

October 24–26, 2025, Kino Rex Bern
The Bern Edition of the Global Science Film Festival brings world affairs, artistic storytelling, and science together on the big screen. The festival features current international films of various genres that connect social developments with contemporary scientific discussions. After the screenings, moderated discussions explore the topics and narrative forms in depth with the audience, filmmakers, and researchers.
Since its inception in Zurich in 2017, the festival has spread to Bern, where it has found another home. It places a special focus on unusual cinematic narrative techniques. Current film productions offer diverse and critical perspectives on pressing social, political, and ecological issues in a globalized world. This year, topics include the measurement of elementary particles, metal extraction, wolf populations, and stories that often receive less attention in science, such as conspiracy theories, queer bodies, asbestos workers, and kidney stones. Each film is followed by a discussion with filmmakers and scientists. In-depth workshops will also be offered, and special programs are planned for schools.
Susan Thieme, a professor of Critical Sustainability Studies, and Mirko Winkel, an artist and the mLAB coordinator at the University of Bern’s Department of Geography, are responsible for the program in Bern. Biologist and filmmaker Samer Angelone is in charge of the simultaneous festival editions in other Swiss cities.
The Bern Edition of the Global Science Film Festival is supported by the University of Bern.
Other festival collaborators include the University of Zurich, the Graduate Center of the University of Basel, Life Science Zurich, WSL, and EAWAG.
The complete program will follow in mid-September.