The Climate Film Festival (CFF) is New York City’s first film festival dedicated to climate in all its forms. From narrative and documentary features to experimental shorts and music videos, CFF harnesses the transformative power of motion pictures, showcasing new and established voices, classic climate films, and energizing, human stories. Our inaugural festival will take place from September 20-22, 2024 during the opening weekend of Climate Week NYC.

The Climate Film Festival is a new cultural organization with an annual festival, year-round programming, and digital resources in New York City. It was founded in 2023 by a group of passionate climate professionals, artists, and curators, from sectors including art, filmmaking, decarbonization, museum curation, policy, media, marketing, engineering, and climate change AI. CFF soft-launched in 2023 with a sold-out “First Look” screening and panel event during Climate Week NYC, and it has continued to organize screenings and events in partnership with local universities, nonprofits, and museums, as well as monthly meetups and various volunteer opportunities.

Join CFF in September 2024 for our first multi-day festival, including screenings, panels, and Q&As, a filmmakers’ welcome event, climate + culture sector mixers, workshops, networking opportunities, industry showcases, and more.

CFF promotes climate storytelling across genres and from a broad range of perspectives. We welcome both features and shorts across formats, including:

Narrative
Documentary
Experimental
Animation
Episodic
Music Video

We recognize that climate change is a pervasive, human-driven global crisis that demands swift action across disciplines and themes. For this reason, we welcome films that forefront diverse, intersectional topics in relation to human interaction with the environment, in addition to work that explicitly engages with climate change. A non-exhaustive list might include themes as varied as regenerative agriculture, indigeneity, urbanism and ecology, creature features, ecofeminism, and climate comedy.

CFF is fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Submission fees play a crucial role in the festival’s fundraising and help us provide a robust and in-depth review process and festival event. We deeply appreciate your participation!

Vision:
Mass media is essential in creating the new habits, policies, and futures that we need to flourish in a changing climate. Imaginative, innovative, and diverse films have the power to reframe engagement with our environment, constructing a shared vision of collective action. The Climate Film Festival (CFF) believes that this visionary, just, and sustainable future is within our grasp. The time to strive for it is now.

Learn more about the Climate Film Festival at climatefilmfest.com.

Submission Categories:
CFF welcomes a broad range of filmmaking formats and genres, including work in narrative, documentary, experimental, animation, and music videos. If you have questions, please contact us at programming@climatefilmfest.com.

Short Films:
This category includes films with a run time of 40 minutes or less, including credits.

Feature Films:
This category includes films with a run time of 40 minutes or more, including credits.

Early-Career Filmmakers:
This category includes films directed by individuals who have had limited professional experience.

Episodic:
This category includes episodic work (i.e. multi-part or series) with a runtime under 60 minutes, including credits. Episodes do not need to be pilots to qualify.

Awards & Prizes

Every submission is eligible for CFF’s juried competition and/or the audience choice award. Please note that this list includes a sample of awards; the full list will be posted at a later date.

Climate Film Festival Awards:
Narrative Short
Documentary Short
Narrative Feature
Documentary Feature
Episodic
Early-Career Filmmaker Award
Audience Choice Award

*Please note: the awards listed above are subject to change in advance of the 2024 festival dates.

Rules & Terms

Categories:
Please submit your film to one category only; you only need to pay one fee per film.

Shorter festival edits of feature length films are often preferred, as our program has limited space for entries longer than 90 minutes. However, all submissions will be considered.

CFF accepts films in any genre related to the natural and built environment, particularly in connection with climate change.

Language:
Non-English language films must have embedded English subtitles.

Year Completed:
We will accept films completed in 2019 or later. Exceptions may apply for certain categories.

Entries:
All films must be submitted through FilmFreeway. Passwords for private links must not expire before the end of September 2024.

Fees:
At the time of publication, CFF cannot pay any screening fees.

Eligibility:
CFF does not exclude films with prior screenings. However, premieres are warmly welcomed!

We only accept completed films. “Works in progress” will only be considered based on the version originally submitted.

Selection Status:
Filmmakers will be contacted about selection status via FilmFreeway by early July 2024.

Rights & Releases:
By submitting a film for consideration by CFF, the submitter acknowledges that they own or control the film’s copyright and are authorized to submit the film to CFF. In addition, your film cannot be subject to litigation, nor threatened by any litigation.

CFF reserves the right to use and copy relevant publicity materials (e.g. film stills, trailers, photographs, and film segments or trailers up to 3 minutes) for non-commercial promotional purposes and archival materials. These materials may be used at no additional cost.

CFF and its affiliates will be held harmless from any and all claims associated with submitted materials.

Submissions that are accepted by the Festival may not be withdrawn after acceptance.

Fee Waiver:
CFF is a fiscally sponsored organization that relies on fundraising for all of its operations. However, we do offer a limited number of submission fee waivers for anyone for whom the entry fee presents a barrier to submission. The availability and number of fee waivers is not guaranteed.

For those who require a fee waiver due to economic hardship, please email us at programming@climatefilmfest.com by May 3, 2024 with:
A detailed description of the reason for your request for a fee waiver.
A 250-word (or longer) description of how your film connects with the mission and vision of the Climate Film Festival. For more information about our programs, please see climatefilmfest.com.