“This year, the oldest environmental film festival in the world receives a record number of 93 films from more than 20 countries that can be seen between 9 and 16 October, at the Municipal House of Culture in Seia”, the organisation stated.

According to the source, the documentaries in competition "are about multidisciplinary themes such as the current climate situation, toxic colonialism, pandemics and other diseases, the struggle of communities to defend regional ecosystems, sustainable future, maritime pollution, environmental justice, among other approaches" .

“CineEco returns this year with an Official Selection guided by the growing quality of the films in the competition, some of which are true poetic odes and are dramatic and cutting visions of reality, always with a strong component of awareness and the need to search for new solutions and activism , which can guarantee the perpetuation of our own existence in the near future”, underlines the event's direction.”

In the International Feature Film Competition, one of the most relevant of CineEco, 11 documentaries enter the competition: “Une fois que tu sais” (Emmanuel Cappellin), “Ostrov - Lost Island” (Svetlana Rodina), “Legacy, notre héritage” ( Yann Arthus-Bertrand), “Living Water” (Pavel Borecký), “Douce France” (Geoffrey Couanon), “Last Days at Sea” (Venice de Castro Atienza), “The Last Hillbilly” (Diane Sara Bouzgarrou and Thomas Jenkoe) , “Ophir” (Alexandre Berman and Olivier Pollet), “Mom, I Befriended Ghosts” (Shasha Voronov), “Hell or Clean Water” (Cody Westman) and “Arica” (Lars Edman and William Johansson Kalén).

Trailer | Ostrov - Lost Island | Svetlana Rodina, Laurent Stoop

45 documentaries from various countries compete in the International Short Film Competition, seven of which are national productions: “Hope” (Paulo Ferreira), “Woman as a tree” (Alejandro Vázquez San Miguel, Carmen Tortosa, Daniela Cajías, Flávio Ferreira and Helder Faria), “ #fishingtheplastic” (Marina Lobo), “Estrelinha do Geopark” (Luís Augusto Fonseca de Araújo), “The last drop – Algarve” (Almargem - Association for the Defense of the Algarve's Environmental and Cultural Heritage), “Between bees and turbot ” (Ana Linnea Lidegran Correia) and “Aurotni Valley” (Graça Gomes).

“This year, environmental cinema in the Portuguese language is also once again in the spotlight in the TV Series and Reports Competition which, as in the last edition, represents more than half of the works in competition in this specific category”, says the source.

According to the organization, out of all the films in competition at the 27th edition of CineEco, “39 are Portuguese documentaries produced in 2020 and 2021”. The festival's programmers are once again Bruno Manique, former president of the Centro Portugal Film Commission, Rúben Sevivas, director, producer, trainer, actor and cultural programmer, and Tiago Alves, journalist, director and radio announcer and film programmer, presenter of the Cinemax program on Antena 1 and on RTP2.

CineEco 2021 has as its official sponsor the presenter Júlio Isidro and, as it’s godmother, the actress Sofia Alves. The Serra da Estrela International Environmental Film Festival, organised by the municipality of Seia, is a founding member and part of the direction of the Green Film Network, a platform of 40 environmental film festivals.