Our Mission
Our aim is to engage audiences in an exploration of environmental and ecological themes through the medium of film. Founded in 2007, the EcoFocus Film Festival screens a diversity of films of high scientific and artistic quality to promote conversations on both the content and the medium by which environmental themes are conveyed. We intend for these films to serve as catalysts for increased public awareness, discussion and action to improve the ecological health of the planet and its inhabitants.

The Festival
The first EcoFocus Film Festival will be held in Fall 2008. Several full-length features will be screened along with panel discussions, events, and exhibits. We will also showcase short films selected from among filmmaker submissions. More detailed information about the festival is coming soon.

Call for Short Film Submissions
Short films should be submitted no later than August 11, 2008. Early submissions are encouraged. Short films (maximum 40 minutes) submitted to EcoFocus should in some way relate to the environment. We are open to any genre or any style of film, and welcome a variety of environmental subjects -- climate, water, energy, agriculture/food systems, environmental restoration, biodiversity, advocacy, human impacts, policy, natural resource scarcity, natural history, etc. We seek inspiring films that promote awareness, discussion, and hopefully action among the film’s viewers. We are open to films about domestic and international topics, but also encourage films about the southeastern US and/or made by filmmakers from the Southeast.

Submissions are accepted either directly (click here for submission form) or through Without a Box. Click on the link directly below to submit through Without a Box.

Past EcoFocus Events
On April 26, 2007, the first EcoFocus (then called Eco-Ciné) event, representing a collaboration between the University of Georgia Institute of Ecology (since re-named the Odum School of Ecology) and Ciné was celebrated by presenting EarthDance, a selection of environmental films from the Oakland, CA event of the same name. Read more about our first event here and click on the logo above to see the flyer.

The second EcoFocus event occurred on October 12, 2007 with a reception, screening, and discussion of the film A CRUDE AWAKENING. Ciné hosted guest speaker Dorinda Dallmeyer, Director of the UGA Environmental Ethics Certificate Program, who gave an introduction to the film and led a discussion following the screening. A film description can be found at http://athenscine.com/showing/details.php?id=167

Most recently, the EcoFocus Film Festival and Sundance Channel co-hosted a reception, panel discussion, and screening of BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA, a feature-length documentary on the coal industry, mountaintop removal, and citizen activism in West Virginia. The event, held on April 1st, 2008 at Ciné in Athens, was an opportunity to increase awareness of the environmental and human health impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, but also gave the audience a taste of what’s to come at the EcoFocus Film Festival in October. Burning the Future is one of several environmental documentaries to be shown on the Sundance Channel’s “The Green” weekly environmental programming season that kicked off on April 1st. Several audience members stayed on after the 7 pm screening to particpate in the panel discussion. Panelists included: Scott Shelley, Burning the Future cinematographer, Dr. Bruce Wallace, UGA Professor, Odum School of Ecology and Department of Entomology, and Justine Thompson, Attorney and Executive Director of GreenLaw.

Please see the following for further information about the film: www.burningthefuture.com. For more information about Sundance Channel’s The Green, please see http://www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen/

Contact Us
Questions and inquiries about EcoFocus Film Festival can be directed to the Festival's Managing Director, Sara Beresford at sarab@uga.edu .

Thank You
Our deepest thanks go to the generosity of George and Jack Fontaine for their financial support of this endeavor.