Morgan Quaintance and Onyeka Igwe have jointly received the Film London Jarman Award 2025, the 18th edition of the annual prize. 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.
Onyeka Igwe, A Radical Duet (2023), film still. Courtesy of the artist and Arcadia Missa.
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.
Onyeka Igwe, our generous mother (2025), production still. Courtesy of the artist, Arcadia Missa and Tate.
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.
Morgan Quaintance, Repetitions (2022), film still. Courtesy of the artist.
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.
Installation view of Morgan Quaintance, Available Light, Chelsea Space, Chelsea College of Arts, London (2025). Photo by Angela Tozzi. Courtesy of the artist.
Members of the Jury said:
“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.”
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.
The award was presented on 25th November 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.
Upcoming events
Jarman Award 2025: Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance
6:30 - 8pm, 11 December 2025
Whitechapel Gallery, London
Film London and Whitechapel Gallery present a special screening and talk with the joint recipients of the Jarman Award 2025.
Jarman Award 2025: Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance
27 November - 10 December 2025
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
In celebration of the Jarman Award, Onyeka Igwe’s A Radical Duet (2023) and Morgan Quaintance’s Repetitions (2022) will screen from 27 November – 10 December on the Living Canvas at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Europe’s largest digital art screen.
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.
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.
