29th GPFF CORTONATURA COMPETITION
CONNEXIONS, UNIS PAR LA FAIM
DOMINIQUE MERTENS - BELGIUM | 2025 | 5’
In the woods, in the fields or underground, every living creature feeds in order to survive. From earthworms to roe deer, from foxes to robins, they are all part of the same mechanism: that of life. Through a series of poetic and evocative scenes, this film explores the diversity of feeding behaviours in nature, showing how every meal forms part of a vast chain of balances, where nothing is wasted and everything is interconnected.
FOR DEER LIFE
Yaz Ellis - Austria | 2025 | 16’
Beneath the beauty of spring, lies a brutal tragedy. In meadows, the mowing season coincides with the birth of roe deer fawns. Follow the dedicated and passionate volunteers, who use thermal drones to rescue the lives of as many fawns as possible.
像石頭一樣柔軟 - TANATANETEK
Raito Low - Taiwan | 2024 | 6’
Stones are existences full of possibilities in nature, from sand to mountains, flowing on the land and embracing everything in the world. Let us re-understand stones from another angle and re-understand the firm but soft hearts of the Amis.
ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Jura Bakx - Netherlands and South Africa | 2026 | 18’
Dana transforms her bedroom into an African savanna with her favourite stuffed elephant, Ellie. Ellie takes care of all the other animals in her Savanna. When Dana suddenly loses Ellie, both the real and the fictional ecosystem have to deal with the consequences. The cross-genre film highlights the importance of elephants through the eyes of a young girl who plays with her own stuffed elephant.
UNE CHOUETTE FAMILLE À NOUVEAU RÉUNIE
Geoffrey Quittelier - Belgium | 2025 | 5’
A young tawny owl is found on the ground and taken far away to a rehab centre in Brussels. In good health, it could be placed with another pair of tawny owls, but the director and his son decide to search for its real family. A stroke of luck brings them close to home and, after two evenings of searching, they hear the calls of the adults and a chick. Reunited with its family, they follow them for weeks, experiencing some ‘chouette’ moments, right up to the final feedings and the reunion with its twin.
REINDALEN
Morgan Heim - Norway | 2024 | 14’
The Svalbard reindeer live in a region that is warming faster than anywhere else in the world, where food grows in abundance. But is this really good news? In the tundra amongst the reindeer, Emma, Oline and Thando are gathering as much data as possible to understand what consequences the warming of the Arctic will have for an animal that has so far remained almost immune to human activity.
STONE BITER: SAVING THE ARCTIC SEA FORESTS
Ismaele Tortella - USA and Norway | 2025 | 20’
An Italian photographer travels to northern Norway with a dream: to explore the icy Arctic waters to film the wolffish amongst the forests of kelp. But beneath the surface, he discovers that the seabed is barren and the lush kelp forests have almost disappeared. The film tells the story of a loss, but also of the choice to take action. A call for awareness and hope: it is still possible to turn the tide.
THE URBAN COMEDY
Pietro Muzi Falconi - Italy | 2025 | 11’
A lyrical reinterpretation of the Divine Comedy, *The Urban Comedy* guides the viewer through three allegorical realms hidden within the fabric of the contemporary city — Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. From the depths of the sewers to the greyness of the squares and on to the harmony of the parks, the film gives a voice to the invisible creatures that share our space — rats, pigeons, kestrels and many others — inviting us to observe them, and our cities, from a new perspective.
LE BRUIT DE L’AUBÉPINE
Julien Deper - Belgium | 2025 | 5’
All living beings have the ability to radiate energy. That is why we must reach out to them. I have been taught to observe, to perceive. Through words and images, this work is an inner journey in harmony with the elements that surround us.
VINCENT
Noemi Pisano and Francesco Rey - Italy | 2023 | 14’
Vincent Quendoz is a young farmer from Valle d’Aosta who tells his story on social media. Caught between modernity and tradition, in a life he had not foreseen, he finds himself playing the role of someone else, taking charge of the family business. A journey filled with challenges, in which life and death are constantly intertwined. It is the story of broken dreams that give way to new opportunities, a man struggling to conquer his place in the world.
ROOTS WILL REMAIN
Garath Whyte - United Kingdom | 2022 | 2’
Inspired by the tragically ongoing events in Ukraine, this film tells the story of a stubborn sunflower on its journey towards the light. The film takes its cue from nature, which always finds a way to fight and survive. It fully captures the strength, determination and resilience of the Ukrainian people, whose national flower is the sunflower, which has become a symbol of the country’s resistance against invading Russian forces.
LAND TALK: ALPINE FRANCE
Laura Mahler - France | 2023 | 10'
Meet Danièle and her 91-year-old mother Juliette. Both born and raised in the small village of La Fornet, near France’s first protected area, the Vanoise National Park, today they are witnesses to the challenges the park faces beyond what borders can defend.
TAHLEQUAH THE WHALE: A DANCE OF GRIEF
Daniel Kreizberg - Lithuania and United States | 2023 | 15’
In the aftermath of the cub’s sudden death, Tahlequah, the mother killer whale, carries her daughter’s body across the Salish Sea: an incredible true story that has captivated the world.
THE DINGO FENCE
Kate Church - United Kingdom | 2024 | 17’
In the heart of Australia, the continent is bisected by the world’s longest fence, built to protect livestock from dingoes. For the past 150 years, this species has divided the nation. Now that new studies are emerging, is it time to change course?
AQUAVERSE
Justine Rauby - France | 2023 | 13’
The aesthetic value of the Mediterranean’s underwater landscapes is still unrecognised. This film, halfway between documentary and fiction, through the story of a ghost net abandoned at a depth of over 85 metres off the coast of La Ciotat, aims not only to show the inaccessible in order to stimulate the instinct to preserve it, but also to raise public awareness on the ravages of a real problem: pollution.
