Special Topic 2025

We are more than proud to hereby announce our Special Topic of this year’s film festival:

Our world has long been characterised by the idea that prosperity for all can be achieved through limitless growth. Growth is inherently embedded into our most commonly used measurements of success and power. The hope that technological innovation and economic expansion will lead us to a prosperous future has, however, led to a linear economic system, often at the expense of our planet.

The Green Revolution for instance, with technology-driven agricultural transformation in the 1940s-60s greatly increased food production. Yet in doing so, sustainable farming practices have been ignored, placing severe pressure on our natural systems to sustain this growth. Likewise, due to increased production capabilities, many goods are now designed for single use or short lifespans before being disposed of – and with them the natural resources that were needed to make them. Additionally, the amount of single-use plastic in the oceans and landfills, which has a disastrous impact on human and environmental health, especially in the Global South, is growing by the day. The lifespan of products such as clothing is getting shorter and shorter, encouraging a throwaway culture. Even supposedly ecological products such as electric car batteries are contributing to the problem, as their production requires rare earths and materials which are recycled far too rarely after use.

However, this consumption has limits. With the concept of ‘Planetary Boundaries’, environmental scientists have identified nine critical limits that must not be exceeded if the Earth is to avoid rapid and catastrophic environmental change. Six of these boundaries – including biodiversity loss, land use change and climate change – have already been exceeded. Even more alarmingly, if our way of life continues unchecked, we will pass an identified ‘threshold of no-return’.The findings make it clear that the ecological balance on Earth has always depended on complex cycles that ensure that the available resources can serve again and again as the basis of life for all kinds of life forms. The linear lifestyle and economy of humans is breaking these cycles and jeopardising the planet’s age-old balance.

Still there is hope: the successful regeneration of the ozone layer shows that global action can be effective – with the “Stratospheric ozone depletion” being the one Planetary Boundary already in recovery. Change is necessary – and possible. Switching to a circular economy in which resources are used efficiently, recycled and integrated into natural systems offers a real alternative to a throwaway culture. However, this change requires not only individual action, but also structural changes. It requires a political framework, economic incentives and a social consensus.

At this year’s edition of the Greenmotions Film Festival, we want to tell stories that make this change tangible: Documentaries about innovative solutions and visionary projects that show that moving away from a linear to a circular way of living and consumption is possible. Films that inspire, challenge and motivate people to take action. Let’s work together to shape the future within the Planetary Boundaries – cyclical, regenerative and sustainable.