The Innsbruck Nature Film Festival (INFF) is an annual film competition focusing on nature, environment, and sustainability. Based in Innsbruck, Austria, it was founded in 2002 by the Tyrolean Environmental Ombudsman, Johannes Kostenzer. In 2013, the festival transitioned from local nature film days to an internationally oriented competition. In 2025, the festival attracted more than 13,000 visitors who participated in various event formats, including film screenings, discussion panels, and supporting programs.
Since its inception, the INFF has evolved from a regional event to an internationally recognized competition. The organizer of the festival is the non-profit association Nature Festival.
The festival is an IMDb-qualifying event, showcasing films, documentaries, animations, and reports on nature, sustainability, and environmental issues. Each year, approximately 60 curated films are presented, with local and international filmmakers and experts participating in Q&A sessions and panel discussions. The program includes films with broad appeal as well as specialized niche productions. Many films celebrate their Austrian premieres at the INFF, with some even having their European and world premieres, such as Animal Pride and Greina in 2024.
The competition receives numerous film submissions from various countries annually, with entries from over 107 nations in recent years. An international jury selects winners in several categories. This jury regularly consists of esteemed person from the film industry and the environmental sector, such as Mariette Rissenbeek, former managing director of the Berlin International Film Festival; Christian Berger, director and Oscar-nominated cinematographer; Oliver Goetzl, German wildlife filmmaker; Diana Garlytska, regional vice-chair for Western Europe of the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication and Niobe Thompson, Emmyî-Award winning Canadian filmmaker and producer.
The festival awards films in the following categories:
Special awards focus on thematic areas such as biodiversity, water, living in the Alps, respecting mountains or soil. Additional honors, like the Wild Women Award and the Christian Berger Cinematography Award, recognize outstanding achievements by female directors, cinematographers, or in visual storytelling. The total prize money amounts to â¬27,000.
The main venue of the festival is the Metropol Cinema in Innsbruck. In addition to film screenings, a thematic exhibition is held annually in the cinema's foyerâÂÂfor example, the 2024 exhibition on soil, developed in collaboration with the State of Tyrol. The program aims to provide visitors with a multisensory approach to current environmental topics. At the INFF visitor desk and the Directorsâ Café in the cinema foyer, attendees can engage in discussions.
A central component of the supporting program is the Experiences, an offering open to all interested parties. This format includes interactive workshops, guided tours, multimedia installations, and themed activities that provide practical access to environmental and sustainability topics. The goal is to engage visitors who may not plan a formal festival visit, offering them the opportunity to explore current environmental issues in a relaxed atmosphere. Highlights include the annual Föhn excursion on the Nordkette, the Zum Kuckuck open-mic sessions in collaboration with Patagonia, guided nature hikes in the Karwendel Nature Park, and in 2023, a focus on night nature experiences in cooperation with Dark Sky International, whose director, Ruskin Hartley, was a guest at the INFF.
INFF collaborates with local schools and the University of Innsbruck to offer dynamic learning experiences during the festival. These include curated film screenings on environmental issues, interactive Q&A sessions with filmmakers, and expert-led seminars in ecology and environmental science. In partnership with Natopia, a nature education organization, INFF also hosts school screenings to inspire young audiences. Science Glimpses further enrich the program by integrating scientific research with film narratives, deepening understanding of environmental topics.
The festival also serves as a meeting place for filmmakers, television executives, and production companies. In addition to seminars and workshops, other events such as scientific lectures, networking events, and guided expeditions are offered to promote professional exchange. Since 2023, a special B2B segment called "Cineleaves" has been established, focusing on networking between the film and publishing industries.
A particular focus of the INFF is the connection between art and film. As part of the Green Arthouse series, films offering new narrative approaches to environmental topics are showcased. In 2024, Austrian artist and environmental activist Edgar Honetschläger opened the festival with a performance on insects and presented his film Midas Ants. Additionally, Colombian photographer Nicolas Valentin exhibited a gallery of large-format insect photographs.
The festival positions itself as a European platform for exchange among filmmakers, production companies, and broadcasters. The INFF collaborates with the Alpine Convention, is a member of the Green Film Network and cooperates with the IUCN Commission on Education and Communication. In 2024, Festival Director Johannes Kostenzer received the IUCN CEC West Europe Award for his contributions to nature education.
To reach audiences beyond traditional festival venues, several outreach formats have been developed:
Campus Cinema is a collaboration between the INFF and the University of Innsbruck. Festival films are screened at the university and followed by discussions with experts from fields such as microbiology, ethnology, ecology, and geography. Films like Outgrow the System and the award-winning Kosmos Erde â Planet Soil were shown in this context.
Through INFF on tour mini-film festivals are organized in various Tyrolean communities. These events combine film screenings with expert panels, workshops, and other interactive elements. In just two years, 20 events were held in ten communities, such as the ÃÂtztal Nature Park, Pettneu am Arlberg, and the Karwendel Nature Park, attracting over 1,600 visitors in 2024. The aim is to promote access to cultural and environmental education offerings, especially in rural and peripheral regions.
With INFF en voyage the festival program is expanded internationally. In October 2024, the INFF engaged in the Regional Conservation Forum of the IUCN in Brugge with Short-Films and one Feature length film as well as in the Austrian Cultural Week in Muscat, Oman, with four Austrian productions over the course of four days â featuring dedicated screenings for adults and kids. The initiative continued with the festivalâÂÂs Asian debut, the INFF en voyage in Manila, held from 30 November to 2 December 2025 at the SM Mall of Asia Cinema, featuring free screenings of award-winning Austrian productions. The Manila edition was organized in cooperation with the Austrian Embassy in Manila and local partners, introducing Filipino audiences to themes of biodiversity, conservation, and sustainability.
The INFF is also a cooperation partner in the EU-funded project Food on Film. As part of this project, since the fall semester of 2024, school classes from five European countries (Italy, Austria, Germany, France, and Montenegro) - 19 classes in Austria - have been exploring urgent issues related to nutrition, food production, and the environment, creating film scripts that will be turned into one-minute short films. The project provides teachers and schools with a modern, digital, and interactive educational film format, granting access to numerous international and national environmental films, documentaries, and scientific materials. All that is needed for production is a smartphone and creative ideas.
In each participating country two classes with the best scripts rewarded with a two-day film workshop to professionally finalize their short films. All films produced by the students were showcased at the Mobile Film Festival in Paris, and at the innsbruck nature film festival in October 2025.