Hothouse Magazine founder Matt Bray has been volunteering on Environmental Films Australia’s general committee for nearly 2 years. In that time we have provided creative and marketing assistance having recently completed a rebrand for the new name just in time for this milestone event. The first full-length in person fest since 2019 and the organisation turning 15 years old!
You’ll see the Hothouse crew throughout the festival and we are especially looking forward to the 15th anniversary celebration at our favourite North Melbourne local Bobbie Peels.
This year’s theme is ‘Environment Is Everywhere’, exploring ideas of urban living, nature and beyond, with the best eco-cinema from around the world. Check out the festival trailer featuring our own little DnB banger ‘Hothouse Heatwave’.
Traversing the city, with screenings at Palace Kino, Trocadero Projects and Wildflower Video Bar, the program spans Indigenous stories of power and activism, local reflections on landscape, breathtaking tales of the city and living environments, and inspiring intergenerational ideas that might just save the planet.
Our program always goes beyond the screen, with impactful talks and opportunities to connect, and this year is no different. With filmmaker panels, receptions and a special community action event, audiences can come together, meet changemakers, and keep the conversation going. Plus, at the centre of the fest, we’ll be commemorating our 15th Birthday, with a special Anniversary Party.
In this time of climate crises, reconsider the world around you through a series of incredible films and events, because Environment Is Everywhere.
Environmental Film Festival 2025 is presented in Naarm/Melbourne by Environmental Films Australia, in association with Monash University and supported by Dr Bronner’s.
Tickets and passes on sale now!
An evocative documentary offering unique insights into a long-forgotten 1970s epic photo survey of the American environment. Accompanied by Canadian First Nations short ‘River Revelation’.
Stick around after the film program for a panel on confluence of climate, art, photography and media, with ABC star Maree Lowes, River Revelations filmmaker Darcy Tara McDiarmid and Burrinja Cultural Centre’s CEO Melanie Burge.
Join us afterwards in the Kino Foyer for a drinks reception, meet the filmmakers and festival team, and help us toast the fest!
Tickets: $36 including reception
A experiential gallery screening event exploring natural and constructed ecologies, through the merging of living environments and lived experience, and our interconnection with water.
With three short films, an artist talk by Eugenia Lim, and plenty of time to chat and mingle, the program invites audiences to rethink the world around you, because Environment is Everywhere.
This pay-as-you-can screening is presented by Trocadero Projects and Environmental Films Australia. All funds raised will be donated to the APHEDA Gaza Emergency Appeal.
Tickets: Pay As You Can Fundraiser
Exploring ideas of urban living, city nature, and how humans and our environment are intertwined, ‘People, Place, Planet shorts’ offers a unique perspective on environmental cinema.
Through cine-poetry, dance, experimental art, documentary, and the journey of a plane tree being meticulously moved just 72 meters in the city of Milan, these films ask us to reconsider what our environment means to us and what we mean to our environment.
After the films, enjoy a filmmaker panel discussing what it’s like behind-the-scenes making environmental cinema in Australia today, featuring Le Luo (Outpicker), Clancy Walker (Yana Djamaga Ganji) and Febe De Geest (The People’s Tree), and chaired by producer Cathy Rodda.
Join us before the screening from 10:30 for a free plant-based hot drink.
Facing an existential threat from a proposed green energy project, the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation fight to protect their sacred sites and cultural resources. In a last-ditch effort to be heard, they open their community and reveal parts of their sacred culture for the first time.
Weaving together tradition, activism, community and beautiful moments, filmmakers Jacob Bailey and Christopher Ward present a powerful, tender portrait of a community’s fight to protect their sacred lands from continued colonial extraction.
Presented by Monash University. This screening will include a selection of Aboriginal community action shorts by Original Power.
What happens when a scientist and an artist team up to save the planet? Artist and filmmaker Marta Kovářová presents a funny, intimate documentary about her father, a physicist who dreams of fixing climate change with one big bold idea. Follow their journey as they try to make their voices heard in a world that doesn’t always want to listen, crashing conferences, playing protest songs, and sharing late-night chats.
The World According to My Dad shows that saving the planet isn’t just about science, it’s about family, imagination, and working together.
Screening supported by Climate Choir Melbourne.
Tickets: $26
To celebrate 15 years as a fully volunteer-run environmental arts organisation, we’re throwing a party and you’re invited!
Join us for a night of music, dancing, and creativity at Bobbie Peels in North Melbourne. We’ll have activation spaces to explore, drinks on arrival, and delicious plant-based canapés to enjoy.
Come celebrate this milestone with us and the incredible community that makes our work possible. Everyone welcome!
Tickets: $30 / $20 with any cinema ticket purchase
We’re stepping out of the cinema to connect with Country, through a beach clean at Elwood Beach, in partnership with 3184 Beach Patrol.
Join us in turning climate anxiety into climate action, through a relaxed and social litter pick.
Meet at Elwood Pier.
Tickets: Free – RSVP here
An eye-opening manifesto documentary by two Amazonian filmmakers who flip the script, revealing how European colonisers invented false ideas about the Amazon and its people. From stolen artifacts hidden away in museums to the logging trucks stripping the forest, colonial legacies continue to shape the present.
More than a history lesson or critique, this is an act of resistance and reclamation. A fierce and uncompromising reminder that without decolonisation there can be no healing.
Join us after the screening for a meal and a drink at the Wildflower Bar.
Tickets: $10 / $16 Double Feature
Try something a little different with a special festival edition of our fan-favourite ‘After Dark’ series, a visual cine mixtape of enviro shorts, including fiction, animation, documentaries, screen art, film poems, experimental and more.
Enjoy a night of weird, wonderful and boundary-pushing cinema, with an eclectic mix of exciting, playful, and dynamic shorts, exploring ideas of urban environments and what it means to live in a more-than-human world.
Tickets: $10 / $16 Double Feature
That’s the complete program. An impressive collection of film, music, and opportunities for connection. See you there!
By signing up you give permission for Hothousemag to contact you with updates. Your information is safe with us – for more information see our Privacy Policy
