As the signatory of the European initiative We Choose Reuse, Zagreb Film Festival’s approach to planning and organizing this year’s festival edition is particularly environmentally conscious. In order to raise awareness about the current ecological problems and warn of the need for environmental protection, in collaboration with Green Action, social cooperative Humana Nova and Environmental Film Festival, ZFF is encouraging recycling, reducing the use of paper and plastic through various actions, and preparing several thematic programs and benefits for the audience.

Program booklets are printed on recycled paper, plastic festival passes are replaced with digital and textile ones, while the whole festival merchandise is made from recycled and environmentally friendly materials, while the audience is also encouraged to recycle. Aside from cardboard boxes for recycling available at all festival locations during the festival, there will be a Swap Cabinet put up in the lobby of the SC Cinema where visitors will be able to deposit items they no longer need, but someone else might find useful, or take something they find there. Books, comics, records, board games, clothes, jewelry, household items, stickers, and plant seeds are some of the ideas for the contents of ZFF’s Swap Cabinet, and all the textiles left behind by the end of the festival will be donated to the coop Humana Nova, which will reuse or recycle it.

Wednesday and Thursday, November 17 and 18, from 17 to 21 h at the Green Island in the SC Cinema lobby, small electronic devices and equipment can be brought in exchange for free tickets for selected screenings from the main program in SC Cinema. Devices and equipment up to 2 kg are accepted, after which they will be properly disposed of. For each device visitors will receive two tickets for screenings of selected films from the main program in SC Cinema, while they will receive a single ticket for 4 batteries they bring. At the same time and place, visitors will be able to sign the petition We Choose Reuse, the European campaign encouraging multiple use to combat plastic pollution, which was so far supported by almost 100 000 individuals and over 350 companies and NGOs.

Monday, November 15 at 17.30 h, Ana Marija Mileusnić from Green Action will hold an online lecture and workshop How to Reduce your Personal Waste? Although the awareness about the climate crisis, pollution, and sustainable practices is growing each year, the amount of waste we produce is still growing at an alarming rate. For instance, according to the latest available data from 2019, an astonishing 444 kg of waste per capita was produced in Croatia in just a year. That problem, as well as the answer to the question of what we as individuals can do in order to reduce the negative environmental impact, will be the focus of the lecture held on Zoom.

Wednesday, November 19, will offer a climate quiz for all interested in testing their knowledge on ecology. The quiz will be held online on Green Action’s Facebook page, at 10 h. Climate change, once only found in disaster movies and science fiction, has become a reality and future. Science is announcing we have only a few decades to stop the worst consequences, but the problem is a global one and requires all parties to act. What is important to know, what are the causes and consequences, and how to collectively stop them? Participants will be able to demonstrate their knowledge on these topics at the online quiz organized in collaboration with Green Action and the Environmental Film Festival, and the first 40 participants with over 70 percent of correct answers will win a ticket for screenings of certain films from the main program at SC Cinema.

The Slovenian documentary The Undamaged will be available on the online platform kinoeuropa.hr as part of ZFF’s program Festivals in the Spotlight. The film follows a group of friends and activists who kayak across 23 rivers in 6 countries in the Balkan peninsula in order to fight for protecting rivers and discover their secret world. The film is screened in collaboration with the Activist group of Green Action which has organized the Environmental Film Festival since 2014 and brings environmental topics to a wider audience through film forms.