Finalists and Winners 2025

Best Animation - Winner and Finalists

The winner in our Best Animation goes to the Spanish film I AM WATER. In Roser Cusó’s film, a girl and a drop of water make their way down the water table to the ocean. Our Jury also awarded a Highly Commended to ARCTIC SHIFTS (USA, Directed by Anna Lindemann). Our finalist films were Patterns from Nature (Canada), A Conversation About Faces (Poland), A Dream in Waking Life (Iran), Bridge My Little Friends (Japan) and The Supernova Next Door (Australia). 

Best Science Television Series - Winner and Finalists

The winner in our Best Science Television Series being DR KARL’S HOW THINGS WORK (our Jury watched the episode TOILET PAPER). Congratulations to Director Rob Greig, Producer Laura Grace & Series Producer Elle Gibbons. Highly commended was HERITAGE CODE (Moldova, Directed by Sergiu Scobioala & Traian Stoianov).

Best Film ‘SCINEMA Junior’ - Winner and Finalists

THE SUN IS WAITING AHEAD FOR US (China, 2025, Directed by 娟 龙, 岩 周) winning ‘Best Junior’ category for student filmmakers. We also want to thank our finalist films SONDER (USA, D: Lancey Quan), FIRST FLIGHT: THE SKY’S THE LIMIT (UK, D: Molly Hill), WATER STAR MEDICINE (USA, D: Mesa), I-WE-ARE (Italy, D: Vittorio Carotozollo), THE BOULDER THEORY (USA, D: Quinn Tisdale).

Best Short Film - Winner and Finalists

Waves of Ink (USA/Iceland, 12 mins) is our Best Short Film for 2025. Alyssa Stoller’s film is spectacular to look at, but it also stands out in showing some the downsides of research, following the work Stoller does at the Iceland-based whale conservation group Whale Wise.

Our Jury also recognised Ilona Vashkelite’s The visionary from Artyushkino (Russian Federation, 25 mins) as Highly Commended. A St Petersburg-based filmmaker, Vashkelite’s documentary follows the work of Rinaldo Mallyamov, a regional Russian farmer challenging his community with his experimental farming ideas. 

Best Film - Winner and Finalists

In an Italy polarized between wolf-defenders and wolf-opponents, a soon-to-be-retired professor finds himself torn between saving sheep and saving their predators in the documentary LUPI NOSTRI/Our Wolves (lupinostri.com), winner of Best Film in this year’s SCINEMA International Science Film Festival. Filmmaker Dr Samer Angelone charts the career of Prof Luca Rossi, who was the director’s doctoral supervisor.

Highly Commended in our Best Film category was The Library of All Possible Things from Argentina, directed by Ana Fraile and Lucas Scavino.

Finalists in our Best Feature category were Antarctic Voyage (Kevin Schreck, USA), Space Chasers (Steven Swancoat, USA), Brainstorm: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Brain (Jenna Elaine Bailey,Canada), Beat the Heat/trop chaud (Benjamin Weiss), Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution (Bill Heney, USA), Invisible Machines (Yelena Gluzman, USA).