The COP30 climate conference is currently taking place in Belém, Brazil, from November 10 to 21, 2025
As COP30 begins, the world’s attention turns once again to one of the most consequential annual gatherings on the planet. COP (Conference of the Parties) brings together nearly every nation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
For two weeks, heads of state, policy-makers, scientists, activists, and civil society negotiate the future of global climate action: emissions reductions, adaptation strategies, climate finance, and the accelerating impacts faced by vulnerable communities.
This year’s location carries symbolic weight. Belém sits at the gateway to the Amazon rainforest, one of Earth’s most vital carbon sinks, and a region under increasing pressure from deforestation, fires, and political uncertainty.
While the conference is grounded in policy, science, and diplomacy, cinema remains one of the most powerful ways to help the general public understand what is at stake. Films allow us to experience it not as abstract data, but as a lived reality.
This list brings together ten films from across the globe. Some address climate change directly, confronting environmental collapse and resilience head-on. Others speak through metaphor or cynicism to explore the uncertainty of our future.
Kadvi Hawa (India, 2017)
Dir. Nila Madhab Panda
Few films capture the psychological weight of climate change as sharply as Kadvi Hawa. Set in rural India, where drought and debt trap families in an unbreakable cycle, the film mirrors the reality faced by millions on the frontlines of environmental instability. It’s bleak, honest, and grounded in lived experience, a reminder that climate change is already rewriting the lives of people who contributed the least to it.
Plastic China (China, 2016)
Dir. Jiu-Liang Wang
Through the eyes of a young girl growing up in a plastic-recycling workshop, Plastic China exposes the human cost of the global waste industry. It is a raw portrayal of inequality: wealthy nations export their consumption, and vulnerable communities are left to absorb the pollution. The film confronts viewers with the environmental and emotional reality behind everyday plastic.
Tomorrow (Demain) (France, 2015)
Dir. Cyril Dion, Mélanie Laurent
Tomorrow shifts the climate conversation away from catastrophe and toward possibility. Instead of dwelling on destruction, the film travels across continents to highlight real, existing solutions, from community agriculture to renewable energy cooperatives. Its global optimism feels refreshing and reminds viewers that meaningful change is already happening, even if it goes unnoticed.
Don’t Look Up (USA, 2021)
Dir. Adam McKay
Although framed as a satire about an impending comet, Don’t Look Up has become one of the most recognisable allegories for climate denial. The film skewers media distraction, political paralysis, and the absurdity of a world that refuses to listen to scientific warning. Looking at Hollywood and its A-list cast, it’s clear the film wanted to drag climate denial straight into mainstream pop culture. Its humour may be exaggerated, but its critique feels uncomfortably close to reality.
Weathering With You (Japan, 2019)
Dir. Makoto Shinkai
Makoto Shinkai’s story of unending rainfall and climate imbalance blends fantasy with environmental anxiety. Against a backdrop of extreme weather, two teenagers navigate love, sacrifice, and an uncertain future. The film’s gorgeous animation softens, but never hides, its message: environmental change reshapes more than landscapes; but also the future optimism of the young.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Malawi/UK, 2019)
Dir. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Based on a true story, this film follows a young boy in Malawi who builds a wind turbine to save his drought-stricken village. It is a story of ingenuity and resilience, not saviourism. The film frames climate adaptation as a local, community-led effort, a perfect thematic match for COP30’s calls for equitable global action.
The Burning Season (Brazil, 2008)
Dir. Cathy Henkel
With COP30 taking place in Brazil, The Burning Season feels especially relevant. Documenting the destruction of the Amazon and the struggle to protect it, the film highlights the fragile balance between economic pressure and ecological survival. It is a reminder that what happens in the Amazon reverberates across the entire planet.
There Once Was an Island (Papua New Guinea / Tokelau, 2010)
Dir. Briar March
This documentary intimately chronicles the lives of the residents of the Carteret Islands, whose homes are vanishing beneath rising seas. Through personal stories of displacement, the film gives a human face to climate migration, showing how sea level rise isn’t just a statistic, it’s a cultural and emotional upheaval. The gentle, observational style allows viewers to feel the weight of loss while witnessing the resilience and determination of communities fighting to preserve their heritage.
Costa Brava, Lebanon (Middle East, 2021)
Dir. Mounia Akl
Set against the backdrop of Lebanon’s economic and political collapse, this documentary explores the intertwined crises of industrial pollution and failing infrastructure. Rivers and coastlines are choked with waste, and local residents navigate a daily struggle for survival. The film is a cautionary tale about the cascading effects of governance failures on both people and nature.
When Two Worlds Collide (Peru, 2016)
Dir. Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel
Following indigenous communities in the Amazon, this film depicts their fight against extractive industries threatening both land and culture. It captures the tension between economic development and ecological preservation, showing that environmental justice is inseparable from human rights. Vivid storytelling and landscapes bring urgency to the message: the Amazon’s fate is inseparable from the people who call it home.
Lastly, there is no Planet B
From the vanishing islands of Oceania in There Once Was an Island, to the rivers choked with waste in Costa Brava, Lebanon, and the Amazon under siege in When Two Worlds Collide, these films show the urgency of climate change action.
Yet, they also reveal resilience, creativity, and resistance. Communities adapt, innovate, and fight for their future, reminding us that environmental crises are inseparable from human rights and social justice. COP30 is a call to action, to transform awareness into policies and tangible solutions.
If these films teach us anything, it’s that cinema is a way to see what is at stake and to imagine the futures we still have the power to create.
Image credit: Lula Oficial (Flickr, CC BY-SA 4.0), USGS and Li-An Lim on Unsplash
