Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival 2026 in Abu Dhabi

Fri, 9 Oct (FREE)
7 pm
Welcome and Opening Remarks - 20 min

Conservation Diaries Part 1and 2 - 20 min
A five-part documentary series produced by Connect with Nature, the youth environmental movement of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nature–WWF. Shot across the wadis, coastlines, mangrove forests and rural communities of the UAE, each episode follows scientists, volunteers and local custodians at work.

Ghost Elephants directed by Werner Herzog (USA)- 98 min

Werner Herzog follows conservation biologist Steve Boyes and a team of KhoiSan master trackers into the mist-covered highlands of Angola, in search of a herd of elephants long thought lost to decades of civil war. A National Geographic Documentary Films production that premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Sat, 10 Oct . - Mushrooms and Animation
Presentation and Family Event
+8 years old allowed. 

2 pm (8+ age)
Fungi: Web of Life directed by Gisela Kaufmann and Joseph Nizeti (Australia) - 45 min
Narrated by Björk and led by biologist Merlin Sheldrake, this giant-screen documentary travels into Tasmania's ancient Tarkine rainforest in search of a rare blue mushroom, and into the vast underground network that keeps the forest alive.

Award-winning animation shorts from France, Mauritius, and Belgium - 45 min

The Mole and the Bulldozer directed by Zdeněk Miler (Czechoslovakia) - 7 min
From Zdeněk Miler's much-loved Krtek series, this short animation is made for children and understood in any language. The Mole's meadow is torn open by construction machinery, and what follows is a small, funny, and quietly furious lesson in habitat loss.

5 pm - Mending Science with Love
Chuuraa directed by Evgenia Arbugaeva (United Kingdom) - 18 min
In the Siberian Arctic, indigenous Sakha palaeontologist Aisen Klimovskii descends into caves in the melting permafrost in search of an ancient creature. A world premiere at Berlinale Shorts 2026, from the director of the Oscar-nominated Haulout.

Conservation Diaries Part 3 and 4 - 15 min
A five-part documentary series produced by Connect with Nature, the youth environmental movement of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi and Emirates Nature–WWF. Shot across the wadis, coastlines, mangrove forests and rural communities of the UAE, each episode follows scientists, volunteers and local custodians at work.

Fire of Love directed by Sara Doa (USA & Canada) - 93 min
Katia and Maurice Krafft spent twenty years filming volcanoes from closer than anyone should, and died together at Mount Unzen in 1991. Sara Dosa assembles their story from the extraordinary 16mm archive they left behind. An Academy Award nominated film.

7:30 pm - Mending Food Systems in UAE and the World
Moderated conversation on food, land, and structural repair; speakers to be announced.

8 pm
Manthan directed by Shyam Benegal (India) - 134 min
A landmark of Indian parallel cinema, financed by 500,000 Gujarati dairy farmers contributing two rupees apiece. A veterinarian arrives in a village to organise a milk cooperative and collides with caste, money and entrenched power. Newly restored in 4K.

Sun, 11 Oct 
2 pm - Mending the Ecology in the UAE Panel: (FREE)
Emirates Nature–WWF, and Mender from EAD

5pm - From Water to Repair (PAID)
Rural Encounters on Environment and Film in Lebanon: Seeds of Dignity, directed by Ali Al Sheikh (Lebanon) - 30 min
A short documentary following Buzuruna Juzuruna, a collective of farmers and seed activists in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley who gather, multiply, and distribute heirloom seeds, reviving ancient wheat varieties and putting food back into the hands of small farmers.

Apple Cider Vinegar directed by Sofie Benoot (Belgium & Netherlands) - 80 min
What connects a kidney stone, a volcano in Cape Verde, and an English geologist? Sofie Benoot's playful essay film follows the question outward from a single stone into quarries, lava fields and laboratories, narrated by Siân Phillips. World premiere at Visions du Réel 2024.

7:30 pm - Talk: Water and the UAE: NYUAD Professor Ahmed al Maazmi (PAID)

8 pm - Mending with Water (PAID)
Ice Merchants directed by João Gonzalez (Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom)- 14 min
A father and son live in a house nailed to a vertical cliff. Each day they jump, parachuting down to the village below to sell the ice they froze overnight. Wordless, hand-drawn, and unforgettable. This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

Time and Water directed by Sara Dosa (Iceland & USA) - 93 min
Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason, asked to write the eulogy for the first glacier declared dead by climate change, turns his family archive into a time capsule. From Sara Dosa, director of Fire of Love. Premiered at Sundance 2026.

Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival
The Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival believes that the scope of environmental issues, such as climate change, can make the subjects distant, abstract, and disconnected from our present. Therefore, we believe it’s the role of artists and gifted communicators to help inspire and stimulate audiences to understand the threats to our planet.  We want to make them more visceral, textured, and intimate.

Each year, Al Sidr Environmental Festival not only focuses on a theme, but also seeks to curate both cinematic and artistic achievement at the highest levels. Our films provoke emotional experience and stimulate intellectual ideas. We search for films that represent environmental movements and science in both sophistication and elegant nuance. We differentiate ourselves from media and public relations videos, as the films should be created to open audiences to envision new perspectives on the environment and climate change. Finally, we strive to create safe and ethical ways for our city festivals to present themselves-ethical in terms of promoting sustainability.

Nezar Andary
Nezar Andary is a filmmaker, writer, and curator who builds the rooms where cinema, literature, and ecology become engaged conversations. His award-winning documentary Unlocking Doors of Cinema (2020) screened at more than twenty festivals, from Cairo International to San Francisco DocFest to Doc Lisboa. He is completing Just to Get Out There, a feature essay film that crosses the 214 islands of Abu Dhabi with the Odyssey and Hayy Ibn Yaqzan in hand. Educated at Columbia and UCLA, he teaches at the American University in Dubai and co-edits Palgrave Macmillan’s fifteen-volume series Focus on Arab Cinema. A former creative executive at Arab Film Studio, he has been Artistic Director of the Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival at NYU Abu Dhabi for five editions, curates the Khatar Sessions at Cinema Akil, and leads the Performing Books Series at Sharjah’s House of Wisdom. He has served on juries for film funds in Palestine, Qatar, and Jordan. His short story “Y’all Come Back Now” appeared in The Markaz Review.

• The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi is committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all patrons.
• Entry to the NYUAD Campus is through either the East or West Parking or the Welcome Center.
• Patrons will be required to present a valid ticket to an event at The Arts Center upon entry to the campus.
• As per current Department of Culture and Tourism guidelines a Green Al Hosn is NO LONGER needed to attend public events in Abu Dhabi.
• The wearing of face masks is NO LONGER required in most indoor public places, including campus buildings.
• For access and wheelchair bookings please email: nyuad.boxoffice@nyu.edu