Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: THE SAND EATING SHARK
Best Short Form Short Film: MERGANSER MIGRATIONS
Best Long Form Short Film: THE AGROECOLOGY PATH
Best DOC Short: OKEFENOKEE DESTINY
Best Direction: SAGING THE WORLD
Best Cinematography: WHOSE IS THE LAND?
Best Sound Design: JA’ (WATER)
Best Animation: A POLAR BEAR STORY
Best Nature Film: HELLBENT
Best Political Film: WHIRLWIND
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
THE SAND EATING SHARK, 52min,. France, Documentary
Directed by Bertrand Loyer
A lemon shark called Manoela grows up in the waters of Fernando do Noronha off the coast of Brazil. Her extraordinary senses allow her to detect scents, sounds and even the tiny electric fields of her prey. In particular, she specializes in a hunting technique that has only ever been observed in this spot: hunting sardines in the waves. When we look closer behind the breakers, we discover unsuspected alliances and unusual behaviours.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
OKEFENOKEE DESTINY, 14min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Suzan L. Satterfield
A love letter from locals to a deeply mysterious and largely unknown swamp as it comes under pressure from a mining company that could destroy it before it gains its rightful protected place in the world.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
HELLBENT, 19min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Justin Grubb, Annie Roth
In a small rural town in Pennsylvania, the refuge of a rare salamander and the only source of clean drinking water for 700 people is threatened by the installation of a fracking waste injection well, prompting community members to band together and mount an epic fight for the rights of their people and nature.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
SAGING THE WORLD, 21min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Rose Ramirez, Deborah Small, David Bryant
“Saging” has gone mainstream. This viral trend is now common in movies, TV shows, social media, and cleansing rituals—people burning sage bundles in the hope of purifying space and clearing bad energy. Instead of healing, the appropriated use of saging in popular culture is having a devastating impact.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
A POLAR BEAR STORY, 4min., USA, Animation
Directed by Vanessa Nilsson
A Polar Bear Story is a 3D animated short film that comments on climate change and how it is the primary threat to polar bears as the arctic warms and sea ice disappears. The story follows a young, playful, and mischievous polar bear cub whose playfulness puts him in harms way of melting sea ice.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
WHOSE IS THE LAND?, 14min., Italy, Documentary
Directed by Daniela Giordano
In the Upper World water flows unused from house taps. In the Under World sources are dry and arid. Green culture upstairs and survival culture downstairs. The two worlds and the families which live in those worlds seem to be separated and uncapable of communicating, but they are not. Pipes connect everything and somebody look at different behaviours and ways of life. It’s the Earth, who sees injustices caused by squandering and oversized consumption. Everything is connected. The Earth decides to speak. Only the children can hear her and will be in the forefront of change.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
JA’ (WATER), 14min., Mexico, Documentary
Directed by Christian Cavazos
Tosi (Naomi León), a native girl from an indigenous community in Baja California, motivated by her grandmother’s (Inocencia Sáenz) delicate condition and annoyed by the apathy of her brother (Ratkley López) and the other members of the community, seeks to do the difference in a moment where darkness has consumed everything.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
WHIRLWIND, 18min., USA, Documentary
Directed by David Whitney Port
California’s central coast is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Government agencies are working feverishly to support proposed offshore wind energy projects alongside a significant new marine conservation effort. This film explores the impacts of these initiatives on the Chumash, commercial fishermen, marine ecologists and wind developers. The films weaves a path through a complex web of stakeholder interests and underscores the need for greater trust and more involvement by all parties.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
MERGANSER MIGRATIONS, 4min., Experimental
Directed by William Harper
The lines created by the movement of the birds in this video seem urgent and purposeful. They might bring to mind sketches by Cy Twombly, Lee Krasner, or Jackson Pollock. The forces guiding the paths of the mergansers are similar to those moving the hand of an artist; physics, history, genetics, culture, and the idiosyncrasies of the individuals imagination and requirements all conspire in the creation of the lines.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE AGROECOLOGY PATH, 45min,. Argentina, Documentary
Directed by Elias Saez
Is agriculture to produce food or money? Is it profitable to produce without poison? How do I want to feed myself? Can we imagine an agriculture with a focus on biodiversity and the health of soil and people? Producers, marketers, and consumers open their farm gates and doors to affirm that THE PATH IS AGROECOLOGY. If you are interested in the present and the future of how we inhabit this planet, listen to them. It’s time to change our way; of a new paradigm.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Environmental Film and Screenplay Festival 