Echoes Programme
Echoes is an Environmental Film Festival parallel to the AegeanFF, offering four days of events free to the public in co-production with the Green Fund, bringing together filmmakers, scientists, and environmentalists to share scientific knowledge and compelling stories. These include the screening of 3 feature documentaries and 9 short films, panels led by invited experts, tree planting and other environmental initiatives, as well as the presentation of a Sustainability Award, allocated to the film that best fosters dialogue on innovative sustainable thinking. The ninth edition of the Echoes Environmental Programme aims to spark a conversation on the ethical shift associated with the understanding of nature as a living system, recognizing both humans and non-humans for their right to exist.
Sustainability Iniatives
Project Housekeeping
Developed with the technical expertise of consulting company Fourthmore, the Project Housekeeping guides the Aegean Film Festival’s sustainability transformation through 2030, creating an ESG-aligned roadmap. The project underscores the festival’s commitment to sustainability by redesigning and replacing all of its operations with eco-friendly alternatives. So far, we have introduced a new waste disposal system, replaced the majority of the festival menus with vegan, local and organic options, measured CO₂ emissions to set a reduction baseline, and replaced most of team vehicle rentals with eco-friendly alternatives. In addition, we replaced all single-use plastic, upcycled PVC banners into beach bags, T-shirts and tote bags into a new, sustainable collection.
Rewilding Patmos
In 2023 Echoes Program launched a reforestation project, introducing a donation per ticket for all parallel events and connecting wild parties to rewilding. Donations gathered during the festival transformed into a tree planting initiative called Rewilding Patmos, reflecting the Echoes Programme’s dedication to addressing environmental issues impacting local communities. At this stage of the project, 650 native trees, shrubs, and aromatic plants have already been planted in collaboration with the local environmental non-profit organization. Community of Trees, with the aim of creating a self-sustaining local ecosystem to prevent erosion and restore biodiversity on the island. For the upcoming edition, the Echoes Programme maintains a focus on how to restore the ecological balance in the Aegean and deepen the connection between the community and its natural environment. A gathering to discuss how to scale up the festival’s rewilding project will be hosted on July 19th, 2026 at 12.00 in Patmion Festival Centre. If you wish to contribute with a donation for tree planting, click here.
Focus on Marine Ecosystems
Over the years, the Echoes programme has repeatedly focused on marine conservation. Key scientific and conservation subjects such as blue carbon and the role of keystone species, including Posidonia Oceanica within the Mediterranean ecosystem, were addressed with a curated selection of films, panel discussions and roundtables, accompanied by activities such as visits to marine protected areas, coastal cleanups, and guided diving tours. On July 20, 2026, we will take a closer look at endangered marine ecosystems through a panel exploring the transformation of underwater habitats and the role of climate change as an accelerant on ecosystems under pressure.
Track Record of the Enviromental Programme
By collaborating with scientists, filmmakers, and environmentalists, the Echoes Programme has addressed global climate challenges and fostered sustainable practices since 2017. We have presented 34 documentaries, 28 short films, 3 script competitions, 10 panels, 3 round tables, 5 workshops, 5 local activations and funded more than €100K in awards, evolving into a platform for sustainable storytelling and climate action:
2017 – Echoes environmental programme launched with seminars, screenings and an expanded advisory board including BAFTA and Emmy-winning director Nicholas Brown, as well as leading marine conservation ecologist Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara.
2018 – The festival expanded across the islands of Patmos and Paros over 12 days, with Echoes becoming an official part of the programme.
2019 – First 4-day edition of Echoes held at the Environmental & Cultural Park of Paros.
2021 – Echoes received the auspices of UNESCO; Rescript the Future launched with Adobe, WaterBear and NBC Universal as a script competition for young storytellers, offering up to €25,000 in production support for bold, visionary ideas.
2022 – Presentation of the Festival Alliance for the Climate, an international network enhancing the distribution and visibility of environmental films and promoting sustainable practices in the film industry.
2023 – Launching of rewilding efforts in collaboration with the Community of Trees.
2024 – Location Greece: Sustainability Standard workshop introduced with the support of EKOMED and the WaterBear Network to shape Greece’s first national guidelines for sustainable film production. Visit to Aegean Marine Life Sanctuary in Lipsi in collaboration with the Archipelagos Institute. Launch of the initial phase of the project: we planted 300 trees, bushes and aromatics, and supported the infrastructure necessary for the plants’ higher chances of survival.
2025 – Posidonia Oceanica beach Day in collaboration with Azzurro Diving, second part of the Location Greece: Sustainability Standard workshop, bringing together audiovisual professionals, sustainability experts and public institutions to develop tools and standards to encourage low-impact production.
For its 2026 edition, the Echoes Environmental Programme aims to reinforce connections between environmental advocacy and the creative industries, enhance the Project Housekeeping, set a target for tree planting for 2030 and introduce new sustainability practices for the island.
Super Nature
Directed by Ed Sayers
Genre: Environmental Documentary
Duration: 82′
Production Year, Country: 2026, UK
Language: English, Enawene Nawe, Dutch, French, Icelandic, Punjabi, Spanish, Sama-Bajaw, Sámi, Thai
Subtitles: English, Greek
Rating: PG
An immersive exploration of our world today, filmed exclusively on the original home movie format, Super 8. Led by filmmaker Ed Sayers, we’re invited on a spellbinding journey of togetherness with our fellow dwellers on earth, human and non-human, as people embrace beauty, abundance and loss. Embracing all we have, and all we have to lose, Super Nature proposes a new way of seeing.
Premiere
Saturday, 18 July • 20.30 • Starfish Cinema
World Premiere: BFI London Film Festival 2025
Echoes Panel - Rewilding Patmos
A conversation on nature restoration in the Aegean, with representatives of the Green Fund, supporting sustainable development, ecosystem restoration and the protection of Natura 2000 areas. The discussion will connect these funding mechanisms with practical approaches to rewilding, while also presenting local restoration initiatives. A focus will be dedicated on the expansion of the festival’s tree planting activity, serving as an open call for new partners, organizations, and supporters interested in helping the initiative grow.
Sunday, 19 July • 12.00 • Patmion Culture Center
Presented in co-production with the Green Fund
Wild London
Directed by Joe Loncraine
Genre: Environmental Documentary
Duration: 60′
Production Year, Country: 2026, UK, US
Language: English
Subtitles: English, Greek
Rating: PG
Sir David Attenborough explores the wildlife of his London hometown, from urban deer to rooftop peregrines and many others, revealing how nature thrives in the world’s greenest major city.
Premiere
Sunday, 19 July • 20.30 • Starfish Cinema
ECHOES SHORTS A
Sunday, 19 July • 21.45 • Starfish Cinema • 65'
Artefacts of Accumulation
Documentary • 19’ • Portugal • 2025
Director: Locument
Language: English
Subtitles: English
A voyage into the depths of the transformation process of discarded matter, gazing at the operations that domestic and industrial waste undertake in the process of being recycled and deposited. Immersing in the technologies that define the procedures of dealing with refuse, the film reveals the architectures that orbit the worlds our waste creates.
The Prediction
European Premiere • Drama • 24’ • India • 2025
Director: Rishi Chandna
Language: Tamil
Subtitles: English
A grieving boatman and an earnest meteorologist share their knowledge of the seas and weather, but find themselves helpless in the face of unpredictable climate.
Change Makers
Documentary • 20’ • Greece • 2025
Director: Casey Beck
Language: Greek, English
Subtitles: English
Lefteris Arapakis was born to be a sixth-generation fisherman in Greece. Instead, he started the country’s first-ever fishing school, training fishermen to remove plastic garbage from local waters and convincing this ancient profession – including his own family – of the need to protect the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.
Echoes Panel - Change in the Mediterranean
An invitation to take a closer look at the Mediterranean Sea and its endangered ecosystems, from shallow-water habitats unfolding beyond ordinary human perception to the changing behaviour of animals and the growing impact of rising sea temperatures. The speakers will reflect on the challenge of conservation and on the perception of the sea as a vital condition of our shared future.
Monday, 20 July • 12.00
Yanuni
Directed by Richard Ladkani
Genre: Environmental Documentary
Duration: 112‘
Production Year, Country: 2025, Austria, Brazil, US, Canada, Germany
Language: Portuguese, English
Subtitles: English, Greek
Rating: PG
The extraordinary journey of Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Brazilian Amazon, as she rises from a remote village in Xipaya territory to the political frontlines of climate justice. A fearless defender of her people and the rainforest, Juma has survived six assassination attempts while confronting illegal gold miners, land-grabbers, and multinational corporations threatening her ancestral land.
Premiere
Monday, 20 July • 20.30 • Starfish Cinema
World Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival 2025
ECHOES SHORTS B
Tuesday, 21 July • 23.00 • Starfish Cinema • 107'
White Veil
Documentary • 10’ • Ireland, Slovenia • 2025
Director: Žiga Ciber
Language: Slovenian
Subtitles: English
Nestled by the banks of the Soča River, the village of Anhovo carries a legacy buried beneath layers of history and dust. More than 100 years ago, an asbestos cement factory was built. Through shifting wars, regimes, and borders, from fascism, socialism, and capitalism, the factory endured. It gave people jobs, homes and hope. But soon, it began to take their breath, their health, and eventually, their lives. Today, it is still belching smoke, as time stands still under the White Veil.
El Guero
Premiere • Fiction • 17’ • Argentina, Mexico • 2026
Director: Lucia Lalor, Wenceslao Arias
Language: Spanish, English
Subtitles: English
A man working for a foreign company arrives in a coastal town to supervise the construction of the first touristic hotel in the area. He soon finds himself caught in growing tension with the local inhabitants, who express their frustration over the invasion of their beaches, until the confrontation reaches a breaking point.
Requiem for the Caspian
Premiere • Documentary • 15’ • Azerbaijan, UK, Italy • 2025
Director: Suad Gara
Language: Azerbaijani, Russian
Subtitles: English
As the Caspian coast is drying out, fishing villages give way to industrial landscapes. Suspended from their day-to-day activities, the inhabitants of an old village on a remote island of Pirallahi off the coast of Baku await the Sea’s return. Meanwhile, the land grab continues, as factories, warehouses and oil rigs take over what was once a vibrant underwater ecosystem.
Plant Life
International Premiere • Documentary • 22’ • US • 2026
Director: Brett Marty, Josh Izenberg
Language: English
Subtitles: English
An intimate, urgent portrait of Dr. Joanne Chory, a scientist who rewrote the rules of plant biology, racing to enlist those breakthroughs to fight climate change. As her Parkinson’s advances and carbon levels surge, she pursues her most audacious experiment yet. She and her team are re-engineering crops to draw down CO₂ at a planetary scale — a scientific race against time that may determine both her legacy and our future.
Chuuraa
Documentary • 17’ • UK • 2026
Director: Evgenia Arbugaeva
Language: Sakha
Subtitles: English
In the remote Siberian Arctic, an Indigenous Sakha scientist descends into the depths of the melting permafrost. Searching for an ancient creature, he makes his way through the dangerous caves to the mythical realm of the Underworld.
Gyaros: The Story of the Sea
Documentary • 25’ • Greece • 2026
Director: Mike Bekos
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English
A journey on the island of Gyaros through the perspective of the sea. The exploration of its history from antiquity to the present day, emphasizing the importance of protecting marine environment. Presented by WWF, it showcases Greece’s consistent work through programs implemented over the past 12 years, as well as the crucial designation of Gyaros as a Marine Protected Area. Through powerful imagery and testimonies, the film brings forward the deep connection between humans and nature.