Science Film Festival 2024
The Science Film Festival is a celebration of science communication in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. In cooperation with local partners, it promotes science literacy and facilitates awareness of contemporary scientific, technological and environmental issues through international films with accompanying educational activities.
2024: Net Zero and the Circular Economy
In 2024, the Science Film Festival endeavours to spotlight films from around the world highlighting the crucial role played by net zero concepts and the circular economy in combatting the challenges posed by the climate crises.
The Science Film Festival Family Day, held at the Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, welcomed over 180 attendees, including parents and children from diverse backgrounds. The event featured film screenings and interactive workshops led by small businesses contributing to the circular economy. Partnering with service providers, organizations and small businesses whose interests are in alignment with the festival's theme allowed activities ranging from urban food gardening with waste materials, upcycling workshops, and culinary sessions on sustainable food practices, to robotics demonstrations and Lego programming challenges. The day also included panel discussions in collaboration with the Sustainable Together Talk Series and the British Council, focusing on climate action for both adults and children.
Beyond Johannesburg, the Goethe-Institut partnered with two key organisations, Play Africa and the Centre for Creative Arts (University of Kwazulu Natal). Play Africa arranged film screenings and experiments at partner schools and community centres in different neighbourhoods around Johannesburg, reaching 603 students. The Centre for Creative Arts hosted 735 attendees across eight locations through film screenings and discussions at colleges and universities. The festival successfully spread its message of sustainability and environmental awareness across different regions.
The Science Film Festival is an outstanding festival which focus lies in linking science, film and educational approaches for all age groups. The turnout was phenomenal and engaging, with our partners facilitating workshop that captured the kids attention. The theme was allowed for meaningful conversations with our panel discussions that involved both adults and children.
Please have a look at our video that best captures a virtual tour of the days activities.
2023 - UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
In 2023, the Science Film Festival is official supporting partner of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The theme is a rallying call for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world. The UN Decade runs from 2021 through 2030, which is also the deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals and the timeline scientists have identified as the last chance to prevent catastrophic climate change. Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.
The Goethe-Institut South Africa in collaboration with Play Africa, the Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD) of the University of Johannesburg, Iziko National Museum of Natural Science in Cape Town and AFDA film school Johannesburg organized several events in different locations between October and December 2023.
Film Screenings, engaging discussions around science, hands-on-experiments for children and more.
