Taking place at the community-owned Montrose Playhouse from 11–13 September, this year’s LandxSea Film Festival will bring together 22 films and a packed programme of live Q&As, musical performances, workshops, community activities and conversations exploring the future of land, sea and the living world.
Still from Walter Kalan’s ‘Children & Animals’
The festival opens on Friday 11 September with the Scottish premiere of Derek vs Derek, a warm and humorous documentary about two neighbouring Devon farmers — both called Derek — who find themselves on opposing sides of a debate about farming, nature and the future of the British countryside.
One of the film’s central characters is prominent rewilding advocate Derek Gow, who grew up in Dundee. Gow has transformed his Devon farm into a haven for beavers, wild boar and other native species, bringing a strong Scottish and northeast connection to the festival’s opening night.
The 2026 programme also connects with the 300th anniversary of the birth of James Hutton, the Edinburgh-born thinker widely regarded as one of the founders of modern geology.
Scottish director Glenda Rome’s debut feature, Expressing the Earth, journeys through Scotland’s coastlines, forests, islands and ancient rock formations. Bringing together geology, landscape, poetry and the philosophy of “deep time”, it explores Hutton’s continuing influence on how we understand the planet.
The event will also mark a significant milestone for LandxSea: the accompanying short film, Iso Attrill’s Paradise, will be the 100th film presented by the festival since it began in 2023.
Paradise is a poetic portrait of trans and non-binary artist and gardener Mol Benge, whose relationship with the natural world becomes a compass for growth, identity and belonging.
Still from Iso Attrill’s ‘Paradise’
Among those making the “migration” to Montrose is Australian-born, Arctic-based filmmaker Adam Sébire, who is travelling entirely by train and overland from his home in the far north of Norway — a four-day journey — to attend the UK premiere of his Greenland-set short film Sikoqqinngisaannassooq.
Filmed in Uummannaq in north-west Greenland, the film follows local children carving Indigenous words into the sea ice, naming what is being lost and imagining a future without ice.
Fishing heritage and the pressures facing coastal communities run throughout this year’s programme. Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea receives its Scottish premiere at LandxSea ahead of its wider cinema release. The film follows fisherman Stan Rennie and a northeast England coastal community seeking answers after thousands of dead crabs and lobsters wash ashore. The story has strong resonances for communities along Scotland’s east coast, where fishing heritage, industrial development and the changing use of ports and coastal waters continue to shape local life.
Aberdeen-based artist and filmmaker Marie-Chantal Hamrock will attend the festival with Bone a Cod, an inventive exploration of Aberdeen’s fishing history, oral memory, labour and extraction.
On closing night, Edinburgh filmmaker Eilidh Munro will present The Herring Queen, which follows a cherished tradition in the coastal village of Eyemouth while reflecting on memory, identity and the uncertain future facing Scotland’s fishing communities.
Top: still from Jeanie Finlay’s ‘All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea’. Bottom: still from Lewis Baillie’s ‘Community Theatre’
Other guests include swimmer and clean-water campaigner Jo Bateman and director Pip Piper, who will present the Scottish premiere of Jo in the Water. The film follows Bateman’s transformation from passionate sea swimmer to reluctant activist as she takes on one of the UK’s largest water companies. A representative from Surfers Against Sewage in Scotland will also contribute local context to the post-screening discussion. The film screens with Will the People Possess the Wind, which asks who should benefit from renewable energy and whether wind power can become a source of public good and community ownership.
The global politics of the green transition are explored further in the UK premiere of Materia Prima. Set in the Bolivian Andes, the film examines the race for lithium and asks who bears the social and environmental costs of the move away from fossil fuels.
In addition to director Q&As, LandxSea extends beyond the screen with events including:
– A newly restored presentation of Jean Epstein’s 1929 silent classic Finis Terrae, accompanied by an original score performed live by musicians Dan Abrahams and Philippe Boudot
– A free schools screening of the visually spectacular North Sea, Nature Untamed
– The annual Montrose Beach Dook
– A singing workshop exploring songs of land, sea and community
– A relaxed “Dram of Science” evening with researchers from the James Hutton Institute
– A free workshop exploring how films can inspire social and environmental action
– Community artwork, environmental organisations and an Ink & Quill pop-up bookshop throughout Montrose Playhouse
Young people aged 18 and under can attend festival screenings free of charge, subject to film age ratings and ticket availability.
The festival’s North Light Award will recognise outstanding Scottish environmental filmmaking, with the winner announced on closing night by the international jury. Audiences will also select the recipient of the 2026 Audience Award.
Tickets, the complete schedule and the full list of festival guests are available here.