The 2026 Green Film Award nominations underscore how environmental cinema continues to broaden its scope, spanning wildlife protection, Indigenous knowledge, fragile ecosystems, and the social fallout of the planetary crisis. Drawn from the annual international pool of the Green Film Network, this year’s shortlist brings together films that approach the ecological emergency through both urgent advocacy and ambitious storytelling.

In the short film category, nominees including H5N1: Conservation in Crisis, Chasing Whales, Stone Biter: Saving the Arctic Sea Forests, Perfectly a Strangeness, Where Trees Weep and Hope for the King of the Skies point to a strong emphasis on species survival and threatened habitats, while titles such as Bloodline, Martha, Common Pear and A Small Garden by the Window suggest more intimate reflections on interdependence, care, and ecological fragility.

The feature lineup further widens that perspective. With nominees including The Wild Defending Itself, The Falling Sky, Scars of Growth, Antarctica – Domain One, Breath, Mar Menor, Big Trouble, Peak Everything and The Snake and the Whale, the slate reflects a cinema of environmental attention that is as political as it is poetic. Other nominees, including Skin of Glass, Abel, Black Butterflies, Resilience, The Remnants of You, Peak Everything and Yanuni, suggest that the climate conversation remains inseparable from questions of identity, community and loss.

Winners will be announced later this week at Cinemare International Film Festival in Kiel, Germany.