Oscar Winning Documentary 'The Elephant Whisperers' to Be Screened at Goa Environmental Film Festival

The first edition of the Goa Environmental Film Festival is all set to be held on the sidelines of the G20 meetings in Goa. The festival is timed to coincide with World Environment Day. The 'Elephant Whisperers', the film that recently won the Oscar Award for Best Documentary Short Film, will be the opening film at the festival. The first edition of this film festival is based on themes including environment, sustainable living, community life, biodiversity, solutions to plastic pollution, water conservation, and more which is in line with the G20 theme of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - 'One Earth, One Family, One Future'. Over 50 films from around the world will be screened during the three-day event that will be held at Maquinez Palace.

It will be a 3-day long festival from June 3-5. The festival will be inaugurated on Saturday (June 3) at 10.30 a.m. "The G20 meetings in Goa are based and are organised on the theme of sustainability. At this film festival we also have Goa Connect, we will have Goan films and Goan filmmakers whose films will be screened. The opening and closing films have won awards and it's a wonderful opportunity to know more about environmental issues being faced globally through films," said Nilesh Cabral, Minister for Public Works Department, and Legislative Affairs, Goa.

"The festival aims to connect the local people of Goa with global environmental issues and solutions. We have invited films from G20 countries and received many entries from their embassies. Films from Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Oman, Portugal, Russia and Spain have their presence through films that will be screened here. We have 50 films in total and we urge everyone who cares about the environment, especially students, to register for the festival," said Sanjit Rodrigues, Nodal Officer (G20).

The Goa Environmental Film Festival has decided to honour the nightingale or bulbul, the state bird of Goa, by featuring it in its logo. The nightingale or bulbul is a symbol of beauty, harmony and resilience, qualities that are essential for preserving the environment. This is being touted as a unique opportunity to explore films that reveal the interdependence of our planet; the films address pressing issues like climate change, loss of bio-diversity, deforestation, ocean pollution, and sustainable living to ignite awareness and action.

Several film directors will be participating in the festival. Shridhar Sudhir who directed 'Moving Upstream Ganga', Janantik Shukla who won accolades for 'Mulsotan - The Rooted', Shishir Jha who directed 'Tortoise Under The Earth', the feature film about mining that has travelled around the globe at various festivals, Sohil Vaidya ,director of award-winning 'Murmurs of the Jungle' will be present for the festival.

An award-winning filmmaker from Kashmir Jalal Ud Din Baba, Dhivarah: A Way Of Life's director Giridhar Nayak, Dheeraj Aithal and Pradeep Hegde along with other filmmakers, will also be present at the festival. Films from various countries like Ireland, Canada, and Finland (Tale of Sleeping Giants), Spain, Bulgaria, Russia, Republic of Croatia, and Portugal, along with a package of environmental films from Oman, will be showcased.

The festival has a great line-up of award-winning films, from renowned directors to emerging talents, as we transform perceptions and ignite action through powerful environmental storytelling. Films like 'The Burning Fields', about the world's biggest e-waste dump, 'Plastic Bag Store', which is a series of stories, or 'Manta Ray', about illegal fishing highlight global environment-related issues. The festival will conclude on World Environment Day, which is on June 5 with the screening of the Spanish film Alcarras which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and was Spain's entry for the Oscar Awards earlier this year.

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