The Climate Crisis Film Festival is the UK’s only film festival dedicated specifically to channeling constructive action towards the most urgent issue of our time: the climate emergency.

Unlike the other green festivals that push a conservationist angle, we approach climate change from an intersectional and systematic angle, promoting collective action. We unpack this through a carefully curated programme of films and accompanying talks, workshops, and events hosted in collaboration with a network of local and global action groups.

Our festival focuses on giving viewers not only visual content to consume, but access to the tools to demand the change we need. We aim for our audience to leave with a sense of empowerment and readiness to act. In fact, 85.2% of our 2020 audience said that attending the festival made them “feel more empowered to act.”


Our 2021 festival is due to take place this November in Glasgow, Scotland coinciding with the dates of the COP26; with an award ceremony for our Short Film Award taking place our closing night. Half a million climate activists, world leaders, and journalists are all expected to be in Glasgow for the two weeks of this climate summit. It was COP21 that gave us the Paris Agreement. COP26 is expected to be the biggest climate event of the 2020s, setting the agenda for the decade.

Alongside the physical festival, we will feature a digital worlwide programme of films. The focus of our digital content is to amplify the voices of those most affected by climate change, with the In Competition Strand 100% comprised of BIPOC or minority backgrounds directors. Through using the exposure gained from COP26, the digital programme will allow global audiences unable to travel to Glasgow a chance to engage in the movement. Our 2020 festival took place entirely online and was a huge success! For our second online programme, we expect to grow that audience exponentially.

Please Note: this is an open call for our digital programme, not the physical festival. By submitting your film you agree to have your film shown digitally worldwide.

**Due to the exceptional disruption caused by COVID, the festival plans may be subject to changes.

We've teamed up with the amazing people at Ocean Bottle to provide a short film from our digital program!

The winner will be selected by a jury of climate activists and creatives to win an award valued at £6000 GBP.

The award ceremony will take place on our closing night in Glasgow and be live-streamed digitally worldwide.

We will strive to pick films following the criteria below:

1. Made by minority or BIPOC directors.
2. Prioritize non-Western countries perspectives.**
3. Serve as a useful commentary on the climate crisis and the systems at the roots of it. We welcome films about social, economic and political justice even if they’re not directly about climate change or environmentalism.
4. Be in digital format. We do not accept physical screeners.
5. Be in English OR have English subtitles. We accept films made in any country and language, as long as English subtitles are provided.
6. Be under 45 minutes in length.
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**We accept submissions by directors from any country in the world, but will give priority to non-western countries. That being said, we will also give priority to minority or BIPOC filmmakers from these Western Countries.

We understand how the definition of “Western countries” might be divisive but, for the purposes of this open call, we consider Western countries to include the following:
USA
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
All of Europe, with the exception of Siberia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia, the Caucasus, and Turkey

Please note that if you come from an overseas part of one of the above countries (e.g. Martinique, Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Aruba, etc.) we welcome your submission.

However, we might be able to accept your submission even if the eligibility criteria don’t seem to apply to you, as long as your film helps amplify the voices of underrepresented countries and communities — feel free to get in touch with us at submissions@climatecrisisff.co.uk if you have any questions.
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A few last things to note:

- We will prioritize films made in the past 5 years, although we accept submissions of older films too.
- We do not exclude any films on the basis of whether they have been on the festival circuit, have premiered, or are already available online (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.). We want your films to reach as wide an audience as possible, not limit it!
- We accept documentaries, live action, animation, experimental, visual essays, and everything in between.
- We do accept rough cuts and works in progress
- The submission fee is non-refundable