2026 DC Environmental Film Festival: Women Protecting the Environment Locally & Globally

Guest Post: by Monica Schorn, Executive Director, DC Environmental Film Festival

The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital will return to more than twenty venues throughout Washington to celebrate its 34th Annual Festival from March 19-28, 2026. Centered around the theme Against the Current, the 2026 Festival features more than 70 films, spotlighting those filmmakers, scientists, and journalists who press on in the face of challenges. Among these resilient, undeterred communities, leaders, and storytellers are some remarkable women, making an impact both in front of and behind the camera. A Life Illuminated Our 2026 Opening Night Selection, directed by Tasha Van Zandt, features the work of pioneering marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder as she documents the phenomenon of bioluminescence in our oceans. Agatha’s Almanac This film, directed by Amalie Atkins, captures ninety-year-old Agatha Bock as she tends to her ancestral farm in Canada. Shot by an all-female crew on 16 mm film, this film chronicles Agatha’s seasons of tending the land, cultivating heirloom seeds, and resisting the pull of technology. Co-presented with the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Bee Wild This film, directed by Josh and Rebecca Tickell, is one of several family-friendly films in our lineup this year. Celebrating the essential role of wild bees in sustaining life, this documentary explores our relationship to these pollinators as they uphold our food systems and ecosystems alike.

Cotton Queen This film, directed by Suzannah Mirghani, tells the story of Nafisa, a young Sudanese woman determined to protect her village’s cotton fields from commercialization and genetically engineered crops. Co-presented with the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and the New African Film Festival. Hair, Paper, Water This film, directed by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, delves into the life of Thị Hậu, a Rục woman preserving her endangered language and journeying back to the cave in which she was born sixty years ago. Co-presented with the National Gallery of Art.

Mother of Snow Cranes This film, directed by Iiris Härmä, documents Ellen Vuosalo, whose extraordinary life takes her from Finland to Canada to California to Iran, where she dedicates more than five decades to studying migratory Siberian cranes. Co-presented with the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art and the Embassy of Finland. Sallie’s Ashes This film, directed by Brennan Robideaux, is the 2026 winner of our Eric Moe Award for Best Short on Sustainability. Sallie Smith, at eighty years old, gathers fellow retirees Diane Wilson and Savan Smith to confront Mobile Bay, Alabama’s Plant Barry—where 21 million tons of toxic ash sit in a precarious unlined pit.

Shorts: Science & Scientists  This film features five short films centering the work, tenacity, and curiosity of scientists. From coastal New England to Florida to Chile’s Atacama Desert to the bottom of the ocean, these researchers navigate the environmental and ethical challenges of the modern world. A Pay-What-You-Can program.

Vs. Goliath The third episode of this series, directed by Sam Eilertsen & Nate Birnbaum, features activist Sharon Lavigne. Sharon fights back when a new petrochemical plant is announced in her community of St. James, Louisiana — one of the most polluted places in the country, also known as “Cancer Alley.”

Please join us not just as audience members, but as leaders, changemakers, and storytellers in your own right—ready to stand Against the Current with us this year. We are proud to present more than half of our programs at no cost to our community, thanks to the support of our Festival partners and funders. We are excited to offer the DC EcoWomen community this code DCEWEFF26 to receive 25% discount off tickets. Click here to see the film festival schedule and purchase tickets.

Monica Schorn, Executive Director DC Environmental Film Festival

A Washington native, Monica started her festival career as a programming intern for the Nantucket Film Festival after graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts with a B.F.A in Film and Television Production. She later became a reader for Nantucket's annual screenwriting competition, as well as a script analyst and judge for the Richmond International Film Festival, the Creative World Awards, the Bluecat Screenplay Competition, NYC Midnight, and individual screenwriters. Returning to the Washington area in 2011, she worked for the American Film Institute’s documentary film festival for nine years under its Silverdocs and AFI DOCS iterations. Before joining DCEFF, she served as the production coordinator, associate programmer, and director of programming for the Annapolis Film Festival. She currently holds the champion title for pickled peppers in Montgomery County, Maryland.