Grown-Ups Program
The following films have been granted ‘18+’ access under our Festival license - meaning the content in them would likely get an MA or R classification rating for a cinema film. The content includes adult content like sex, human reproduction and human biology, war and psychology. They’re all great films, just not the kinds of films we want played to an unsuspecting school audience. If you choose to play these films at your hospital, university or group, we will ask you to please display signage about the viewing content. Read about them individually below, and check out the curated playlists we’ve developed for them. The themes our filmmakers have explored this year include Reproduction, War. Note that there will be other films in the ‘Primary Schools’ and ‘Senior Schools’ playlists that you might also find appropriate for your programs, but under the process to get our Festival certified to play to the public, we’ve self-identified these following programs as exclusively for a grown-up audience. Our playlists are password-protected - get the password by registering to be a SCINEMA venue. Any questions - email us.
Our curated playlists for 18+ Senior audiences for 2026
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Full Playlist
Father Time - Why Men Are Born To Nurture + Infertile + Misconception + Sea of Hope + War Child Chose Science + You Can Catch Every Sign (234 mins)
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Playlist: Reproduction
Father Time - Why Men Are Born To Nurture + Infertile + Misconception + You Can Catch Every Sign (169 mins)
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Playlist: War
Sea of Hope + War Child Chose Science (65 mins)
Individual titles in our 2026 program
El Chichon Is Still Alive
40 mins, Mexico, 2026, Directed by Ali Zare
About 43 years ago, the El Chichón volcano in Mexico erupted, claiming the lives of more than 3,000 people. Yet many people still live around Mexico’s deadliest volcano.
Overlooked: A Silent Extinction
25 mins, United Kingdom, 2026, Directed by Cathy Ellington
Burnt Country
17 mins, Australia, 2026, Directed by Kirsten Slemint
It Blooms From Within
21 mins, United Kingdom, 2026, Directed by Oliver Hill (English and Spanish Language with English Subtitles)
Saury Seaweed: whisper of the sea
45 mins, South Korea, 2026, Directed by June-Ho Lee (Korean Language with English Subtitles)
Winner Best International Student Film 2026 - Giraffe populations have fallen dramatically over the last few decades, a story we rarely hear about. But the problems of the world’s tallest animal could have some unexpected solutions.
Deep below the Yucatan lies a watery world. For millennia, the interwoven network of the cenotes provided biodiversity and spirituality to this land. However, a poison is spreading through these caves, disrupting this unique and precious ecosystem.
When a mythic marine plant vanishes from the rapidly warming Korean seas, an investigative journalist embarks on a relentless underwater manhunt. His pursuit hits a dead-end at the heavily armed DMZ, where he captures the final, irreplaceable footage — sparking an unprecedented geopolitical movement to bridge a divided nation.
Winner Best Student Film 2026 - Could Australia’s past help secure its future? 65,000 years in the making, Burnt Country is about fighting fire, with fire, exploring the knowledge and wisdom of First Nations, this film is an invitation to connect to country and community.
FAQs
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You are the venue in our film festival model. We will give you a password protected URL with the screening copies of the films listed above. You’ll obviously need a laptop or interactive whiteboard or screen or, if you’re lucky, your venue has a theatre. The programs go live from the second week of August, and will stay live to end of day Sunday 23 August 2026. You can play the films one at a time, in their themed programs, however you want. You need to find your own audience, do your own publicity.
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For the films listed on this page (our ‘Grown-Ups program), we submitted to classification.gov.au as being only intended for an audience over the age of 18 (18+). Film festivals are able to ask for an exemption from the expensive and time-consuming film classification process by following certain audience-restriction rules. Note that a science documentary doesn’t usually have car chases and gratuitous violence, but will often deal with adult concepts or might show human bodies, health or surgical procedures.
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Apologies, our film permissions loaned to us by the filmmakers who enter only cover Australia.
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Go to National Science Week website to register as a venue, to receive your program information.