If you care about the planet, add these powerful environmental films to your watchlist

Each December, India’s creative community pauses to consider where we stand in our ongoing conversation about the environment. The All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF) returns for its sixth edition this year from December 4 to 14, and it’s easily their most sweeping, future-facing edition yet. What began as a niche platform for indie climate cinema has quietly grown into India’s most important environmental festival, one that treats storytelling as both art and activism. And in 2025, that mission gets louder, bolder, and far more culturally plugged-in.

For the first time, some of the country’s most influential creative voices are stepping into the ecosystem. Production houses led by Zoya Akhtar and Kiran Rao join the movement, while actors and sustainability advocates Randeep Hooda and Richa Chadha have come on board as Goodwill Ambassadors. Their presence underscores a shift that’s been building over the past five years: ALT EFF has become a cultural moment where cinema, community, and climate justice meet.

This year, the festival opens in Mumbai with Turtle Walker, a Zoya Akhtar–Reema Kagti production directed by Taira Malaney, before rolling into 10 days of screenings, conversations, and city-wide programming across Mumbai and Bengaluru. With over 80 films spanning continents and the 2025 jury led by Shriya Pilgaonkar and Pan Nalin, the edition promises a blend of global narratives and hyper-local stories that reflect where our anxieties and hope truly lie.

Here's a list of films that will be screened at the ALT EFF 2025:

Turtle Walker
Produced by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti, directed by Taira Malaney

In the late 1970s, the naturalist Satish Bhaskar made a tremendous expedition along the coast of India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where he discovered the most important nesting sites of sea turtles. His work revealed a fuller picture of these animals, capturing both their fragility and their resilience. But after the 2004 tsunami devastated the coastline, Bhaskar faced a painful question: what future do sea turtles have when their nesting beaches are destroyed?

Panha
Produced by Dia Mirza

Panha is a warm family drama set in rural Maharashtra. It follows the story of a seven-year-old Vithu, who experiences the painful process of losing his family’s mango farm to the bullet train project. When Vithu goes missing just a few days before the eviction, his family learns that he has tried to change the train’s route underground so as to save their land. His belief and purity lead the family to face the fears buried deep inside and to unite surprisingly.

Humans in The Loop
Produced by Kiran Rao

In this reflective narrative set in Jharkhand, Nehma, an indigenous woman wanting to begin anew, is hired as a data labeller at a very remote AI centre. While she teaches algorithms with her calmness and strong skills, she gradually reveals the human biases that are deeply hidden in the systems she is working on and pondering if AI could ever really represent indigenous lived realities. 

Future Council (Australia, Netherlands) 

Famous director Damon Gameau organises eight kids to leave on an eco-friendly European trip to question the condition of the earth firsthand and have direct conversations with the top executives of the largest corporations in the world. 

Snow Leopard Sisters (Nepal) 

This heartbreaking tale follows the relationship between the snow leopard conservationist Tshiring Lhamu Lama and 17-year-old Tenzin Bhuti Gurung, who wants to get away from a forced marriage. They embark together over the Himalayas looking for the last snow leopards in the area.

Farming The Revolution (India, France)

A documentation of the historic 2020 farmer protests, the film follows Gurbaz Sangha as he travels from Punjab to Delhi and joins a mass movement that reshapes ideas of resistance, community, and coexistence during India’s largest agricultural uprising.

Chasing Time (USA)

From the creators of Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral, this meditative documentary follows photographer James Balog as he concludes the 15-year Extreme Ice Survey project, capturing over one million images that chronicle the world’s disappearing glaciers.

Black Snow (USA)

Residents of a Siberian town discover that an old Soviet-era mine is burning beneath their homes. Local citizen-journalist Natalia Zubkova begins reporting on the crisis, only to find herself facing a sweeping state-led disinformation campaign.

Want to watch from home or join a screening? Register on alteff.in for online access and the complete citywise schedule.

All images: ALT EFF
 

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