2026 Daily Spotlight Films
Monday's Film Spotlight
Monday’s films showcase artistic lenses on our understanding of polar regions.
10 min 10 sec; NA
"Arctic Shifts" is an art-science animation that combines scientific climate simulations and speculative storytelling to reveal how our human activity is connected to the ecosystem and environmental changes occurring in the rapidly warming Arctic. The animation was created by artist Anna Lindemann and scientist Dr. Alice DuVivier, a polar climate modeler at U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR).
Contact: anna.lindemann@uconn.edu
Photo Credit: Anna Lindemann
Password for Vimeo: phytoplankton
10 min 21 sec; Just sound
Still, Greenland lingers on everyday moments along the coast of Kalaallit Nunaat. Dogs wander in and out of frame as water rushes or falls silent, ice cracks, and settlement edges sit beside wide Arctic views. The film stays with these scenes long enough for the rhythms of everyday life and landscape to reveal themselves.
Contact: r.zuzeviciute@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Rasa Zuzeviciute
Tuesday's Film Spotlight
The Tuesday spotlighted films focus on impacts of the climate crisis on people and our planet.
23 min 15 sec; English
The Climate Challenge takes viewers to the fragile frontlines of climate change, the Arctic, the Himalayas, and the Southern Ocean. Through the work of dedicated scientists, the film reveals the risks, challenges, and urgency of studying a rapidly changing planet.
Contact: rakprao@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Rakesh Rao
2 min 43 sec; Turkish (subtitles in multiple languages)
Note: Subtitles need to be turned on in YouTube. You can find instructions here.
Don't Plan B: Our Only Planet follows scientists working in Antarctica to understand the effects of human-driven pollution and avian influenza on the continent’s fragile ecosystems. The film shows how global environmental challenges are reaching even the most remote corners of the planet.
Contact: scoskunn01@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Şebnem Coşkun
Password for Vimeo: hebrides
Wednesday's Film Spotlight
Wednesday’s films give a unique perspective on polar living, polar wildlife, and polar restoration.
5 min 26 sec; French (subtitles in English)
Chasing Whales is an experimental short documentary film following the journey of the French filmmaker La Fille Renne on the trail of cetaceans, reflecting on our relation to them and the evolution of their hunt in Northern Europe.
Contact: lafillerenne@gmail.com
Photo Credit: La Fille Renne
Password for Vimeo: hebrides
49 min; English
The Sami people, based primarily in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, continue their struggles against oppression and colonialism, old and new. For centuries, they have been fighting institutionalized racism, marginalization, and the repression of their culture and language. Although they have won recognition and respect, their work has not ended. Through artistic means and cultural resilience, the Sami are asserting their rights to exist and thrive in their native lands.
Contact:
Photo Credit: Anders Sunna
Alternate Dropbox link here.
18 min; English
On this rare glimpse into a season of conservation with UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, we follow a team of specialists as they journey to remote Blaiklock Island, Antarctica. Here, they undertake a mission to save this remarkable historic refuge as it battles a changing climate in an environment of extremes.
Contact: press@ukaht.org
Photo Credit: UK Antarctic Heritage Trust
16 min; Portuguese (subtitles in English)
Three archaeologists from the Landscapes in White/ArqueoAntar project (LEACH–UFMG) scan archaeological sites left by 19th-century marine mammal hunters at Elephant Point, Antarctica. During the expedition, they are struck by an unexpectedly green landscape, contrasting with research records from a decade earlier, while TerrAntar scientists collect fungi increasingly present in the polar environment. Soon, successive storms erase the green, revealing a landscape in unstable transformation.
Contact: luarastollmeier@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Luara Stollmeier
Thursday's Film Spotlight
Thursday spotlights Alpine regions and glaciers - a critical piece of Earth’s cryosphere and a major resource for people living in these regions.
Photo Credit: Aurélien Prudor
Password for Vimeo: snow
18 min 02 sec; French and English (subtitles in English)
What distinguishes an alpine snowflake from an arctic snowflake? At first glance, it's not so obvious. But the connection between these snowflakes, when they become part of the snowpack, will influence the climate of our planet. A research team from Météo-France, led by Marie Dumont, is studying the different microstructures of snow to improve climate projection models. A journey that takes us into the infinitely small, from the French Alps to the Canadian Arctic.
Contact: wildtalks.films@gmail.com
46 min 38 sec; French/Spanish
In the Alps or along the Andes, glaciers are retreating in all regions of the world. But this change is already affecting populations in South America. Traveling through valleys, towns, and glaciers in the mountain range, this documentary examines the direct consequences of glacier melt on local populations.
Contact: maud.bernat@utoulouse.fr
Photo Credit: Maud Bernat
Spanish version here.
Friday's Film Spotlight
Friday’s films take an adventurous angle on Arctic exploration.
24 min; French/ English (subtitles in English or French)
Imagine a vast white expanse, streaked with turquoise rivers and lakes carved directly into the ice. You are at the heart of the Dark Zone, on the Greenland ice sheet. A fascinating and magical place, yet also unsettling: windblown dust settles on the ice, feeding microscopic algae. As they grow, these algae darken the surface and cause the ice to melt even faster.
It was there that we conducted, in the summer of 2024, where adventure becomes a tool for science and every data point helps us better understand one of the major climate challenges of our time.
Contact: alex@imaqa.be
Photo Credit: IMAQA_Expeditions
Photo Credit: Juho Karhu
12 min; English
Short documentary about the agency of ice in the Northwest Passage and Kalaallit Nunaat.
Sohvi Kangasluoma is a researcher at the Arctic Centre, University of Lapland. The home for Kangasluoma and her spouse Juho Karhu is on a sailboat in Arctic seas.
The short documentary explores the role and agency of ice in shaping Arctic futures by following a sailboat journey through the Northwest Passage and an overwintering in Kalaallit Nunaat.
The documentary is part of the research project which proposes a new paradigm for world politics: the Planetocene, which emphasizes that all forms of life – including humankind – are dependent on the well-being of nature. The multidisciplinary project imagines how a fair shift toward the Planetocene could happen by 2050.
Contact: sohvi.kangasluoma@ulapland.fi