29 Jun – 30 Jul 2025
 |
Daily Screenings |
| Free Admission Registration required for some films, see below |
This July, catch award-winning cinematic stories about the deep yet fragile connection between nature and humanity at ArtScience Museum.
Featuring films that are making its Asia, Southeast Asia and Singapore premiere, Sustainable Futures Film Festival looks at themes of ecological resilience and environmental empathy.
In Green City Life and Wasted, cities of tomorrow are imagined through everyday, sustainable habits, exploring innovative community-driven solutions with the aim to inspire action across business leaders and policymakers. As alternative futures are imagined, meditations on deep ecological wisdom and cultural continuity are explored in Once Upon a Time in a Forest, Time to Gather and Against the Tide, where ancestral knowledge and traditions form acts of resistance in a changing world. Acclaimed documentaries Every Little Thing, Playing with Sharks and Sanctuary delve into the lives of conservationists and activists devoted to caring for our vulnerable wildlife and creatures big, small, and misunderstood.
From tender portraits of environmental rehabilitation to sojourns into sublime landscapes, the films presented in Sustainable Futures Film Festival are both an ode and plea to protect our planet, offering possibilities of a more resilient, compassionate future.
Film line-up
Asia Premiere:
Southeast Asia Premiere:
Singapore Premiere:
Sustainable Futures Film Festival is part of a programming season at ArtScience Museum that explores sustainable collective futures. For more details, please visit here.
55min I PG I English
Free admission; no registration required. First-come-first-served basis.
Showtimes
Mon — Fri: 5pm
Sat (5 & 19 Jul): 5pm
Sun (6 & 20 Jul): 5pm
Wasted highlights the connections between waste and human health, and its intersection with the climate crisis. The film puts a spotlight on the unprecedented volume of trash in the era of the Anthropocene and asks: Why are we wasting opportunities to solve our waste issues, and what can be done to turn waste pollution into solutions?
Wasted inspires action across business, policy and individuals to clean up our communities, cities and natural habitats and create healthy, thriving economies.
85min I Rating TBA I French with English subtitles
Free admission; no registration required. First-come-first-served basis.
Showtimes
Mon - Thu: 3pm
Fri: 3pm & 7.15pm
Sat: 7.15pm
How do we build the city of tomorrow?
Manon and Frangois, two young city dwellers, traveled between Mexico, Europe, and the US in search of concrete and revolutionary initiatives at every scale that bring nature back to the heart of cities. Accompanied by associations, business leaders, and city experts, they provide inspiring ideas to propel cities into the 21st Century: from revegetation to urban farming and bio- waste recovery.
CPH:DOX 2023 | Official Selection
Newport Beach Film Festival 2023 | Audience Award for Best Environmental Feature
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 5 Jul & Sun 6 Jul: 2.30pm
Driven by her love for the forest, 22-year-old Ida becomes the leader of the new Forest Movement. Together with other young activists, they come face to face with forest industry giants and confront generational bias. Unfolding against the calm presence of ancient trees and crystalline lakes of the enchanting Finnish forest, the film is a hopeful ode to nature and its protectors.
Dokleipzig 2024 | Winner, Audience Award
CinemAmbiente 2024 | Winner, Special Mention Jury Prize, Casacomune Prize
CPH:DOX 2024, Visions du Réel 2024, IDFA 2024 | Official Selection
This special double feature and director focus on Australian filmmaker Sally Aitken delves into two films about the intrepid and compassionate lives of two women conservationists - 'Queen of the Ocean/Shark Lady' Valerie Taylor (Playing with Sharks) and hummingbird rehabilitator Terry Masear (Every Little Thing).
New Zealand born, Sally Aitken is a twice-Emmy® nominated director, writer and showrunner of multiple international series. Known for visually arresting work characterised by compassion and humour, she delights in unknown stories and the world's complexities. Sally's debut feature, A Cinematic Life appeared in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 where she was also nominated for the Camera d'Or.
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 12 Jul & Sun 13 Jul: 2.30pm
A true pioneer in both underwater filmmaking and shark research, Valerie Taylor is a living legend and icon in the underwater world whose life's work has become the basis for much of what we know about sharks today.
Through remarkable underwater archival footage, along with interviews with Valerie herself, Playing with Sharks follows this daring ocean explorer's trajectory from champion spearfisher to passionate shark protector. From the birth of cage diving to "Jaws" hysteria to the dawn of cageless shark diving, Valerie became a trailblazing advocate for the ocean's most maligned and misunderstood creatures.
Sundance 20211 Grand Jury Nominee
Provincetown International Fllm Festival 2021 | Winner, Audience Award
Critics' Choice Documentary Awards 2021 | Best Science/Nature Documentary Nominee
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 12 Jul & Sun 13 Jul: 4.30pm
A film of joy and wonder, Every Little Thing is a reminder that in the smallest of acts, and in the tiniest of creatures, we might find grace.
What does it mean to care for another, and what impact does this act have on us? In tending to these fragile yet resilient hummingbirds, Terry Masear finds a sense of healing from her own past. Her diminutive patients — brought into sharp focus through breathtaking, beautifully detailed photography — become memorable protagonists in their own right.
Sundance 2024 | Grand Jury Nominee
SXSW 2024 | Audience Award Nominee
Nantucket Film Festival 2024 | Winner, Arienne Shelley Excellence in Filmmaking Award
Sydney Film Festival 2024 | Documentary Australia Award Nominee
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 19 Jul & Sun 20 Jul: 2.30pm
Sanctuary is a poignant look into the ethical and emotional challenges faced by those committed to animal welfare in South Korea.
A dedicated veterinarian dreams of transforming Cheongju Zoo into the nation’s first true sanctuary. A passionate animal welfare activist works tirelessly to give farmed bears a second chance at life. But their journey is fraught with challenges.
Nearby, the employees of Chungnam Wildlife Rescue Center grapple with the difficult, heartbreaking decision to euthanise animals that cannot be released back into the wild, a painful reality that underscores the urgency of establishing sanctuaries like their peers envision.
Busan International Film Festival 2022 | Official Selection
Seoul Animal Film Festival 2022 | Official Selection
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 19 Jul: 11am
Narrated by Brendan Fraser, Disneynature’s “Sea Lions of the Galapagos” dives underwater with Leo, a handsome sea lion pup whose lifelong quest to find his place in the world is fraught with challenges and filled with new encounters with an array of creatures, from marine iguanas and racer snakes to yellow fin tuna and Galapagos sharks.
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 19 Jul: 1pm
Global challenges threaten the archipelago, including invasive species, pollution, illegal fishing and increasingly frequent El Niño events. The film spotlights the growing community of champions—the true Guardians of the Galapagos—who work to protect the islands, supporting environmental campaigns, cleaning beaches, restoring corals and helping local children experience this magical place.
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 26 Jul & Sun 27 Jul: 2.30pm
A critically acclaimed documentary by Sarvnik Kaur, executively produced by Mira Nair, Against the Tide documents two friends, both indigenous Koli fishermen in Bombay, driven to desperation by a dying sea.
Rakesh and Ganesh are inheritors of the great Koli knowledge system – a way to harvest the sea by following the moon and the tides. Rakesh has kept faith in the traditional fishing methods while Ganesh has strayed away from them, embracing technology. Against the Tide is a tale of friendship and rising resentment between the two men, as close as brothers, against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is increasingly turning hostile because of climate change.
Sundance 2023 | Winner, World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Vérité Filmmaking
Visions du Réel 2023 | Winner, UN Perception Change Award
Seattle IFF 2023 | Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Documentary
Sydney IFF 2023 | Winner, Sustainable Future Award
Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 | Winner, Golden Gateway Award
Free admission with registration
Showtimes
Sat 26 Jul & Sun 27 Jul: 4.30pm
Sofia Bairrão’s tender portrait of interconnection reflects on collective memory in a changing world.
Portugal is the world’s largest producer of cork and oak is considered the most valuable tree in its forest area. In a community in central Portugal, whose roots intertwine with those of the cork oak forest, we follow a cork extraction cycle.
Through the eyes of a daughter and a father, tensions and challenges in preserving this ancient craft are revealed in a time of knowledge crisis changing practices, and, above all, continuity.
CPH:DOX 2024 | Official Selection
Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2024 | Official Selection
Doclisboa International Film Festival 2023 | Official Selection
Reimagine what’s “real” in our new permanent gallery, filled with virtual experiences from the minds of artists, scientists and curators.
Fill your world with wonder in a purpose-built screening room dedicated to films that will inspire, challenge and transform.
Make the most out of your visit and immerse yourself in our range of on-site guided tours that take you on a fascinating exploration of the Museum’s exhibitions. Same-day exhibition tickets will be required for all exhibition tours.
