal; in 2020, the New Vision Award at CPH:DOX, Denmark and the Best Experimental Film award at Curtas Vila Do Conde, Portugal.
Onyeka Igwe has shown work at Peer, London; Bonington Gallery, Nottingham (2024); MoMA PS1, New York (2023); Highline, New York (2022); LUX, London; Mercer Union, Toronto (2021) and Jerwood Arts, London (2019). Recent group exhibitions have been held at Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Nigeria Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice; Lagos Biennial, (2024); The Common Guild, Glasgow (2023); South London Gallery (2023). In 2018, Onyeka Igwe joined Black Obsidian Sound System (B.O.S.S.), a QTIBIPOC sound system based in South London. Notably, B.O.S.S. received a nomination for the Turner Prize in 2021. Igwe’s works are part of the British Film Institute Collection, along with major public collections including Arts Council Collection (UK). Onyeka will present a solo exhibition for Art Now, Tate Britain in September 2025 . She was nominated for MaxMara Artist Prize for Women 2022-24, awarded the 2021 Foundwork Artist Prize, 2020 Arts Foundation Futures Award for Experimental Short Film and was the recipient of the Berwick New Cinema Award in 2019.
The Jury who selected this year’s shortlist are: Matthew Barrington,Cinema Curator, Barbican; Shaminder Nahal, Commissioning Editor, Arts and Topical, Channel 4; Maryam Tafakory, 2024 Jarman Awardee; Gilane Tawadros, Director, Whitechapel Gallery; Nicole Yip, Director, Spike Island and Film London Board Member.
Now in its 18th year, the Jarman Award celebrates the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation in UK-based artist filmmakers. It is run in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery, and tours to venues across the UK, including: g39, Cardiff; Nottingham Contemporary; Barbican Centre, London; Filmhouse, Edinburgh in partnership with LUX Scotland; Towner Eastbourne; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; and Watershed, Bristol in partnership with Spike Island.
