The All Living Things Environmental Film Festival 2025 lineup invites audiences to rethink cinema and our relationship with the planet through the lens of environmental storytelling. This year’s films confront our relationship with the planet, from portraits of communities on the frontlines of change to imaginative visions of ecological futures. These reviews highlight few of the standout titles redefining expectations and revealing how filmmakers are reshaping the landscape of environmentally focused, alternative cinema.
Snow Leopard Sisters
Directed by Sonam Choekyi Lama, Ben Ayers, Andrew Lynch | Nepal, USA | 01:35:13
How do you take on patriarchy, the struggles of Indigenous communities in the high Himalaya, and the urgent call for snow leopard conservation – all within a 90-minute documentary? You ask the directors and their remarkable team behind this brilliantly crafted film! This one follows two women on a daring mission to protect snow leopards across the Himalaya’s breathtaking yet treacherous terrain.
In ‘Snow Leopard Sisters’, conservationist Tshiring Lhamu Lama is deeply troubled by the declining number of snow leopards in Dolpo and the rise in retaliatory killings as herders lose their goats to the cats. Determined to make a change, she seeks an assistant she can mentor and finds one in Tenzin Bhuti Gurung, a 17-year-old girl from a family in Dolpo that recently lost 45 goats in a single attack.
But for Tenzin, the fight is twofold. After the 15-day training, a forced marriage awaits her, and she sees this opportunity as a possible escape.
Uncertain whether Tenzin will continue with her after the training, Tshiring takes her under her wing anyway. What begins as mentorship slowly transforms into a tender sisterhood. The elusive snow leopard becomes the silent thread stitching their stories together – one of courage, defiance, and freedom. In the end, Tenzin must summon the strength to face her father, whom she meets in prison, and refuse the marriage that would cage her.
‘Snow Leopard Sisters’ is a film to watch out for – a breathtaking tale of two bold women who scale mountains, study the mysterious cat, and question the authority of men and the weight of tradition, all while scanning the ridges of the Himalaya for a glimpse of the creature that connects them both.
Reviewed by Rithwik Sundar
Would You Still Love Me If I was a Sticky Frog?
Directed by Myles Storey | Malaysia, UK | 0:17:00
“Jumping around, climbing trees, traversing the forest… to one day being reunited with your one true frog love!” This film found the sweet spot, or the sticky spot if you may, from the very first minute. This international short film is a lovely feature about a long-distance couple, separated by land and time, much like populations of wild animals separated by crunchy highways that cut through forests. Their conversations are interwoven with beautiful frames of endangered species in their lush habitats, as the couple imagines themselves as frogs, monkeys, and birds. In their flights of fancy, wishful thinking too, they describe the species, with intimate details (would you like the warts on my body if I was a sticky frog?) or their standout features (the proboscis monkey’s uniquely long nose!). The strain in the relationship is mirrored by the strain the world faces now, and the two characters are like two opposing sides – one worrying and committing her life to protecting biodiversity, the other trapped by the demands of his modern life and the idea that individual action is unlikely to bring any change.
This was a refreshing movie about wildlife, for a soul fatigued by the disasters of human folly. Within just 17 minutes it encompassed so many planes – from the personal to the planet, from threats to biodiversity to emotional challenges, and from distances to a leap of faith. Notwithstanding how relatable the movie was for me, the mix of a love story, biodiversity, and urgent personal and global issues made for fantastic storytelling that left me excited and aching… “Maybe we could find a beautiful old tree to nest in?”
Reviewed by Shatakshi Gawade
Daughter of the Sea
Directed by Nicole Gormley and Nancy Kwon | Korea | 0:17:56
A thin silver strand, taut and stretched to the limit, connects Jaeyoun Kim to the sea. Away from the endless body of water, she suffers, numbed by deep depression. But, as soon as she returns to the sea and to the profession of her ancestors, she finds her way back to herself, and to life.
‘Daughter of the Sea’, directed by Nicole Gormley and Nancy Kwon, is a beautiful, calm documentary that follows Jaeyoun as she returns from an urban life in Seoul to her island roots in Marado, South Korea as a haenyeo, the female free divers who make a living by harvesting seafood. The film underlines and amplifies the idea of biophilia, that each one of us is drawn to the natural world. Like the strenuous work and the depths of the ocean cure Jaeyoun, nature certainly holds the power to make our hearts pump to life.
Reviewed by Shatakshi Gawade
Keeper of the Last Herd
Nirmal Verma | India | 00:38:21
Roundglass Sustain’s conservation-focused documentary sounds an urgent alarm about a ticking time bomb we have yet to fully acknowledge – the growing threat that free-ranging feral dogs pose to native wildlife, particularly small mammals and deer. It also sheds light on the many challenges faced by the Open Natural Ecosystems of Rajasthan. Filmed in Rajasthan’s Dhawa Doli Oran – a mosaic of grassland and scrub forest protected by local communities, who regard it as sacred and have grazed their animals there for generations – the documentary follows Sharvan Patel, who grew up near such orans and has witnessed firsthand the rapid changes threatening these fragile ecosystems. He watches in dismay as packs of feral dogs hunt blackbucks and chinkaras almost daily, a stark reminder of the region’s accelerating biodiversity loss. Barbed wire fences, expanding boundaries, and thickets of the invasive Prosopis juliflora now slice through what were once vast, open stretches of habitat. The herbivores, hemmed in by these barriers, have nowhere left to run. Journey with Sharvan and the other guardians of the oran as they devote themselves to safeguarding the web of life that thrives within it.
Reviewed by Rithwik Sundar
Panha
Directed by Sakshi Mishra | India | 0:22:52
This one felt personal, not because it was in my native Marathi, but because it dealt with the persistent dichotomy – rage and the fire to do something about the impending loss of swathes of trees to ‘development’, and helplessness at the crushing power of big money and decisions taken in distant centres of power.
Every day, my phone buzzes with updates of old trees scheduled for sacrifice in my hometown Pune. When Vithu, a primary school child, starts digging a hole to make a tunnel as an alternative route for the destructive train project that is going to swallow his grandfather’s mango orchard, I strangely felt hope. Vithu and I may not be able to do anything immediately, but we can try to save one tree, one piece of land, or even the dream of rebuilding what may be lost. ‘Panha’, a short roller coaster of a film, provokes deep pangs of worry and joy, and leaves behind a lingering sweet and sour aftertaste like the delicious summer drink it is named after.
Reviewed by Shatakshi Gawade
Puffling
Directed by Jessica Bishopp | Iceland, UK | 00:20:22
Puffling is a documentary that draws the viewer in through its restraint – its power lies in what it chooses not to say in words. Instead of relying on narration, it lets the brief, hesitant exchanges between those onscreen, their fleeting thoughts, and the haunting beauty of the Icelandic landscape speak for themselves. Combined with its ominous soundtrack, these elements hold your attention from start to finish. Directed by Jessica Bishopp and set on a remote Icelandic island, the film follows two teenage girls, Birta and Selma, as they venture out at night around the small harbour town to rescue stranded pufflings, or juvenile puffins. Iceland is home to the world’s largest puffin population. Over half of the world’s puffin population breeds in Iceland, but their populations have plummeted dramatically.
In many ways, the pufflings and the young girls seem to be growing through life together, both on the edge of discovery and uncertainty. As the fledglings take their first flights, they find a world that no longer welcomes them easily. The glare of harbour lights bends their sense of direction, some pufflings lose their way, and some never make it back to the sea. As for the girls, to whom the puffins are dear, their worries stretch beyond the night rescues. They carry quiet anxieties about their futures, the fate of their island, and a world changing too quickly – from dwindling fish in the sea to puffins on the brink of extinction. The documentary never states these fears outright, yet in just 20 minutes, it captures them with striking clarity. The girls stand at the cliff’s edge, torn between leaving the island and staying to face a future that grows more uncertain with every tide. Puffling is a tender coming-of-age documentary not to be missed.
Reviewed by Rithwik Sundar
Stealing Giants
Directed by Laurin Merz and Karl Ammann | Switzerland, Kenya, Lao, Namibia, UAE, China | 1:30:00
For anyone who thinks international laws such as CITES are functioning without a kink, this movie is a slap in the face. Researched over more than 10 years and with footage shot with hidden cameras, ‘Stealing Giants’ meticulously exposes the shocking illegal elephant trade from Laos into China and the United Arab Emirates. Live elephants are smuggled across countries to fuel a ghastly, garish, multi-million dollar entertainment industry, the thirst for profits quashing the need to protect these endangered beings.
In an effort to illustrate the dubious activities and the terrible condition of these elephants Karl Ammann, an animal activist and wildlife photographer, follows the ‘supply chain’ of the pachyderms from dusty border towns into ghastly performance rings, where the elephants are forced into doing tricks with rings, balls and ropes, with footage showing gut-wrenching practices that break the giants to dance to the will of humans. These are not visuals for the faint of heart, but a must watch for anyone interested in wildlife, as they reaffirm the work needed to keep wild animals in the wild, by working on international and domestic laws, and awareness among lay people. The elephant must walk free and far.
Reviewed by Shatakshi Gawade
