Cinema in Green reaches its third edition, confirming itself as one of the most significant cultural events on the Roman film scene. Scheduled from 18 to 21 September at the Botanical Garden of Rome, the Festival – free and open to all – of which we at Greenme are media partner, stands out for its ability to combine the beauty of author cinema with the urgency of contemporary environmental issues. Every year, the review selects works from all over the world that deal with topics related to sustainability, climate change and social justice through different and innovative cinematographic languages.
The location of the Botanical Garden is not accidental: immersed between secular plants and rare species, spectators live a cinematographic experience that amplifies the ecological message of the films. It is cinema that breathes, which dialogues with the surrounding environment, transforming each projection into a moment of collective reflection on the relationship between man and nature.
The films in competition for the 2025 edition
This year’s official selection brings six works to the screen that tell our time through the lenses of climate and social change. Not simple documentaries or reporting films, but complex narratives that intertwine the staff at the politician, the underwear to the collective.
Mariposas Negras by David Baute – projection 18 September at 8.15 pm
Mariposas Negras opens the range of proposals with a 2D animation of rare poetic intensity. The director follows three women forced to migrate to survive climate change, crossing Caribbean, Kenya and India. The black butterflies of the title become a metaphor for forced migration that knows no boundaries, restoring narrative dignity to those that international law still struggles to recognize as climatic refugees.
The World Upside Down by Nicolas Vanier – Projection 18 September at 10pm
Nicolas Vanier signs a comedy that becomes social parable imagining a France without water, electricity and digital connection. When the crisis overturns roles and hierarchies, the city elite confronts those who live on agriculture, and the clash between opposite worlds turns on the occasion of unexpected encounter and solidarity.
Transamazonia by Pia Marais – Projection 19 September at 8.15 pm
The Brazilian forest is the protagonist of this film where faith, colonialism and environmental devastation intertwine in the history of Rebecca, who survived an accident and become a healer. Together with his father he guides an evangelical mission between the indigenous communities, but the arrival of illegal deforesters forces her to choose between preaching and active resistance.
Through Rocks and Clouds by Franco Garcia Becerra – Projection 19 September at 10.30 pm
Franco Garcia Becerra chooses the innocent gaze of a Andean child to tell the resistance of an entire community threatened by a mining company. Feliciano Pascola Alpaca and dreams of the World Cup, but when his village risks losing the earth, childhood becomes a political act. The strength of the film lies in the delicacy with which it illuminates the collective dimension of the struggle through a deeply personal story.
The Beetle Project by Jin Kwang-Kyo-projection 20 September at 8.15 pm
Jin Kwang-Kyo adopts the mild tone of childhood adventure to talk about political divisions and environmental catastrophes. Two South Korean children find a scarabeo from the North and decide to return it to the owner. On their summer journey, the care of an insect turns into a powerful metaphor of solidarity that exceeds every border.
The Village Next to Paradise by Mo Harawe – Projection 20 September at 10.15 pm
The selection closes this portrait of daily life in a Somali village marked by wars, drones and illegal fishing. Mamargade, his sister Arawelo and his son Cigaal struggle to survive transforming precariousness into collective hope. Their resilience has nothing heroic in the traditional sense: it is deeply human, and it is precisely this humanity that makes it an engine of a possible future.
A cinema that questions the present
The selection of cinema in green 2025 does not seek simple answers to the complexities of our time. The six filled films force the viewer to watch the climatic crisis without consoling filters, reminding us that ecology is never only an environmental but always political, cultural and existential question. The official jury and the sprout jury are faced with works that share a common approach: to tell the change through stories that do not give up the complexity of reality.
In a cinematographic panorama often attempted by simplifications, this edition chooses the most difficult but also more necessary path: that of a cinema that knows how to be at the same time a mirror of the present and laboratory of future visions. The appointment at the Botanical Garden thus becomes much more than a film review: it is a moment of collective reflection on the great themes of our time, immersed in the beauty of Roman nature.
From 18 to 21 September 2025, we are waiting for you at the Botanical Garden of Rome to live this unique experience of cinema and nature together. See you there!
The event is organized by Musei Sapienza, Botanical Orto Museum of Rome and Silverback, with the patronage of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Safety, Lazio Region, Metropolitan City of Roma Capitale, Roma Capitale, Enea – National Agency, Legambiente, Marevivo Onlus and WWF Italia.
To find out more about the Festival click here.
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