Arctic Film Festival 2026 Programme
THEME
Shifting Scales of Proximity: From the planetary to the personal, this year's festival programme moves between distance and intimacy. Landscapes, animals, relationships, gestures and histories are brought together on screen. They invite us to reconsider how cinema frames the world and how we, as spectators, perceive, feel, imagine what hits close to home and what not. Can the fragile existence of a lobster or a distant land under threat affect us more than the personal dramas of social encounters we already recognize from our own lives? Within shifting scales, the familiar can become strange and the distant unexpectedly intimate.
DAY 1 | May 3
SHORT FILMS
18.00 - 19.15
▪️A Clawsome Tale • Lucie Machin • 22’ • United Kingdom • Short Documentary Competition
This whimsical, entertaining short documentary dives into the wondrous world of The National Lobster Hatchery in Cornwall (UK). The National Lobster Hatchery opened in 2000 to help prevent a collapse in European lobster populations in the region, following similar collapses in Scandinavia and the Mediterranean. Narrated by Lowenna (a European lobster), the film follows her journey through the hatchery and that of her offspring, who begin their lives there before being released back into the ocean. Through her eyes, we meet the passionate people working to protect her species, including Cornish fisherman Dan Gilbert and Head of Hatchery Production Ben Marshall. With inspiration from the likes of Aardman’s Creature Comforts and Wes Anderson, this documentary aims to shake up the typical wildlife/conservation narrative style. Combining playful storytelling with marine conservation education, it reveals a remarkable project working to safeguard the future of Cornwall’s lobsters.
▪️Solastalgia • Josefine Ljungkvist • 9’ • Norway • 2025 • Student Production Competition, Norwegian Production Competition
Solastalgia describes the feeling of homesickness while still at home—a form of emotional distress caused by environmental change. This hybrid of art film and documentary brings together young people from different countries as they share their thoughts and anxieties about climate change and its impact on their future. The film follows a lone character on a journey to capture what remains before it disappears.
▪️Fire Pilots • Rick Wall • 27’ • South Africa • 2025 • SDG Films – Goal 15: Life on Land Competition
Fire Pilots is a cinematic short film exploring the lives of South African helicopter pilots who battle wildfires from above. The film captures the profound connection between individuals, community, machine, and the pursuit of a flow state amidst chaos.
▪️I Am a Sheep • Gulzat Egemberdieva • Thomas Lahusen • 11’ • Kyrgyzstan • 2024 • SDG Films – Goal 15: Life on Land Competition
Using footage shot in Kyrgyzstan alongside Soviet archival material, this film tells the story of sheep—from ancient times grazing in Central Asia to the arrival of new powers “from beyond the mountains,” introducing industrial farming. By giving sheep a voice (through subtitles), the film addresses urgent contemporary issues: loss of dignity among the colonized and exploited, and the environmental consequences of unchecked industrial and economic growth.
▪️Elegy For A Glacier • Sarah Bachinger • 8’ • United States • 2024 SDG Films – Goal 13: Climate Action Competition
Elegy For A Glacier embodies a multimedia “poem of affection and sorrow,” originating from a distant epoch, dedicated to the Earth and our interconnected companions beyond the human realm during the Anthropocene. This era marked humanity’s awakening to the consequences of its pursuits—industry, colonization, and consumerism—on the only planet capable of sustaining life. As humankind grappled with these repercussions, the film captures the fading echoes of sound as the final expressions of human tenderness and reverence for the intricate web of more-than-human life. Following humanity’s demise, these preserved chronicles are discovered by new species and technologies from an imagined future. Through deteriorating sound waves, they reveal humanity’s last whispers of devotion to the fragile ecosystems that once sustained life on Earth.
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM
19.30 - 20.55
▪️Mankind's Folly • Yorgos Avgeropoulos • 82' • Greece • 2025 • Feature Documentary Competition On opposite sides of the Bering Strait, Nikita in Eastern Siberia and Martha in Northern Alaska witness their world collapse: the Arctic permafrost that has sealed in the era of mammoths is now thawing, destabilizing not only their homes and lives, but the whole planet. Ambitious climate pledges have faded amid global turmoil. Energy security now dominates national agendas. Across the Arctic, drilling accelerates, despite scientists’ dire warnings that the region is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. Nikita and Martha’s stories are a final alarm from the far north – to all of us.
DAY 2 | May 4
SHORT FILMS
18:00 - 19:25
▪️At Gino's • Christoph Otto • 10' • Germany • 2024 • Short Film Competition
At Gino's, we always drink one more glass and complain about what's wrong, because our fear of the big world has to go somewhere. This is nothing new, but it's still true. And usually an evening like that with Gino is enough for Tina, but today she would like a little more.
▪️Smooth Summer • Amanda Sandberg Fætten • 13' • Norway • 2025 • Norwegian Production Competition
Hanna is getting ready for a day at the beach with her ten-year-old niece, Erle. The two share a close bond, laughing and playing together. But when Hanna steps out of the room for a few minutes and returns, she finds Erle shaving her legs. Trying to stay calm, Hanna explains that she doesn’t need to do that yet — but Erle insists that hair is gross and that she wants to look like Hanna, with smooth, hairless legs. Torn between setting boundaries and preserving their trust, Hanna reluctantly decides to help her. As they walk to the beach, both with freshly shaved legs, an uneasy feeling grows in Hanna. Has she just taught Erle that her body needs to be changed to be acceptable?
▪️The Boy Who Erased Kisses • Radostina Neykova, Fernando Galrito • 10' • Bulgaria, Portugal • 2025 • Animation Film Competition
The boy doesn't like it when somebody kisses him. But what happens if every time you get kissed, you erase it? You slowly start to lose your colour. And live in an unhappy and more colorless world. For this, you have to rediscover human warmth, love and friendship. Handmade watercolor animation.
▪️I Don't Like Music Anymore • Márton Hartvig • 5' • Norway • 2024 • Short Documentary Competition, Norwegian Production Competition
I Don't Like Music Anymore documentary presents the abuse of music in shopping malls and how this kind of use of music violates the very definition of it. At the end of the documentary, Edgar Allan Poe offers a solution.
▪️Come Sit With Us • Elis Rumma • 14' • Estonia • 2024 • Student Production Competition Lola ends up sitting on a bench with local women on Midsummer Eve. At first, all women's troubles are alien to her, but as the evening progresses, she begins to question her perspectives, and as time goes on, finds herself more attached to the country women in her own way.
▪️Nativity Scene • Felipe Bibian • 18' • Brazil • 2025 • Short Film Competition
On Christmas Eve, Dejair, a former resistance fighter against the military dictatorship, gathers with his family in the backyard. A water gun gift leads Dejair to denounce the absurdity of giving a child a weapon.
▪️The Terrorist • Meena Rathor • 11' • Norway • 2024 • Norwegian Production Competition
When three roommates welcome a new housemate into their apartment, tensions rise as suspicions about his true nature grow. Through humor and satire, the story unravels preconceived notions and explores the absurdity of fear and prejudice in unexpected ways.
FEATURE FILM
19.40 - 21.10
▪️Anorgasmia (a.k.a. All The Things We Do To Survive) • Jon Einarsson Gustafsson • 92' • Canada, Czechia, Iceland • 2025 • Feature Film Competition
After a failed attempt at a hostel luggage room hook-up, Sam and Naomi think they will never see each other again. When a volcano erupts, grounding all flights, they suddenly find themselves stranded – together. In a stolen car, the pair embarks on a quest to capture the first images of the eruption. The ensuing road trip into the Icelandic highlands uncovers their vulnerabilities as they navigate their fears of commitment, the weight of their secrets and the thrills of connection in a world where they can no longer swipe left.