The 32nd edition of CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Cinema Festival will bring to competition 87 films from 34 countries between October 9 and 17 in Seia, in the Guarda district, announced the organizers.
The official selection was defined from the 410 submitted works, including fiction feature films, documentaries produced for cinema and television, national and international, as well as works of visual arts, created in digital media, video or film, with environmental themes, the CineEco adds in a press release.
In total, in Seia 106 films will be screened, 87 of which in the six main competitions of the festival.
In October, “Seia once again becomes the center of international environmental cinema with nine days dedicated to the exhibition of national and international films that give visibility and foster reflection on the major environmental issues of today,” the organizers emphasize.
Highlight for the international selection of feature-length films, which brings to Portugal ten documentaries in absolute national premieres, awarded or selected at reference festivals such as Cannes, Rotterdam, Visions du Réel (France), Sundance (USA), CPH:DOX (Denmark) or Thessaloniki Film Festival (Greece).
This is a set of “pertinent environmental narratives on economic models, the new challenges of environmental activism, climate apartheid, environmental migrations, species, habitats and resource exploitation across five continents”.
Among the selections for 2026, CineEco makes several highlights, such as two fiction features, “On the Sea”, in which Helen Walsh explores the tension between tradition and nature in a Welsh fishing community, and the French comedy “L’Espèce explosive”, by Sarah Arnold, about the conflict between farmers, hunters and wild boars.
In a festival devoted to environmental issues, threats caused by modernity and climate change are quite present. Such as those affecting ancestral pastoral communities, portrayed in “Let Our Mountains Live”, by Norwegian Håvard Bustnes, about Sami reindeer herders who fight against Europe’s largest wind farm.
Or “Iron Winter”, by Kasimir Burgess, in which one observes the iron will of two friends to protect two thousand horses in the harsh winter of the Mongolian desert.
In Seia will screen several films related to the theme of climate change and global warming, but which also help identify contemporary vestiges of colonial power, understand the conflicts generated by resource exploitation, or reflect threats to sustainability and to natural territories.
The actions of indigenous peoples, the dilemmas in resource management and urban planning, issues related to aquatic ecosystems, concerns related to indigenous cultures and local activism, reforestation, the preservation of intangible heritage and migrations associated with environmental or social pressures are other themes addressed.
Among the chosen Portuguese-language films, the national premiere of the speculative fiction “Yellow Cake”, by Brazilian Tiago Melo, a film that features production by Kléber Mendonça Filho and Emilie Lescaux, who were Oscar-nominated for “The Secret Agent”.
The Serra da Estrela International Environmental Cinema Festival also makes space for films dedicated to the protected territory, with four films in competition, and one out-of-competition: “Lessons of Fire”, by John Webster, a documentary about fires in Portugal filmed in Castelo Branco and in the Sabugueiro village, in Seia.
A total of 144 filmmakers are involved in this edition.
CineEco – Serra da Estrela International Environmental Cinema Festival is one of the oldest in the world dedicated to the theme, taking place annually, in October and without interruption since 1995, at the initiative of the municipality of Seia.
