New Leaf Film Festival
New Leaf Film Festival took place in June 2025, a brand new, nationwide film festival looking at the climate emergency. Featuring the volunteer-led cinemas from Cinema For All’s Climate Action Cinema Collective screenings look place in Liverpool, Chorley, Seaford and Bodmin. 99p Film Club in Devon screened 5 short films exploring the vulnerability of England’s temperate rainforests due to climate change. Audiences were treated to an engaging post -film discussion and communal vegan feast.
- Little Green Cinema in Sussex, screened Rave on the Avon, a community-led activism film about protecting the UK’s waterways. The screened was followed up with a Q&A with the filmmaker and a booklet containing vital and shocking information on waterways pollution.
- Cinema Nation in Liverpool screened Feeding Liverpool, exploring ways to cut food miles and grow produce locally for and with your community. Audiences were treated to a trip to a community allotment, a workshop on community growing and delicious free meals made with locally grown produce.
- Chorley Empire Cinema screened Biocentrics, exploring indigenous approaches to nature conservation and ecological restoration. The screening led to partnerships with 4 other local environmental groups resulting in more screenings of climate action films in Chorley such as Ocean andWilding.
For this first year of the festival, Cinema For All provided a bursary of £250 per event and provided nationwide marketing and publicity materials.
All groups that took part in the festival said it allowed them to interact with new audiences, take a risk to show something challenging about the climate crisis and to screen rarely seen environmental films with surrounding discussions and or hold workshops.
‘Most importantly, the support enabled us to give our audience the chance to consider the state of our local river here and river pollution nationally. I think they were genuinely pretty shocked with our countries inadequate privatised water sewage systems. I’m hoping this film and event will spur on more frequent river testing locally and a greater will to fight for clean water nationally.’
Cinema For All is committed supporting our volunteer-led cinema network to deliver climate action. We believe that community cinema offers a way to enjoy film that lowers climate impact – our groups existing in local communities and screening in village halls, empty shops, libraries and other low-impact DIY spaces. Low travel emissions are ensured as most attendees walk; groups share screening equipment to avoid contributing to landfill. Groups put on extra events such as hosting seed libraries, putting on clothes swaps, and holding repairing workshops.
Learn more about the Climate Action Cinema Collective here.