The Future We Choose
Singapore’s largest nature film festival. The power to shape what comes next is already in our hands.
Don’t miss · Saturday 7 November
12.30pm · Panel · S$12
Farwiza Farhan, Rudi Putra and Panut Hadisiswoyo on the choices that will decide the Leuser Ecosystem’s future, with photojournalist Ulet Ifansasti, moderated by sustainability journalist Robin Hicks.
1.30pm · Two films + fishbowl discussion · S$12 · Few seats left
Rhinos in South Africa and glaciers in Canada, then cinematographer Ko Chuan Yang, orangutan conservationist Dr Ian Singleton and photojournalist Sophia Nasif on the moments that changed everything.
3pm · Two films + panel · S$12 · Few seats left
From South Africa’s coast to the Arctic sea forests, then the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, NTU, NParks and uHoo on how cities and ecosystems adapt, moderated by Eco-Business founder Jessica Cheam.
4.30pm · Awards Ceremony · S$25
The year’s photography and film winners revealed, with Guest of Honour Mr Melvyn Ong, emcee Kah Mun Chan, a performance by lewloh, and two finalist films on screen.
Festival sections
Sama · Opening night, Thu 5 Nov
Finalist and official selection films from around the world at Golden Village Cineleisure, 5 – 8 November, plus sixteen free outdoor screenings at Sentosa through the month.
The Last Place on Earth · Film & panel
Panels and a fishbowl discussion with the filmmakers, scientists and conservationists behind the films, including the activists of The Last Place on Earth on the choices that will shape the region’s future.
Hot Seat Photojournalism Masterclass · Fri 6 Nov
Learn from working image-makers: the Hot Seat photojournalism masterclass, a talk and workshop on the Malayan tiger, and the Media Lab showcase of four student-made shorts.
Earth In Focus Awards Ceremony · Sat 7 Nov, 4.30pm
The Earth In Focus Awards Ceremony for this year’s photography and film finalists, and the official opening of the nature photography exhibition at Sentosa.
This year’s theme · The Future We Choose
The films, conversations and photographs in this year’s programme share one idea: the power to shape what comes next is already in our hands. Each of us makes choices every day, as the leader of an organisation, as an employee, as a consumer and at home, and those choices, made now, will decide the future of the places and species on screen.
Earth In Focus 2026 is an invitation to see what is at stake, to meet the people who have already chosen to act, and to decide what we will choose ourselves. Press play for a one-minute first look.
Full programme
Every session, film and speaker, day by day: 1 to 8 November, then Sentosa to 29 November. Tap a day to jump to it.
Learn about threats to the Malayan tiger and conservation efforts for this critically endangered species, in a talk by writer and artist Melissa De Silva. The award-winning author of ‘Others’ is Not a Race, Melissa is currently enrolled in the Masters in Art & Ecology programme at LASALLE College of the Arts.
Participants will be invited to view her charcoal artwork of the tiger and other animals in the Malaysian forest ecosystem. The afternoon ends with each participant making a simple piece of charcoal art. No art-making experience is needed. Please note that this event is intended for an adult audience.
In the Malaysian rainforest, birds call, insects buzz and mammals move through the dense foliage, yet much of this drama goes unseen. Through the lens of remote cameras, The Tiger’s World reveals the secret lives of the animals that inhabit this ancient ecosystem, and brings us closer to the elusive Malayan tiger.
Each tiger’s unique stripes tell a story. Camera traps help conservationists identify individuals, understand their behaviour and follow their movements through the forest. But this world is increasingly under threat: poaching poses a serious danger to tigers and other wildlife, while human activity continues to put pressure on them and their forest home. Yet there is reason for hope.
The film follows the challenges these cats face and the people working to protect them, and makes the case that there is still hope for the Malayan tiger. It screens outdoors as a silent cinema: the audio plays through the free Cinewav app, so bring your phone and headphones.
In the Wakatobi Archipelago, the ocean shapes every part of Bajo life — resources, beliefs and ritual. Elders speak of a sea inhabited by spirits that must be respected. But younger generations are drifting from these practices, while economic pressure pushes some fishermen toward blast fishing, dangerous for people and devastating for the reef.
Through several testimonies, the film portrays a community in transition — its identity weakening, its resources declining — and the contradictions of a people trying to adapt to an environment in profound change.
After over four decades of community-led land restoration, Doi Tung is now one of Southeast Asia’s most compelling biodiversity recovery stories. This panel brings together the scientists behind the 2025 Singapore–Thailand BioBlitz and the Mae Fah Luang Foundation team to ask what Doi Tung reveals about the future of conservation: can livelihoods-first, community-governed land meet the world’s 30 by 30 target (protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030) as effectively as a national park?
A sustainability strategist with over 15 years’ experience, Thanit leads the Mae Fah Luang Foundation’s flagship work in community-led biodiversity conservation, carbon footprinting and circular-economy practice at Doi Tung.
Thanit Kongkaew is Director of Sustainability at the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage in Thailand, where his work aligns ESG objectives with business strategy and advances Net Zero 2050 and Nature Positive targets.
He spearheads the Foundation’s adoption of the Nature Framework and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), and manages national conservation models supported by the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) for Nature and People’s Rapid Deployment Mechanism grant.
A certified GHG consultant and verifier with the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organisation, he turns Nature Positive ambitions into field-level action, from BioBlitz ecological surveys at Doi Tung with the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions to cross-sector collaborations that embed natural capital into business strategy.
A forest ecologist with a background in entomology, Sean applies conservation technologies to measuring and monitoring biodiversity, and guided the CNCS research team during the Doi Tung BioBlitz 2025.
Dr Sean Yap is a research fellow at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions (CNCS). His earlier research studied the ecology and evolution of dung beetles, and saproxylic arthropod diversity and its impact on wood decomposition and carbon cycling in peat swamp forests.
Through CNCS he works with the Mae Fah Luang Foundation on the Doi Tung Development Project, and teaches a master’s field course in Doi Tung on sustainable development and ecological field techniques.
An ornithologist trained in evolutionary genomics, Yen Yi bridges genomic sequencing with field ecology to understand and protect the region’s birds, and led the LKCNHM team on the Doi Tung expedition in October 2025.
Dr Tan Yen Yi is a Museum Officer and the Curator of Birds at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), National University of Singapore. Her research uses population genetics and phylogenomics to address biodiversity conservation challenges, with a particular focus on natural history documentation, avian urban ecology and mortality.
In Doi Tung, the LKCNHM team worked alongside colleagues from the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions (CNCS) on a BioBlitz of the landscape, combining traditional field surveys with conservation technologies.
A conservation biologist who spent years at the National Parks Board tackling human–wildlife conflict and the illegal wildlife trade, Adrian now leads the LAPIS Lab at NUS, using bioacoustics, eDNA, AI and LiDAR to sense the life of forest fragments.
Associate Professor Adrian Loo is Deputy Director of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions. At the National Parks Board, Singapore, he served as Group Director for Wildlife Management, Senior Director for Community Projects, Group Director for Conservation, and Director (Terrestrial) at the National Biodiversity Centre, leading work on science-based management, community stewardship, wildlife forensics, species recovery and habitat enhancement.
He also mentors the CITES Global Youth Network, which engages young people in protecting endangered species from unsustainable and illegal trade.
An afternoon with four working image-makers across photography, photojournalism and film: documentary filmmaker and nature journalist Fraser Morton, photojournalists Ulet Ifansasti and Sophia Nasif, and cinematographer Ko Chuan Yang. Each takes the hot seat in turn, talking through how they work and taking questions from the room.
An award-winning nature journalist, filmmaker and photographer, Fraser founded Far Features and Far Universal, the production companies behind more than 200 factual films about human stories that inspire environmental and social change.
He is Executive Producer at Eco-Business, Asia’s leading sustainability media platform, and sits on the advisory board of EB Impact’s Sustainability Media Academy, where he teaches environmental storytelling, journalism and AI.
A former producer for Fox International Channels and ESPN, Fraser has worked in more than 80 countries, from Antarctica to the Arctic and from the Amazon to Mount Everest, covering human health, conservation, climate change and underserved communities. His films and photographs have appeared on BBC Earth, CNN, National Geographic, Vice News and WaterBear Network, and he has partnered with Canon, Sony and RED Cinema on environmental storytelling campaigns.
He speaks widely on creativity, nature, AI and epilepsy, and his work explores the inner and outer landscapes of human experience.
A freelance photojournalist based in Yogyakarta, Ulet has made Indonesia’s environment his primary subject; his work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian and National Geographic Traveler.
Born in Papua, Ulet works as a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer for editorial and commercial clients, while pursuing his own long-term projects.
Assignments for news media and NGOs have let him witness environmental damage and its impact first-hand, which is how the environment became the main focus of his work.
His photographs have also been used by Greenpeace, UNICEF, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Save the Children, and published in The International Herald Tribune, STERN, USA Today and LIFE.
A Singaporean natural-history cinematographer who has shot for National Geographic, the BBC, Netflix and Disney — from ants to whales, all over the world — Chuan Yang specialises in long-lens and underwater work.
His work has also taken him to Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery, and he is as much at home with gimbals, drones and gyro-stabilised systems as with a long lens. Chuan Yang hopes to bring extraordinary scenes from nature into people’s homes, and to help build a community of natural-history filmmakers in Singapore by sharing what he has learnt with aspiring filmmakers and naturalists.
Writer of the Atoll Dispatch column for Maldives Independent and a Revolutionary Storyteller with Photographers Without Borders, Sophia documents culture and environment across the Maldives.
A British-Maldivian photojournalist based in Malé, Sophia also works in visual anthropology and represents the Maldives for South Asian Heritage UK and Ocean Culture Life. She holds an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the University of the Arts London, is working towards her PhD, and is a member of PhotoAsia’s Decoding the Anthropocene cohort, focused on the climate crisis.
Sold out? We are screening both films again on Wednesday 18 November, 7pm, at Filmhouse. Details and tickets
Combining puppetry with documentary storytelling, this short film follows NoNose, a critically endangered Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, on his first journey beyond the forest. What begins as a search for answers becomes a window into the disappearance of his species.
A collaboration between Malaysian and Vietnamese creatives, developed with conservation partners and community outreach programmes in Vietnam. The puppet itself is designed to travel beyond the screen into schools and villages near where the species still survives.
Five fearless activists, eight years, one ecosystem. The Last Place on Earth follows the battle to protect Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem — the last place on Earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans coexist in the wild. Shot by a largely indigenous crew, this investigative documentary exposes the devastating impact of the US$70 billion illegal palm oil industry, whose product is found in over half of the world’s packaged goods.
At the heart of the story are Farwiza, who reveals the spiritual majesty of this 2.6-million-hectare rainforest; Ulet, an international photojournalist tracking the palm oil supply chain; Rudi, commander of 400 forest rangers; Dr Ian Singleton, who rehabilitates orangutans orphaned by human encroachment; and Panut, leader of an undercover team investigating the US$20 billion illegal wildlife trade.
As they secure legal victories against criminal plantation owners, arrest poachers, release rehabilitated animals and restore thousands of hectares of forest, their success in Leuser becomes a beacon of hope for conservation movements worldwide.
The Earth In Focus Media Lab is a five-month, ten-session programme for emerging filmmakers and content creators in Singapore, combining masterclasses, hands-on production, fieldwork and mentorship. The four short films made on this year’s programme premiere here, and the teams stay on afterwards to talk about their ideas and process.
At the heart of a bustling school campus, a hidden wilderness is taking root and quietly thriving. Through years of thoughtful planting and habitat restoration, Commonwealth Secondary School has become home to insects, birds and other wildlife, forming a thriving ecosystem within the urban city.
The Garden Between Us reveals the intricate relationships that connect plants, animals and people, revealing how plants provide food, shelter and conditions that allow wildlife to return. Through intimate observations with the help of technology, the film uncovers a side of the school rarely seen - or heard.
Against the backdrop of Singapore’s vision of a “City in Nature,” the film shows how careful planting can turn even the most ordinary urban spaces into habitats for coexistence, resilience, and renewal.
A member of his school’s Media Club with a passion for event videography, Bharath enjoys capturing special moments and expressing creativity through video, and loves filming nature, where he finds beauty and inspiration in the environment around him.
Passionate about video production and storytelling, Ying Xi enjoys exploring filming techniques, shot composition and creative approaches to produce meaningful, engaging content, and hopes to capture perspectives that inspire others.
Yeo Ling loves creating meaningful visuals that tell engaging stories, experimenting with editing styles, pacing and transitions, and adding basic VFX to make videos more impactful and memorable.
With a passion for media, art and nature, Adelle takes delight in developing ideas, planning visuals and bringing stories to life, hoping to create content that inspires a greater appreciation for the natural world and how we relate to it.
Linus uses photography and cinematography, imagination and non-conventional techniques to craft visual narratives that turn ordinary moments into something unique, interpreting reality rather than just recording it.
The internet phrase “touch grass” is often used to encourage people to step away from their screens and reconnect with the world around them in an age of digital dependence. In this participatory documentary, three filmmakers set out to discover what touching grass might look like in everyday life through conversations with an artist, a nature-based community and a nature guide.
Through photography, the artist explores the balance between the development needs of a city and nature conservation. The community brings people together by organising workshops, and the nature guide educates people on biodiversity through a card game. Everyone pays attention to our surroundings in different ways, and encounters with wildlife found in Singapore’s everyday spaces reveal a surprising richness of life existing close to home. The film is a gentle reflection on the possibility of reconnecting with nature, not by travelling far, but simply by noticing what is already there.
A Singaporean artist and First Class Honours Fine Art graduate of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Divya is fascinated by flesh, flora and fauna; her hybrid creatures, drawn from folklore, film and literature and expressed through sculpture, sound art and photography, ask what it means to co-exist with our natural environment.
A Singapore-based visual art practitioner whose lens-based work explores space, presence and perception, Lydia transforms fleeting moments into portals of memory and emotion; a deep connection with nature leads her to explore the relationship between the natural world and modern life through quiet observation and immersive encounters.
For Sera, some moments feel like magic, and they usually happen in nature, whether through her binoculars in Singapore or underwater on the reefs of Southeast Asia. Through photography and film she hopes to share with her city pals just how beautiful the earth is, and inspire people to get up and explore.
In the city concrete and canopy negotiate the same square metre. A bird observes its cold reflection. An absent narrator surveils banal densities, as they mutate from the familiar to the preternatural.
Half-documentary, half-poem, Vapour City meditates on spatial struggles and collective survival in urban Singapore. The City paints ghosts, erects legends; flitting itself between construction and deconstruction. Its levelled lines grow tilted. The dust-ridden bones of giants seem to rise.
Hold on to your slivers of sky. Inhale the vapour.
A Singaporean media artist, Kevia explores social issues and the tensions of city life through photography and film, aiming to tell stories that connect us through our common humanity.
Suah is interested in the consumption of natural images in contemporary urban life, where access to earthly beauty has become a matter of scarcity or spectacle. As part of the research collective current construct, she explores societal fissures and suppressed anxieties, private or institutional, through film and art history.
One half of the artistic-research collective current construct, Rhea experiments with the textual and the visual to articulate the personal and the communal. Drawn to the intersections of time, urban space, the decaying digital and the spiritual subconscious, she believes the ecological and natural lie at the root of it all.
Across the Johor Strait from Singapore, in the stilt village of Kampung Sungai Temon, the Orang Seletar have lived with the sea for generations. Jefree Salim, known as Jeff, a fisherman, self-taught photographer and son of the village headman, reads the water the way his elders taught him: by its colour, its mussels and its mangroves.
Told in his own words, in Malay, STILL HERE moves through everyday life in the village, the mussel ropes that once came up heavy, and the mangroves his community calls its supermarket. As the shoreline around them is filled in and the water changes, Jeff does not argue against development. He asks the city across the water to see his people, and to ask them first. As the water around the village is now being tested to find out exactly what is in it, the film makes a quiet statement: the Orang Seletar are still here.
A filmmaker and entrepreneur based in Singapore, Aaryan is CMO at ASN Technologies and runs the creative studio JACS. An incoming film student at LASALLE, he splits his time between directing documentaries and building practical AI tools, focused on telling good stories and finding where media and tech overlap.
A cinematographer and entrepreneur based in Singapore, Alex co-runs the creative studio JACS and works across photography, cinematography, editing, colour grading and commercial asset delivery. He has worked with cameras for seven years, four of them professionally in commercial production, and is currently on a gap year volunteering with SeaKeepers Asia.
The activists of The Last Place on Earth, together on one stage. For eight years, cameras followed the people fighting for Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, the only place left where tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans still share a forest. The film screens on Friday evening; on Saturday, four of the people in it sit down to talk about what that fight has cost, what it has won, and the choices Southeast Asia now faces between growth and the protection of nature.
Farwiza Farhan, founder and chairperson of HAkA, received the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award and was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2022 for her work defending Leuser in the courts and in policy. Rudi Putra, Goldman Environmental Prize winner and National Geographic fellow, has spent 26 years restoring forest and dismantling illegal palm oil plantations. Panut Hadisiswoyo, Ashoka Fellow, Whitley Award winner and National Geographic Emerging Explorer, founded the Orangutan Information Centre and now leads the legal case for the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. Ulet Ifansasti, whose photographs of Indonesia’s environment have appeared in The New York Times, TIME and The Guardian, has documented their work from the ground. Sustainability journalist Robin Hicks moderates.
Farwiza received the 2024 Ramon Magsaysay Award and was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2022.
Farwiza Farhan is a forest conservationist working to protect, conserve and restore the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, Indonesia — the last place on Earth where rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans still roam together in the wild. Farwiza firmly believes that conservation should not be an exclusive club, but rather a network of stakeholders — from Indigenous communities to ecologists, lawyers and policymakers, international nonprofits and the private sector — sharing this planet together.
Farwiza is the chairperson of the Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh Foundation (Yayasan HAkA), a grassroots organisation based in Aceh, Sumatra. She focuses primarily on policy and advocacy, working to increase meaningful access and deepen the involvement of women and local communities in policy matters pertaining to their environment and livelihood.
A freelance photojournalist based in Yogyakarta whose work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian and National Geographic Traveler, Ulet speaks to why Indonesia’s interconnected environmental and social issues have shaped his work, and how storytelling can bring global attention, influence policy and foster awareness.
Born in Papua, Ulet works as a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer for editorial and commercial clients, while pursuing his own long-term projects.
Assignments for news media and NGOs have let him witness environmental damage and its impact first-hand, which is how the environment became the main focus of his work.
His photographs have also been used by Greenpeace, UNICEF, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Save the Children, and published in The International Herald Tribune, STERN, USA Today and LIFE.
Strategic advisor to the Leuser Conservation Forum, Rudi speaks to the realities of conservation on the ground, from restoring forests and dismantling illegal palm oil plantations to working alongside local communities.
FKL is a local NGO with more than 450 staff protecting and restoring the Leuser Ecosystem, 2.6 million hectares of remaining forest in Aceh, Northern Sumatra.
Rudi received the Future For Nature Award in 2013 for his efforts to protect the Sumatran rhino, and the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2014 for his efforts to combat illegal logging, forest encroachment for palm oil production, and policies that open endangered ecosystems to mining and plantation industries. In 2019 he was selected as a National Geographic fellow.
Panut Hadisiswoyo is the founder of the Orangutan Information Centre (OIC), which he established in 2001 to protect Sumatran orangutans and the Leuser Ecosystem in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Over more than two decades, he has built OIC into one of the region’s leading community-based conservation organisations, pioneering forest restoration inside Gunung Leuser National Park, a dedicated Human–Orangutan Conflict Response Unit, and a network of “conservation villages” that give local communities an economic stake in protecting standing forest.
In 2021, he also founded Green Justice Indonesia, where he now serves as Founder and Executive Director, leading advocacy to secure stronger legal protection for the Batang Toru Ecosystem, home to the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan. His work has been recognised internationally, including an Ashoka Fellowship, a Whitley Award, and recognition as a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. Panut has spent his career at the frontline of the tension between development and conservation in Sumatra.
A sustainability journalist with 20 years’ experience across Asia Pacific, Robin was associate editor of Eco-Business and now writes for Mongabay, Reuters and others, with a particular interest in biodiversity, plastic pollution and the palm oil trade.
Robin Hicks has lived and worked in Asia Pacific since 2006, in Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore. He has 20 years’ experience in journalism, writing about media, government, technology and sustainability.
At Eco-Business he reported on sustainability trends across Asia Pacific; as a freelancer he also covers Southeast Asia’s energy transition.
Robin has a degree in zoology from the University of Bristol, and spends his weekends rescuing snakes, birds, monkeys and lizards as a volunteer for Singapore animal welfare charity ACRES.
The fight to protect rhinos at South Africa’s Selati Game Reserve, where dehorning and groundbreaking AI technology are used against the ongoing threat of poaching. An intimate look at both the challenges and the hope behind safeguarding one of the world’s most endangered species.
She Measures the Earth follows four women scientists in Canada — Alison Criscitiello, Jocelyn Hirose, Isobel Phoebus and Chimira Andres — as they reshape who belongs to science.
What inspires someone to dedicate their life to protecting nature, telling untold stories or documenting the world around them? Was it a single encounter, a powerful experience or a moment of realisation that changed everything?
Bringing together filmmakers, conservationists, photographers and storytellers, this interactive conversation explores the pivotal experiences that shaped their work. One seat on the panel stays empty — for a member of the audience to step in and join the discussion.
A Singaporean natural-history cinematographer who has shot for National Geographic, the BBC, Netflix and Disney — from ants to whales, all over the world — Chuan Yang specialises in long-lens and underwater work.
His work has also taken him to Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery, and he is as much at home with gimbals, drones and gyro-stabilised systems as with a long lens. Chuan Yang hopes to bring extraordinary scenes from nature into people’s homes, and to help build a community of natural-history filmmakers in Singapore by sharing what he has learnt with aspiring filmmakers and naturalists.
Dr Ian Singleton, OBE, is a British conservation scientist who has dedicated over three decades to protecting orangutans and their habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia. A former zookeeper at Whipsnade, Edinburgh Zoo and Jersey Zoo, he left the zoo world in the mid-1990s to study wild orangutans in the swamp forests of Aceh, earning his PhD at the University of Kent while conducting fieldwork at the Suaq Balimbing Research Station deep within the Leuser Ecosystem.
In 2001 he co-founded the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), which has since rescued and cared for over 460 orangutans and reintroduced more than 350 into new, self-sustaining wild populations. He was a co-author of the 2017 paper describing the Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s most endangered great ape. In 2020, Ian was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the environment and conservation. He now serves as Conservation Director of Orangutan Haven.
Executive director of the Jane Goodall Institute (Singapore) and co-founder of the Singapore Wildcat Action Group, Carmen came to wildlife conservation after a long career as a journalist, editor and writer.
Following her love for all things wild, she immersed herself in conservation in both her professional and personal life. She lives in Singapore with her husband (and safari and diving buddy) Tim and their adopted Singapore Special, Maggie.
Writer of the Atoll Dispatch column for Maldives Independent and a Revolutionary Storyteller with Photographers Without Borders, Sophia documents culture and environment across the Maldives.
A British-Maldivian photojournalist based in Malé, Sophia also works in visual anthropology and represents the Maldives for South Asian Heritage UK and Ocean Culture Life. She holds an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from the University of the Arts London, is working towards her PhD, and is a member of PhotoAsia’s Decoding the Anthropocene cohort, focused on the climate crisis.
Around 90% of South Africa’s ocean territory is leased for oil and gas exploration, extraction or production. Multinational giants continue to apply for rights to explore and drill, even as local communities, fishers and environmental groups fight back.
SPOILED profiles the everyday heroes protecting South Africa’s oceans — from the windswept shores of the Northern Cape to the coastal communities of the Eastern Cape. Not just a story of warning, but a call to action: a story of resilience and hope.
When Italian photographer Ismaele moves to Northern Norway, he carries a dream: to film the iconic wolffish amongst lush kelp forests. Beneath the surface he finds a stark reality — an ocean floor stripped bare, where the once-thriving sea forests have nearly vanished.
As Ismaele learns to navigate the cold, unfamiliar sea, he unravels the mystery of the missing kelp, meeting scientists, volunteers and local experts who refuse to give up on the ocean they love. A story about witnessing loss and choosing to act anyway.
Climate change is no longer a distant possibility — its impacts are already being felt. As temperatures rise and weather patterns grow unpredictable, the conversation is shifting from mitigation alone to adaptation: how we redesign our cities, protect biodiversity and build communities that can thrive in a changing climate.
Bringing together experts from science, technology and urban nature, this panel explores what adaptation looks like in practice, the innovations shaping more resilient futures, and why adapting to change is becoming one of the defining challenges of our time.
Raymond brings a wealth of experience spanning the real estate and sustainability sectors, with a proven track record of helping organisations achieve their environmental and social goals. He has worked with leading corporations and institutions to implement sustainability certifications such as Green Mark and the WELL Building Standard, not only advancing their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance but also enhancing asset value and long-term business resilience.
Supatchaya Techachoochert (Ann) is a Nature-based Solutions Expert at the Mae Fah Luang Foundation under Royal Patronage in Thailand. She works at the intersection of science, policy and community-led action, developing approaches that connect climate resilience, biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Her work includes community forest carbon initiatives, biodiversity assessment and nature-based solutions for water security in the Doi Tung landscape.
She holds a PhD in Biology and contributes to national and international efforts on climate and nature policy. Supatchaya was a 2025 Rockefeller Big Bets Fellow and currently serves as a member of the IUCN Climate Crisis Commission in Thailand.
Perrine is an Associate Professor at the Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Principal Investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore. Her research group examines how nature can help us become more resilient and address major climate challenges, especially in urban environments.
In 2020, Perrine received the Singapore National Research Foundation Fellowship to support her action-oriented research programme in Southeast Asia. She has extensive experience working with local governments, environmental NGOs, multilateral banks and the private sector, and in facilitating capacity-strengthening workshops. She holds a PhD from Monash University, Australia, and a Master’s from École Centrale Nantes, France.
Kwek Yan is an ecologist with the Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board. He is also an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, and a research affiliate of the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions as well as the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.
His doctoral research examined the effects of urban greenery on biodiversity. He has also published on the regeneration of tropical forests after disturbances, tropical freshwater swamp forests, the naturalisation and spread of introduced plants, ‘novel’ forest ecosystems, rediscoveries of plant species thought to be locally extinct, and field guides to families of tree species in Singapore’s forests.
Founder and CEO of Eco-Business, Asia Pacific’s leading business intelligence and advisory organisation dedicated to sustainable development, with more than two decades of experience in media, sustainable development and sustainable finance.
Jessica is an independent non-executive director of Wilmar International and ComfortDelGro, chairing the Board Sustainability Committee of both, and serves on the governing boards of Temasek Polytechnic, the Singapore International Foundation and the National University of Singapore’s Energy Studies Institute. She is also Chairperson of EB Impact, a Singapore-registered charity focused on youth and education programmes.
Meet twelve conservation groups, schools and nature organisations at their booths on Level 5 of Golden Village Cineleisure, from 12pm to 5.30pm on Saturday 7 November. The booths are free and open to everyone; no ticket is needed.
Sailor Sweeps is a youth-led ground-up initiative dedicated to maintaining marine cleanliness and protecting marine ecosystems. In addition to monthly coastal cleanups, they organise special events such as ‘Kayak N Klean’, where participants kayak around locations like Jurong Lake Gardens or Marina Bay to clean up the water and its surrounding banks, as well as educational visits to plastic recycling facilities. Their mission is to raise awareness about proper waste disposal and the detrimental effects of human pollution on marine life.
Student ambassadors from the Eco Club share how their “School in Nature” brings national goals such as the City in Nature vision and the OneMillionTrees movement to life on campus.
Students share their advocacy for the critically endangered Raffles’ banded langur, part of the Mandai Action for Wildlife Programme 2026, with a “Spot the Langurs” picture activity for younger visitors, a matching game, and a “Leaf a Pledge” wall for nature.
The Tropical Restoration Ecology (TRE) Lab at NUS Geography Department combines immersive 360° filmmaking and 3D drone mapping to inspire conservation, with hands-on, community-based restoration of coral reefs, seagrass meadows, mangroves, and rivers across Southeast Asia. Working alongside local communities, our team connects people with nature and empowers ecosystem restoration across the Wallace Line and beyond — from roots to reefs.
Located at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore Oceanarium is an ocean institute that inspires knowledge, love and action for the ocean and aquatic life. Through live habitats, digital and interactive experiences, and its solar-powered Research and Learning Centre, it advances marine education, research and the conservation of threatened species. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA).
The International SeaKeepers Society is a nonprofit protecting the health of the world’s oceans and climate, working with the boating and yachting community to advance marine research, education and conservation through its DISCOVERY Yacht Program.
Project Avigate is a student-led initiative monitoring and reducing bird-building collisions at NTU. See mounted bird specimens and skulls, photographs of affected birds and a sample of collision-preventing decals, and learn what to do if you find a bird injured in a collision.
PlasticTinkers is a social enterprise turning discarded plastics into 3D-printing resources. See their plastic recycling and 3D-printing process, and recycled 3D-printed products such as keychains.
WWF-Singapore is one of WWF’s international hubs, working with partners on deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, ocean health, food systems and finance for climate and nature solutions. 2026 marks WWF-Singapore’s 20th anniversary.
SWAG, a volunteer-run group, promotes wildcats such as leopard cats and tigers and takes action to conserve them. Visitors can learn about wildcats and what they can do to help, and buy children’s books on wildcats, bandanas and tiger plushies, with proceeds going to wildcat conservation.
Ethos Books, an independent Singapore publisher of literary fiction, non-fiction and poetry since 1997, shares a booth with SG Climate Rally, the youth-led climate justice collective behind Singapore’s first physical climate rally in 2019.
NUS College, Singapore’s first Honours College, showcases student projects from its Impact Experience programme that explore partnerships with nature and communities.
Mr Melvyn Ong is the Permanent Secretary for Sustainability and the Environment at Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment.
Before assuming this role, Mr Ong served as Permanent Secretary for Defence Development, overseeing the Ministry of Defence’s administrative, technological and corporate functions. He also concurrently served as Permanent Secretary for Development at the Ministry of National Development, with responsibility for key national development, infrastructure and municipal portfolios.
Mr Ong previously spent 29 years in the Singapore Armed Forces, culminating in his appointments as Chief of Army and Chief of Defence Force. He led the SAF’s support for major security operations and Singapore’s whole-of-government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while advancing its next-generation transformation, including the establishment of the Digital and Intelligence Service.
Mr Ong has received several national and international honours for his service. An SAF Overseas Scholar, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
A Senior Consultant in Schneider Electric’s Sustainability Advisory team by day, Kah Mun is also a photographer, video storyteller and sound healer.
Her career spans private and public organisations tackling sustainability across supply chains, capacity building, nature-based programmes, philanthropy and social impact. At Schneider Electric she helps companies decarbonise, with a focus on climate risk and carbon markets.
She also hosts programmes for nature-aligned partners such as WWF, Conservation International and Wild Space. Above all, she cares about inviting people to become more empathetic and expressive with themselves, each other and our shared planet.
Mellow at times but always hopeful, lewloh’s refreshing take on the folk singer-songwriter genre puts him at the forefront of emerging artists from Singapore and Southeast Asia — honest, warm and introspective writing on love and relationships.
Photo: Joel Chua (@toot_a_loot)A pair of sisters goes on a birding trip, where they slowly discover how their actions impact the natural environment and its creatures — a journey of gentle understanding and rediscovering the simple joys of birding.
In the marshes of New South Wales, Australia, the green and golden bell frog faces an invisible enemy: the chytrid fungus. This deadly pathogen has wiped out over 90 amphibian species, and the frog’s survival depends on an unlikely cure — a frog sauna. As the fungus attacks, weakening the frog’s body, time is running out. While predators lurk in the sky and grasses, the true threat lies beneath the water.
In a desperate search for safety, the frog finds refuge in a sauna that may hold the key to survival. But will this fragile hope be enough? This family-friendly short uses elements of horror and whimsy to tell the story in a new and captivating light.
Start the festival’s closing day in the wetlands with a guided nature walk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Centre. Come at 8am if you would like to learn and play a biodiversity game before the walk.
The Earth In Focus Nature Photography Exhibition shows the winning and finalist images from this year’s Earth In Focus photography competitions at Beach Station, Sentosa, from 1 to 29 November. The official opening on Sunday 8 November, from 4.30pm, brings the festival team and some of the photographers to the beach, with the festival band, Rooftop Songsters, and the closing screening of The Fading Star.
An investigative documentary that digs deep into the illegal pet trade in Indian star tortoises. Wildlife filmmaker and presenter Aishwarya Sridhar undertakes an epic 3,000-mile journey tracing the trade pipeline from the dry scrub forests of South India to the pet markets of Mumbai — and finally going undercover in the wildlife markets of Mumbai and Bangkok. Along the way she meets law enforcement officials, traffickers, pet shop keepers, trade kingpins, ex-poachers and scientists to understand what it will take to protect the “star” of the forest.
The 6 November screening of these two Film Finalists sold out, so we are showing them again. I’ll Need To Leave For A Little While (7 min, PG) follows NoNose, a critically endangered Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, on his first journey beyond the forest. The Last Place on Earth (102 min, PG13) follows five activists fighting to protect Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem.
Free outdoor movie screenings at Sentosa: sixteen nature and wildlife films screen under the stars at Movies by the Beach, on the rooftop of Palawan Kidz City, from late October through the festival and the weekends that follow. All screenings start at 6pm, except the closing-day screening on 8 November at 6.15pm.
What we throw away doesn’t go away. A visual journey across Asia’s landfills and recycling plants that reveals waste’s hidden ties to human health and the climate crisis — and finds reason for hope.
In Taiwan’s Daxi Fishing Harbor, Captain Shiyang doesn’t just catch fish — he retrieves ocean waste too, and founded the Environmental Fleets to clean the sea and give discarded materials new life.
At Liberia’s Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary, a team of conservationists works around the clock to rescue and rehabilitate trafficked wildlife, following one endangered Timneh parrot’s long road back to the wild.
In the lakes area of Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, one tiger family has held the territory for at least five generations, but there is no daughter left to inherit it. When young male Ganesh takes over, he must mate with three females of the same bloodline, including his own grandmother. He has conquered the territory, but can he become the lord of the lakes?
In Australia’s remote Kimberley, a groundbreaking equine sanctuary guides Aboriginal teenagers toward healing and reconnection through life-changing bonds with horses.
An investigative documentary that digs deep into the illegal pet trade in Indian star tortoises. Wildlife filmmaker and presenter Aishwarya Sridhar undertakes an epic 3,000-mile journey tracing the trade pipeline from the dry scrub forests of South India to the pet markets of Mumbai — and finally going undercover in the wildlife markets of Mumbai and Bangkok.
Every minute, the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains lose 50 tons of ancient ice. This film follows glaciologists and local communities across Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan racing to understand a Central Asian water crisis before the point of no return.
In a Himalayan village where Rufous-necked hornbills are seen as ancestors reborn, one pair’s lifelong bond reveals a story of love, resilience and coexistence between a species and the people who protect it.
For three decades, an Austrian trafficker ran one of Europe’s most lucrative wildlife smuggling operations, feeding the black market with rare parrots smuggled from Brazil. This documentary unravels the mechanics behind a global wildlife crime network.
From the earthworm to the roe deer, every living being feeds to survive. Told through poetic, sensitive scenes, this film explores nature’s feeding methods and the great chain of balance connecting them all.
In the ephemeral ponds of the Darjeeling hills, the rare Himalayan salamander — known locally as the Paani Kukur, or water dog — wakes from hibernation to find a mate. The film follows the restaurant owner, tea estate manager and scientist protecting it, and captures the first-ever visual record of the salamanders’ breeding dance.
Old-growth forests in a handful of Russian nature reserves have stood untouched for centuries. This film reveals the hidden connections between ancient trees and the millions of species that depend on them.
A journey across the Alpine arc — through retreating glaciers, shifting rivers and forests under new threat — as climate change redefines one of Europe’s most delicate ecosystems at unprecedented speed.
Filmed over several years, this feature documentary follows a herd of musk oxen — ancient survivors of the Ice Age — through violent seasonal clashes, predator encounters and a punishing Arctic winter.
OceanX’s scientists and explorers dive into one of Earth’s youngest seas aboard the world’s most advanced research vessel, uncovering coral that thrives in record heat and alien-like creatures in super-saline brine pools.
The story of pioneering marine biologist Edie Widder, whose deep-sea bioluminescence discoveries — captured on rare OceanX dives in the Azores — reveal how curiosity-driven science can open new paths for ocean discovery and conservation.
The Earth In Focus Nature Photography Exhibition shows 72 photographs from this year’s Earth In Focus and Sentosa photography competitions, on the theme The Future We Choose, at Beach Station, Sentosa, from 1 to 29 November. The People’s Choice Award goes to the photograph the public votes for most.
See the prints at Beach Station (scan the QR code on any panel) or browse all 72 online, then vote for your favourite:
Earth In Focus is Singapore’s largest nature film festival, bringing wildlife, environmental and documentary films from around the world to audiences in Singapore. The 2026 edition runs from 5 to 8 November, with finalist film screenings, panel discussions and the awards at Golden Village Cineleisure on Orchard Road, and a photojournalism masterclass at the Photographic Society of Singapore.
Beyond the cinema, the festival brings free movie screenings to Sentosa’s Movies by the Beach throughout November, a nature photography exhibition at Beach Station, Sentosa, and fringe events at LASALLE College of the Arts and the Singapore Botanic Gardens on 1 November. If you are looking for a film festival in Singapore this November, this page has the full programme, times, venues and tickets.
Earth In Focus is conceived and run by Wild Space, a Singapore-based social enterprise working to conserve and protect the wild spaces of the world. Wild Space runs educational, hands-on environmental programmes that promote nature and biodiversity, so that conservation becomes part of everyday conversation. This year’s theme, The Future We Choose, carries that idea into the festival: the choices each of us makes now will shape the future of the wild places on screen. Contact the festival at discover@earthinfocus.co.
Earth In Focus runs from 5 to 8 November 2026. Fringe events take place on 1 November, and free outdoor screenings at Sentosa run from 31 October to 29 November.
Films, panels and the Awards Ceremony are at Golden Village Cineleisure, Orchard, from 5 to 7 November. On 8 November the photography exhibition opens at Beach Station, Sentosa, and the closing film screens at Movies by the Beach, Palawan Kidz City Rooftop.
Most sessions cost S$12; the masterclass and the Awards Ceremony cost S$25. The Sentosa screenings, the photography exhibition and the festival booths are free.
The festival shows wildlife, environmental and documentary films from around the world, including this year’s award finalists. The filmmakers, scientists and conservationists behind them discuss the issues in panels after the screenings.
Yes. Children are welcome at any screening their age allows under its IMDA rating, and each child needs a ticket. The free Sentosa screenings make an easy family outing.
8 Grange Road, Singapore 239695
The Prinsep Gallery, Level 1, Selegie Arts Centre, 30 Selegie Road, Singapore 188351
Open in Google MapsBeach Station, Sentosa — Earth In Focus Nature Photography Exhibition, 1–29 November; official opening Sunday 8 November, 4.30pm · See the map
Open in Google MapsMovies by the Beach, Palawan Kidz City Rooftop, Sentosa — free outdoor screenings, plus the festival party and closing screening on Sunday 8 November · See the map
Open in Google Maps6001 Beach Road, #05-00 Golden Mile Tower, Singapore 199589
Open in Google MapsWinstedt Campus, 9 Winstedt Road, Singapore 227976
Open in Google Maps1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569
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