This touring festival of international short films explores our interior responses to many possible climate futures.

While climate change is front-page news, in our own back pages many are grieving. Or mutely frightened. Or numb. Or outraged. Or isolated and feeling hopeless. Others may be oddly celebrating a future of climate disorder.

This short-film festival explores the full range of human and artistic response to what may be coming next. Dramatic, comic, hopeful, despairing, absurdist, documentary, animated: one's heart and vision have a home at the Climate Future Film Festivalâ„ .

BILL McKIBBEN, America's leading voice and author on climate, is the
Festival's Honorary Judge and introduces it on screen.

FESTIVAL PREMIERED OCTOBER 26-27, 2023, RHODE ISLAND, USA. ON TOUR NOW.

BRING THE FESTIVAL TO YOUR TOWN or CAMPUS: Reserve Your Date:
Email Producer@ClimateFutureFilm.com. Visit ClimateFutureFilm.com.

Best Film
Best Cinematography
David Fox Imagination Award for Best Direction: $1,000.

Entries, including title and credits, must have a run time of 25 or fewer minutes.

Student entries and entries from Rhode Island are FREE until and including the Official Deadline.

Entries must have been completed, final cut, after January 1, 2018. Preference in selection may be given to films completed since January 1, 2021.

The Festival welcomes fiction, nonfiction, documentary, drama, comedy, experimental, underground, animation, sci-fi, and all other short-film projects.

Films not in English must contain English subtitles (top of screen, preferred).

Eligible films have no premiere requirements or prior screening restrictions. Entries may have been screened at other festivals or exhibitions, broadcast or streamed on television or the Internet, and/or released on any home video or other public distribution platform.

PERMISSIONS
By entering your Film, you are AGREEING to the following:

(1) While YOU reserve all rights and ownership in your Film, you are granting to the festival organizer, Merlyn Climate Grants, the non-exclusive PERMISSION to exhibit your Film, and/or to license others to exhibit your Film, in the "Climate Future Film Festival." The Festival begins in Rhode Island October 2023, and will travel to other cities as venues are confirmed. Exhibition may be in physical venues such as theaters, halls, and on campuses, as well as online, and in other media, at the sole discretion of Merlyn Climate Grants;

(2) You are granting to Merlyn Climate Grants and/or its licensees the non-exclusive PERMISSION to exhibit your Film TRAILER, if provided, and/or brief CLIPS from it or from your Film, without prior notice. This PERMISSION is granted whether the Film is selected for exhibition in the Festival or not selected. Such clips may appear on the Festival's social media pages for the purpose of promoting attendance at the Climate Future Film Festival;

(3) You are granting to Merlyn Climate Grants and/or its licensees the non-exclusive PERMISSION to exhibit any images included with your submission --- excepting images that would typically remain offline for privacy (such as a copy of your student I.D., if submitted);

(4) You are giving your assurance to Merlyn Climate Grants that you are the legal and rightful owner of the entered Film and that you own all copyrights to the Film, and that you have the unconditional right to grant Merlyn Climate Grants the non-exclusive PERMISSIONS detailed above in sections 1, 2, and 3;

(5) If your Film is accepted for screening in the Festival, you promise and agree that it will not be withdrawn from the Festival, except at the sole discretion of Merlyn Climate Grants, once notification of its official selection has been emailed to you.

Thank you for making and sharing your film. We look forward to seeing your entry!

Climate Future Film Festivalâ„ 
[Updated 12/24/2022]

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • Jen Long

    A thoughtful selection of films addressing climate change: some grim, some funny, all carrying important messages for our times. Thank you, Climate Futures for considering my film as a finalist!

    November 2023
  • Ilana Goldman

    I regret that I was unable to attend the festival, but very honored to have my film included. I appreciated the clear communication from the festival director, Jim Stahl. I love that the festival is spreading its important message to other locations with touring.

    November 2023