The Portland EcoFilm Festival

Featured image (above): Still from the winner of our 2024 Black Merlin Visionary Film Award, OUR GRANDMOTHER THE INLET

Please read our rules and terms before you submit your film(s), even if we invited you to submit.

Now beginning our 14th year, Portland EcoFilm Festival is the premier festival of environmental, Indigenous, and place-based films in the USA Pacific Northwest. We are a signature program of The Hollywood Theatre, Portland, Oregon’s modern-historic nonprofit movie house.

Our festival—which spans several months through a viewer-friendly “festival season” model—is great for filmmakers who want their films to be seen in theaters by thoughtful and engaged audiences. Additionally, we tour a Best of the Fest series throughout our region, feature selected filmmakers on our Global Ecological Cinema Podcast, and engage audiences through award-winning educational partnerships.

We embrace the root definition of ecology, exploring what it means for humanity to have, hold, and transmit knowledge of planet Earth as humanity’s shared home.

Our annual Indigenous Voices series features official selections and award winners that center Indigenous wisdom, accomplishments, stories, and struggles.

We are currently accepting films completed on or after November 1, 2025 for 2027 consideration.

We screen official selections and award winners at three of Portland, Oregon’s best independent cinemas from March through May: The Hollywood Theatre, Cinema 21, and The Clinton Street Theater. Our "Best of the Fest" program tours several independent cinemas in Oregon and Washington state following our regular season, expanding viewership to rural communities and towns where it can be otherwise difficult to get films seen in theaters.

In 2026, we launched our first-of-its kind Global Ecological Cinema Podcast, featuring in-depth conversations about fascinating intersections of ecology, cinema, and filmmaking. This is yet another avenue that we provide for filmmakers to engage with audiences, promote their work, and share their perspectives.

Our Multnomah Clemente Course is a completely free opportunity for people living on low incomes to explore ecological cinema in a supportive and dynamic learning community. For filmmakers whose films are selected for our Best of the Fest Series, this means their work is studied and discussed as it tours the USA Pacific Northwest. Multnomah Clemente is a partnership between the Portland EcoFilm Festival, the Hollywood Theatre, Bard College, the Clemente Course in the Humanities, and various independent cinemas around the region.

Our Curation Community consists of filmmakers, artists, and other people around the world who are working and creating at vast intersections of imagination and ecology.

We invite organizations working on broad-based, multifaceted solutions to connect with our audiences, prioritizing those which represent and serve frontline communities. We also invite filmmakers and film participants to engage with our audience in dialogue about the films and issues depicted therein.

We support filmmakers by building support for their films as they are being released into public view. We connect our audiences to films that inspire environmental advocacy and ecological literacy—and to individuals, collectives, and organizations that are engaged in broad based, multifaceted solutions.

While we are a nonprofit festival, it is important to us that filmmakers are compensated for their work. For that reason we offer humble but heartfelt honoraria based on ticket sales for the season during which films are selected. Average payment to official selection filmmakers in 2025 was $50USD for short films and $75USD for feature films. We strive to increase honoraria amounts every year.

Hosted in one of the USA’s greenest cities, Portland, Oregon, our festival is supported by the kinds of people and organizations who are interested in your film!

Waivers and discounts are granted based on scheduling needs, staff and selection committee capacity, and budgetary requirements. When requesting a fee waiver or discount, please include the following: trailer or clip; film runtime; film category; indicate whether the film is streaming publicly, or if you have plans to stream it publicly before June 2027.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and representation matter. We encourage BIPOC and disabled filmmakers to request submission fee waivers and discounts, and we do our best to accommodate those requests.

BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Pronounced “bye-pock,” this is a term specific to the United States, intended to center the experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples and demonstrate solidarity between communities of color.

BIPOC aims to bring to center stage the specific violence, cultural erasure, and discrimination experienced by Black and Indigenous people. It reinforces the fact that not all people of color have the same experience, particularly when it comes to legislation and systemic oppression.

Our festival was created by filmmakers. We understand the importance of your film's festival release, and we want to help you get the biggest audience and impact possible.

1. Building support for your film: Where scheduling allows, we pair films with local community partners, conservation groups and advocates to help publicize your screenings and increase attendance and outreach.

2. Connecting to your audience: post-film conversations help you connect with audiences and promote your film's goals. Our post-film conversations regularly feature filmmakers, local conservation organizations, activists, and experts to further discuss your film and engage your audience. We provide tabling space in our theater lobby, so you can promote your film's campaign, sell copies/raise distribution funds for your film, and add interested people to your email list.

3. Supporting films featuring environmental advocacy campaigns: If an advocacy campaign is part of your film’s goals, we offer ways to help you reach your goals through our social media, during our screenings and by connecting you to groups and community members who can help your campaign gain traction before and after your screening date.

4. ALL films accepted into the festival are considered "in competition" and eligible for awards unless filmmakers decline consideration. (See "Awards & Prizes" section.)

5. Connecting your film to media coverage: We aim to bring media coverage not just to our festival, but also to a number of the films we feature in our prime festival screening slots. Films at our fest have received media coverage from numerous local publications and national publications including MovieMaker Magazine and Indiewire.

6. We support your film's distribution after your festival screening date with us has passed. We enjoy using the reach of our social media to let the public know when your film is available for online viewing, or receives a nationwide theatrical run.

7. We offer honoraria to all films that are selected for our festival. Amounts depend on ticket sales and length of film. Honoraria are generally paid after the end of each festival season (on or around July 1) unless other arrangements are made (generally for invited films). See above for average honoraria amounts during our previous season.