Sustainable Stories from Set: Oscars Edition
As the 97th Academy Awards are celebrated, it’s reassuring to note that sustainability practices behind the scenes are gaining traction and recognition. Several of this year’s Oscar films earned Environmental Media Association (EMA) Gold and Green Seals. Wicked and The Substance count among the Oscar winners certified with EMA Gold Seals of approval, while nominees with the top mark include Alien: Romulus and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Beyond green production, environmental storytelling on screen remains regrettably limited. It is so limited that only one nominee passed the Climate Reality Check—The Wild Robot. The climate storytelling check stipulates that climate change exists in the (present or near future, Earth or this Universe-based) fictional world and that at least one character is aware of it. Certain films touched on environmental themes, such as Flow and Dune: Part Two, both Oscar winners, but they didn’t pass the criteria for the check.
The relevance of climate change extends beyond fiction; its impact is already being felt in Hollywood, where the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations was delayed due to the L.A. wildfires. Exacerbated by rising global temperatures, this extreme weather event reminds filmmakers and local audiences alike of the environmental challenges they face. As a commitment to sustainability, the Academy has various green initiatives in place, including a Clean Air Commuter Program to incentivize lower-carbon transport for its employees and a Sustainability Style Guide for the red carpet.
Here are 3 Oscar-winning films showcasing sustainability from set to screen:
Wicked
From hit musical to Oscar-winner, Wicked, about two witches in Oz, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande), took home two Oscars: Costume Design and Production Design.
The film’s production company, NBCUniversal, earned an EMA Gold Seal for the production through its new green initiative, the GreenerLight Program, with the support of UK Sustainability Consultancy Sustainable Film.
‘Oz is this beautiful and awe-inspiring, magical world. But our world, Earth, is all of those things too and we need to take care of it, ’ Wizard of Oz actor, Jeff Goldblum, urged in Going Green Behind the Scenes: Sustainability on Wicked. Jeff hosted the 2021 EMA Awards.
Flow
The animated film Flow, an environmental fable, was named Best Animated Feature Film. Upon accepting the award, director Gints Zilbalodis told the audience, ‘We’re all in the same boat. We must overcome our differences and find ways to work together.’
Flow follows a solitary cat as it navigates, finding refuge in a world confronted by rising flood waters. This cat comes into contact with other animals and has to decide whether it remains by itself or bands together with the others to survive. The film partnered with 10 organizations in France that support water and wildlife causes. One is Darwin Forever, an association founded by two siblings, Mathilde (16) and her brother Nicolas (13), who are dedicated to animals and their environment. Darwin Forever has put together screenings followed by debates and workshops linked to nature and animals to carry Flow’s environmental message to more students.
Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman pose backstage with the Oscar® for Animated Feature Film during the live ABC Telecast of the 97th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. PHOTO: Etienne Laurent / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Dune: Part Two
Denis Villeneuve’s follow-up to Dune, which was nominated in five categories, won for Sound and Visual Effects.
Nominated in EMA’s Feature Film category 2024, Dune: Part Two explores questions of a changing planet and resource scarcity. While the sequel contains more religiosity with Timothy Chalamet’s character, Paul Atreides, touted as the messiah, the film still offers a commentary on what heightened resource scarcity and stress could look like.
A conversation between Paul and Chani (Zendaya) underscores the absurdity of swimming in water on another planet, at another time, juxtaposed with the desert landscape in Arrakis. ‘When you see sand here, imagine water’, Paul says, ‘If you dive in, you can’t reach the bottom. ’ ‘You dive in?’, Chani asks in disbelief. ‘It’s called swimming’, he replies.
Since Dune: Part Two takes place in another universe, it didn’t qualify for the Climate Reality Check.
Dune star Timothee Chalamet arrives on the red carpet of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025. Kyusung Gong / ©A.M.P.A.S.
3 more Oscar-nominated films featuring stories of sustainability from set to screen:
Nosferatu
Nosferatu, an homage to Dracula and the vampire screen adaptations that have followed, was nominated for Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design.
The film delves into themes of life, death, love and loss, and the boundaries between them. Behind the scenes, director Robert Eggers shared in a round table interview that the team used potato flakes to create artificial snow. They also made sure when shooting in locations like the forests that ‘everything (was) treated with care’ and that there was replanting where necessary. The director also told me ‘everyone had to bring their own water bottle. Nothing too exciting.’. In an interview with actors Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult, the pair reminisced about the reusable Nosferatu water bottles on set and celebrated the recycling norms. Nicholas Hoult revealed, ‘You do sometimes end up on sets where that’s not the standard. And that’s insane to me’. NBCUniversal earned an EMA Green Seal for Nosferatu.
Longneck (Bill Nighy) in DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders. © 2024 DreamWorks Animation.
The Wild Robot
The Wild Robot, an animated film based on the book by Peter Brown and suitable for both young and old, was nominated in three Oscar categories: music (Original Score), Sound, and Animated Feature Film.
The Climate Reality Checked film portrays a malleable dichotomy between nature and technology. Roz, voiced by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, is from a built-up, technologically advanced society, far removed from the natural world she crashes into on a remote island. The film portrays the compounded effects of climate change with scenes during Brightbill (Kit Connor)’s migration, including a visual of the Golden Gate Bridge submerged by sea level rise.
During a press conference in Annecy, Chris Sanders relayed that while working with Kris Bowers on the migration sequence, he told the musician to ‘Go ahead and ignore the visuals (...) We’ll adjust.’ The writer went on to explain that when writing a sequence, he puts on headsets and works on it over and over while ‘riding down the beach or up a mountain, or if it’s late at night on (his) stationary bike’, demonstrating how to fuel script writing sustainably.
Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) mourns Thandi. PHOTO: Kindred Films.
The Last Ranger
The Last Ranger, a South African film nominated in the Live Action Short category, deals with rhino poaching through the human lens of young Litha, played by Liyabona Mroqoza.
The director, Cindy Lee, has a history of wildlife films, having won at the New York Picture Start Film Festival (2014) for her short screenplay on rhino poaching Horn. The Last Ranger, shot in less than a week, was filmed during COVID-19, meaning the crew had the reserve to themselves. No special interference with the wildlife was necessary to film. The rhinos were tracked for routine veterinary procedures, and the crew had to work within the window of time the rhinos were down for.
From set to screen, sea to snow, these Oscar-winning and nominated films are bringing sustainable content and storytelling to the big screen, promoting EMA’s double mission of greener production and greener characters and plotlines. It’s uplifting to see creative sustainable solutions on set, and it would be incredible to have more Climate Reality Checkable films next year, representing what audiences and filmmakers are already living.