The annual GFN Awards honor the most inspiring and impactful environmental films of the past year, exploring critical issues such as climate, food, energy, wildlife, and oceans. Films are nominated by 30 international film festivals that focus on environmental issues, and the winners are selected by an international jury. The awards ceremony is hosted at one of the GFN member festivals, rotating each year. In February 2014, the network presented the inaugural
Green Film Network Award as a new international award for best environmental documentary of the year. The first GFN Award was presented to filmmaker
Reuben Aaronson for the documentary
Amazon Gold during the opening ceremony of
Fife Île-de-France (International Environmental Film Festival) in
Paris on February 4. In 2018, an award for Best Green Short was introduced. The 2020 Awards included a special presentation ceremony on April 28, 2021, which took place online due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic. 43 films from 25 countries were nominated. A special one-time award was also presented for Best Film of the Decade 2010-2020.
Best Green Feature • 2024 -
Plastic Fantastic directed by Isa Willinger • 2022 -
Eating Our Way to Extinction directed by Ludo Brockway and Otto Brockway • 2021 - no award due to festivals being on hiatus during COVID-19 pandemic • 2020 -
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch directed by
Jennifer Baichwal,
Edward Burtynsky, and
Nicholas de Pencier • 2019 -
Ghost Fleet directed by
Shannon Service and
Jeffrey Waldron • 2018 -
Genesis 2.0 directed by
Christian Frei and
Maxim Arbugaev • 2017 -
24 Snow directed by
Mikhail Barynin (joint winner) • 2017 -
Plastic China directed by
Jiu-liang Wang (joint winner) • 2016 -
Landfill Harmonic directed by
Brad Allgood and
Graham Townsley • 2015 -
La Mujer y el Agua directed by
Nocem Collado • 2014 -
Amazon Gold directed by
Reuben Aaronson Best Green Short • 2022 -
Dans La Nature directed by Marcel Barelli • 2021 - no award due to festivals being on hiatus during COVID-19 pandemic • 2020 -
All Inclusive directed by
Corina Schwingruber Ilić (joint winner) • 2020 -
Kofi and Lartey directed by
Sasha Rainbow (joint winner) • 2019 -
Lost World directed by
Kalyanee Mam • 2018 -
Water Warriors directed by
Michael Premo Best Green Film of the Decade • 2020 -
Racing Extinction directed by
Louie Psihoyos GFN Award Host Festivals • 2023 - Cinema Planeta,
Cuernavaca,
Mexico • 2022 -
Innsbruck Nature Film Festival,
Innsbruck,
Austria • 2021 - no ceremony due to festivals being on hiatus during COVID-19 pandemic • 2020 - Online edition (due to COVID-19 pandemic) • 2019 - CineEco,
Seia,
Portugal • 2018 -
San Francisco Green Film Festival,
San Francisco,
USA • 2017 -
Planet in Focus,
Toronto,
Canada • 2016 - Dominican Republic Environmental Film Festival,
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic • 2015 - EcoZine Film Festival, Zaragoza,
Spain • 2014 - Festival International du Film d’Environnement, Paris, France ==References==