Green and sustainable architecture and accommodation, new technologies in our everyday lives that save natural resources and help us, nature in cities and community life as a return to tradition and self-sufficiency. That’s just a short list of subjects that go together with the subtitle Address: Planet Earth, chosen by the organisers of EKOFILM, the oldest international film festival focused on the environment in Europe, for its 47th edition. From now until 31 March filmmakers may submit their films via the website filmfreeway.com. The festival is held by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic in cooperation with organisers Key promotion, Masaryk University and EkoInkubátor.
“For the 47th edition of EKOFILM we chose the theme Address: Planet Earth. Our aim is to highlight the fact we have only one planet as our common home, not only with other people but above all with nature. In recent centuries it has mainly been people who have reshaped the planet, adapting it for their usage. Without healthy countryside, without room for animals and plants or without natural resources, it will be hard for us to call the planet home. For that reason at this year’s festival we want to open the door to those films that show us how to live most harmoniously with nature, with our surroundings, with the planet and all of its inhabitants – but at the same how to live in a modern, comfortable way, perhaps thanks to new technologies that suit both sides,” said Minister of the Environment of the Czech Republic Richard Brabec.
“Submit films that allow us both classic and fresh views of green architecture, community living and technologies that reduce the negative impacts of our planet’s growing population; films that seek and show ways to get closer to nature, how to bring it into our cities, how to help us cope with everyday stress, but at the same time pay it back for the services it provides to us and which, with the best will, we are unable to appreciate enough,” is festival president Ladislav Miko’s message to filmmakers.
The 25 best films selected by the festival’s programmers will be included in the competition part of the festival, which takes place in Brno on 20–23 October 2021. The competition will feature three categories: Beauty of Nature, Central European Films and Short Films. The Festival President’s Prize and of course the Grand Prix – Main Minister of the Environment Prize will be presented. Filmmakers can submit their works at the website filmfreeway.com until the end of March; as last year, there will be a fee for submission, with the proceeds going to the festival’s prize money.
“This year themes like green architecture, town planning, community living and smart technologies will receive a forum at the festival. We will discuss them at introductory talks and they will permeate the festival’s entire accompanying programme. If the epidemiological situation allows, we would like to bring back lectures, Q&As and film screenings at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Masaryk University, the Scala university cinema and on the Brno square náměstí Svobody,” said the festival’s expert guarantor, Bohuslav Binka, head of the Department of Environmental Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Masaryk University.
