*NOTE: SUBMISSIONS ONLY OPEN TO CURRENTLY ENROLLED HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS*

Started in 2022, the Eco Media Festival (EMF) is a partnership between the University of Southern California’s Arts & Climate Collective (https://www.artsclimatecollective.org/) and School of Cinematic Arts’ division of Media Arts + Practice (https://cinema.usc.edu/imap/index.cfm). The festival’s focus is on films and media art that involve stories, themes, and ideas about topics including the climate crisis, environmental justice and science, adaptation & resilience, sustainability, life on Earth, energy, shared natural resources, circular economies, stewardship, migration, and biodiversity. See some of last year’s films here: https://youtu.be/3wpY5f1n0aw

Our mission is to build toward engagement and collective action on climate issues, celebrate student talent, and promote networking and community building among our artists and audiences. This year’s festival will be held on Saturday, February 28th, 2026 at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Submissions are open to current students in higher education, regardless of institution, location, degree program or professional background. Students whose films are selected are highly encouraged to attend the event in person, but attendance is not required.

Selected films will be included in a non-exclusive, 30-day digital showcase on the Arts & Climate Collective website unless filmmakers request to opt out. This allows us to expand the festival’s reach and platform your film for audience members unable to attend in person.

Recommendations and requirements:
- The focus or theme of the films should be rooted in climate change, climate solutions, environmental justice, sustainability or environmental science.

- The festival is particularly interested in films that share solutions, hope, calls to engage further, and may uplift underrepresented perspectives on sustainability, collective action, and environmental justice

- All genres are eligible, including but not limited to: fiction, non-fiction, television, new media, experimental, and animation.

- We recommend film durations between 2 and 20 minutes including credits.

- Non-English-language films are welcome, but must include embedded, English subtitles.

- Open captions embedded in the film are required for all films screened at the festival. Filmmakers will be notified of selection by January 28th, 2026 and will have until February 06th, 2026 to embed captions in their film. If filmmakers have not submitted a film with embedded captions by February 06th, 20206, the festival reserves the right to modify your film visually to include embedded captions using any tool necessary.

If you are a media/installation artist with work to submit, please do so via this link: https://forms.gle/G6Cye2u9CJ9PwKodA.

If you have any questions about this application, please email artomar@usc.edu with the following subject line: [ECO MEDIA FESTIVAL 2026].

Rules & Terms

The Eco Media Festival is organized around the core values of engagement, accessibility, and community. These form the foundation for our festival’s continued success. The festival is open to submissions from any student currently enrolled in a university or college anywhere in the world. This year, in order to broaden reach and support engagement from audiences unable to attend in-person, we will host all submissions online via a digital showcase on our website.

With a commitment to inclusion and ensure in order to guarantee all of our audiences are able to enjoy your projects, we require all selected films and media art to be embedded with open captions. By prioritizing accessibility, we’ve grown the Eco Media Festival year after year, increasing our reach and impact by supporting emerging talent, and motivating collective action for the environment.

By submitting, you agree to the following:
1). Embedded captions are required for exhibition. Selected films will be notified by January 28th, 2026, and filmmakers will have until February 06th, 2026 to embed captions themselves, after which point EMF may modify the film to meet exhibition needs.

2). We may host and distribute your film online, non-exclusively, for 30 days as part of our digital showcase unless filmmakers opt out via email.

3). We may use clips and stills from your selected film for promotional purposes.

4). Any information shared via this platform may be used on public-facing fliers, documents, websites, and any and all other communications.

5). You agree to respond to a post-festival questionnaire to help future festival programming.

6). You indemnify and hold harmless EMF, its affiliates, subsidiaries, and any of their respective directors, officers, employees, and representatives against any claim arising out of the exhibition of your film at EMF.