Darss Nature Film Festival

Nature Film in the National Park

Since its humble beginnings in 2005, the Darss Nature Film Festival has developed into one of Germany's most popular nature and environmental film festivals. The venue is the Baltic Sea peninsula of Fischland-Darss-Zingst in the Vorpommern-Rügen district of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – a region that is itself a natural star, with the Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft National Park and the autumnal crane migration. The festival is supported by the Deutsche NaturfilmStiftung gGmbH (German Nature Film Foundation) based in Wieck a.Darss.

The German Nature Film Award

The heart of the festival is the competition for the German Nature Film Award: Twelve nominated films compete against each other, with the jury and the audience jointly deciding on the winners. The festive award ceremony is the social highlight of the festival week.

Nine Program Sections

The program is divided into numerous sections that reflect the entire spectrum of nature filmmaking:

• Competition — the films nominated for the German Nature Film Award
• Tiefgang (Depth) — outstanding films on an annually changing thematic focus
• Leuchtfeuer (Beacon) — exceptional films on species conservation
• Ausguck (Lookout) — international film highlights
• Kakadu — nature cinema for families and children
• NatureShorts — short films by emerging talents and professionals
• 360° Cinema Boat — evening screenings on board a boat on the Bodden lagoon
• Nature in Focus — nature photography in dialogue with film
• Literature Meets Nature — readings combined with thematically appropriate films

Festival at Many Locations

The Nature Film Festival uses six venues: Wieck a.Darss, Prerow, Born, Zingst, and Ahrenshoop, as well as the Ozeaneum in Stralsund as an external location. This turns the entire peninsula into a festival stage – and allows the audience to combine cinema visits with walks through the landscape that the films portray.