Climate Week: Pulitzer Shorts (Virtual)
2025-09-25 11:00 - 2025-09-28 23:30 (America/New_York) | MD
Co-presented with the Pulitzer Center. Stream this free virtual screening September 28-28 as part of Climate Week NYC!
This collection of films, created by emerging journalists in the Pulitzer Center’s 2024 Reporting Fellowship program, captures how climate change is reshaping landscapes, livelihoods, and cultural traditions around the world. Together, they reveal what is at stake and the vision of a new generation responding to a changing planet.

DCEFF at LAFF: Yanuni
2025-09-25 18:30 - 20:30 | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, MD 20910, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Co-presented by DCEFF and the AFI Silver as part of their Latin American Film Festival
The first female elected chief of her people in the Amazon’s Middle Xingu region, Indigenous activist Juma Xipaia is the brilliant subject of Richard Ladkani’s urgent documentary. An outspoken advocate, Juma has survived six assassination attempts as she dares to face the ruthless mining companies whose every action threatens to destroy her community. Steadfastly by her side is her husband, Hugo, a former Special Forces ranger and helicopter pilot who is now tasked with leading dangerous missions for Brazil’s environmental protection agency. As their family and responsibilities begin to grow, Juma and Hugo must protect both their future and the future of the Amazon. Produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, Ladkani’s mesmerizing eco-thriller juxtaposes awe-inspiring nature photography with heartless violence in a fight for environmental justice that never ends.

DCEFF at LAFF: Flamingos
2025-09-28 12:50 - 14:30 | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, MD 20910, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Co-presented by DCEFF and the AFI Silver as part of their Latin American Film Festival
This is a story about life — stubborn, fragile and fleeting — that began 66 million years ago, when a giant meteorite crashed in what is now the Yucatán Peninsula, wiping out the dinosaurs from existence. Millennia later, tens of thousands of Caribbean flamingos flock to the region for a grand display of courtship, turning the muddy banks into a vast maternity ward for the next generation. This incredible undertaking by phoenicopterus ruber to breed — building mud nests in a prominent flood zone, finding a mate among a horde of competitors, evading scores of hungry predators — was captured over a two-year period in partnership with the esteemed Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Humorous, offbeat narration by Mexican singer Julieta Venegas, an engrossing score by Bryce Dessner and breathtaking natural photography combine to create a singular wildlife documentary that will make you appreciate the hardy flamingo and the preciousness of life itself.

Pulitzer Shorts: On the Frontlines (Virtual Encore)
2025-10-16 11:00 - 2025-10-26 23:30 | MD
Co-presented with the Pulitzer Center. Stream this free virtual screening October 16-26.
This collection of films, created by emerging journalists in the Pulitzer Center’s 2024 Reporting Fellowship program, captures how climate change is reshaping landscapes, livelihoods, and cultural traditions around the world. Together, they reveal what is at stake and the vision of a new generation responding to a changing planet.

Journey of a Story: The White House Effect
2025-10-20 18:00 - 21:00 | NYU DC, 1307 L Street Northwest, Washington, DC, 20005, United States
The Uproot Project, in partnership with DCEFF, presents an engaging evening exploring climate politics and trust in the media
The event will begin with a screening of 2025 DCEFF Opening Night Select The White House Effect. The film will be followed by a conversation with journalists Justin Worland from Time and Jenny Hijazi from Bloomberg, moderated by Chelsea Henderson, author of Glacial: The Inside Story of Climate Politics.

DCEFF at AFI's EU Showcase: The Love That Remains
2025-12-04 21:10 - 23:00, 2025-12-05 19:10 - 21:00, 2025-12-10 13:00 - 14:50 | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, MD 20910, Silver Spring, MD, United States
Co-presented by DCEFF and AFI Silver as part of their European Union Film Showcase
Against the backdrop of Iceland’s magnificent landscape — a rugged island filled with winding roads amidst a majestic tundra — a marriage falls apart, threatening to fracture a loving family. Fisherman Magnús (Sverrir Guðnason) has just moved out of the house he shares with his visual artist wife, Anna (Saga Garðarsdóttir), and their three children, Ída and twins Þorgils and Grímur (all three played by the real children of filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason, GODLAND). The high school sweethearts have drifted apart as of late, despite Magnús’ hope for reconciliation, though they still spend time together for the sake of the kids. Working with a set-up that could easily veer toward melodrama, Pálmason pens a surprisingly sensitive and poignant treatise on the ties that bind, imbuing the scenario with a warm sense of humor and a charming thread of magical realism that combine into a powerful climax.
The gorgeous cinematography, lensed in 35mm by Pálmason himself, deftly renders the grandeur of the Icelandic setting. All of this is anchored by the compelling, sly performances from all five principal players, though special mention goes to the various critters that live with the family — chickens, cows, horses and one exceptional sheepdog named Panda, who won the coveted Palm Dog award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Out of Plain Sight at NAS
2025-12-11 18:30 - 21:00 | National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20002, United States
We are thrilled to be teaming up with the National Academy of Sciences to offer a free screening of our 2025 Shared Earth Foundation Award winner Out of Plain Sight.
This screening will be followed by a conversation with co-director Rosanna Xia and several scientists featured in the film: Dr. David Valentine (UC Santa Barbara), Dr. Alissa Deming (Pacific Marine Mammal Center), Dr. Eunha Hoh (San Diego State University), and Dr. Lihini Aluwihare (Scripps Institution of Oceanography).

DCEFF at AFI's EU Showcase: Silent Friend
2025-12-14 13:15 - 15:45, 2025-12-17 16:15 - 18:45 | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, MD 20910, Silver Spring, MD, United States
A Co-presentation between DCEFF and the AFI Silver as part of their European Union Film Showcase
For over a century, a ginkgo tree, standing sentinel in the garden of Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, experiences its surroundings — but how and what it experiences is a mystery. Every day, students, professors and staff pass by the tree, graze its bark, recline beneath its shade. Ildikó Enyedi’s profound scientific epic locates three such passersby, separated by generations. In 2020, a professor of neuroscience, stranded and isolated on the COVID-abandoned campus, begins to conduct experiments on the tree’s sensorial faculties. In 1972, a first-year student, inspired by a romantic dalliance, cares for a sensitive geranium; and, in 1908, the university’s first female student discovers a new way of seeing plants through photography. Enyedi excavates these stories from the ginkgo tree’s roots, like living fossils that have implanted themselves into its being.
The cast is led by Tony Leung Chiu-wai (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, CHUNGKING EXPRESS) and Léa Seydoux (THE BEAST, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR), as two preternaturally sensitive and curious modern researchers who wish to understand the mind of plants. Their inquiries open a portal into an expanded sense of time and connection, uniting their story with those who came before them and with the plants who have borne witness all the while.

JxJ & DCEFF: Hollow Tree
2026-01-31 19:00 - 21:00 | Cafritz Hall, 1529 16th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20036, United States
Past DCEFF Selection Hollow Tree is returning to DC for a special screening co-presented by JxJ and DCEFF.
Hollow Tree follows three teenagers coming of age in their sinking homeland of Louisiana. For the first time, they notice the Mississippi River’s engineering, stumps of cypress trees, and billowing smokestacks. Their different perspectives — as Indigenous, white, and Angolan young women — shape their story of the climate crisis.
Screening will be followed by a conversation with filmmaker Kira Akerman moderated by environmentalist Susan Crawford.

2026 Festival Preview Event
2026-02-11 18:30 - 20:00 | Georgetown University Capitol Campus, 111 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC, 20001, United States
Join DCEFF organizers, filmmakers, and partners at Georgetown University’s Capitol Campus for an exclusive first look at some of the award winners and highlights from our 2026 lineup.
You’ll see clips, hear exciting announcements about what to expect this March, and have a chance to connect with an amazing community of environmentalists and film enthusiasts.

34th Annual Environmental Film Festival
2026-03-19 19:00 - 2026-03-27 22:00 | MD
March 19-28, 2026, the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) returns to venues throughout the DC Metro Area. Stay tuned for exciting announcements early in 2026.

DCEFF at Caribbean FilmFest: Possible Landscapes
2026-06-09 14:10 - 16:15, 2026-06-10 18:30 - 19:30 | AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd, MD 20910, Silver Spring, MD, United States
A co-presentation of DCEFF and the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
Shot across two seasons in Trinidad and Tobao, POSSIBLE LANDSCAPES is a poignant exploration of intergenerational experiences of landscape and environmental transformation in the Caribbean. The film immerses viewers in sugarcane fields, winding mountain valleys and pristine seas that mask the devastation of dying coral reefs, unfinished homes that stretch into oil fields and fishing communities that struggle against the ravages of the Atlantic. As the Caribbean faces escalating environmental crises, filmmaker Kannan Arunasalam captures the tensions of post-independence aspirations and disappointments, and explores the legacies of colonialism, postcolonial nationalism and changing forms of extractivism, offering a profound meditation on resilience, loss and the changing face of the land.

Preceded by the short Madulu the Seaman
Young Amari lives in the whaling town of Barrouallie in Saint Vincent, dreaming of a life in Paris as a soccer star. His grandfather, a legendary whaler-man and sole surviving keeper of the old sea shanties he sang out on the water, is eager to pass on his lifelong traditions even as the end of whaling looms. This lyrical documentary captures the rich history of a dying tradition in the wake of economic struggle at the hands of the tourism industry.
