IN-PERSON Registration

Note: all in-person registrations also include full online access to all films for the duration of the festival. If you do not plan to attend in-person, you need only register for online access to see ALL films and panel sessions.   

Coming Together: Citizen Activists and Communities Working for the Planet

In a world of challenging environmental problems, communities and local residents create solutions. People acting in solidarity to create political change, protect ecosystems, and to help endangered species survive are inspiring examples of what can be accomplished when we take conservation into our own hands. This panel features community leaders, activists, and  professionals speaking about their unique campaigns for regeneration, preservation, and positive change.

Learn more about this year's programs on the EFFY website.

The Island Naturalist

The Island Naturalist is a film which explores a conservation photographer’s unique relationship with nature, revealing hidden stories on the Caribbean islands. For most of us, the Caribbean is a vacation spot known for its white sand beaches and azure-colored waters, but for Eladio Fernandez, islands are hots spots for biodiversity and a lot of it remains undocumented. These islands, and the natural wealth they hold, are in a race against time. Overpopulation, deforestation, mining, poverty and corrupt governments threaten with extinction many of the same species that this island naturalist is fighting to preserve.

Obsessed by his quest to document and save nature, Eladio takes us on a tour of one of the most important humpback whale calving-grounds, the discovery of a new pornographic flower, the conservation of a critically endangered bird, and the re-discovery a long-lost Magnolia in Haiti. 
 

Pantanal - A Charred Wetland

Located in the heart of Brazil, the Pantanal is a tropical wetland packed with the most remarkable wildlife. It has a global importance due to its characteristic water cycle and annual floods, which are essential to maintain a huge diversity of unique species. However, due to human actions, the floods are now becoming smaller and rivers are drying out, which is causing severe droughts. The consequences of this became evident in 2020, when huge wildfires destroyed over a quarter of this biome, killing millions of animals along the way. Two brave locals – Eduarda and Jorge – decided to give their all to rescue and save the lives of severely injured animals along the way.

Shawnee Showdown: Keep the Forest Standing

During the late 1980s and 1990s, a small, dedicated group of activists fought on the ground and in the courts to stop clear-cutting, oil and gas drilling, and ATV use in the Shawnee National Forest located in Southern Illinois. They won the support of their community and the struggle in a landmark court case. Seventeen years later, the court lifted the injunction, and the Forest Service resumed logging.

Shawnee Showdown: Keep the Forest Standing portrays the struggle to protect the forest through interviews, photographs, and news footage. The film examines the ways the past struggle can serve to inform the public and activists today in responding to current Forest Service management projects. 
 

Rebirth of a Reef

The rocky reefs that are home to countless species of fish and invertebrates and support the giant kelp forests of the Palos Verdes Peninsula (California) are under threat. They’ve historically been ravaged by landslides, burying the rocky structure and killing plant and animal life on the reefs. Fortunately, there’s a team of scientists at the Vantuna Research Group and NOAA who are working to bring these beautiful reefs back to Palos Verdes. Join us as we watch the team put their decades of research to use, creating a new system of reefs and restoring the underwater world of Palos Verdes.