Stories from the Cryosphere: Glaciers on the Edge
Organized by the Let’s Talk About Water initiative, this competition supported global engagement around the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025 and the Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences. It invited filmmakers to highlight the importance of glaciers for ecosystems, water supply, and communities.
As vital freshwater sources and indicators of climate change, glaciers are rapidly shrinking, threatening water security, ecosystems, and cultural heritage. The competition encouraged stories on these impacts and the need for action.
By combining science, water, and storytelling, the initiative raised awareness and dialogue. Selected films showcased environmental, social, and cultural perspectives, with the winning film featured at an international cryosphere event.
These are the winners of the short film competition:
First Place — Sikkorluppoq
Directed by Adam Sébire (Norway)
An Indigenous community in northern Kalaallit Nunaat spends half of the year living atop the frozen ocean. As summer sea ice is predicted to disappear from the High Arctic between 2030 and 2050, the film asks whether we are entering sikoqqinngisaannassooq, a future without sea ice.
Second Place — Blues
Directed by Betsy Bolton (United States)
This three-minute film explores what makes glacial ice blue, combining scientific analysis with a jazz-blues sensibility. Filmed off the coast of Svalbard, it invites viewers to linger in the beauty of glacial blues.
Third Place — The Brink of Ice
Directed by Iftikhar Hussain (India)
A stark cinematic portrait of Ladakh, where life is sustained almost entirely by ice, this film documents a landscape facing unprecedented climatic change. Snowless winters, diminishing snowfall, and black carbon pollution now threaten glaciers that are no longer being replenished.
Honorable Mention
Breaking Ice: The Making of Cracks in the Ice
Directed by Jason Lindsey (United States)
Prompted by his son’s question about what the world will look like because of climate change, photographer Jason Lindsey turns to art in search of answers. The film follows the creation of his Cracks in the Ice series as a deeply personal response to uncertainty.
High-Andean Peatlands: The Living Legacy of the Glacier
Directed by Daniel Felipe Duque (Colombia)
As tropical glaciers retreat in the Colombian Andes, a hidden transformation unfolds. This documentary reveals how dying ice gives birth to High-Andean peatlands, a living ecosystem that secures the water of tomorrow.
The Glacier’s Memory
Directed by Pavel Marmanillo Barrio de Mendoza (Peru)
Set in Huamanchoque, Cusco, this contemplative film features an elder speaking from the future about the retreat of the Apu Sahuasiray glacier. Through memory, tree planting, and care for the land, the community learns that while time cannot be stopped, the future can be made more gentle.
FAHRENHEIT 32
Directed by Daniela Carrion and Fabienne Meier (Switzerland)
This film explores the fragile threshold at which ice becomes water, using it as a metaphor for glaciers pushed beyond stability. Following three glaciers in Alaska, Patagonia, and the Swiss Alps, it presents them as one shared system responding simultaneously to global climate change.
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Directed by Dante Rustav (Tajikistan)
Glaciers are treated as natural memory systems that accumulate, preserve, and slowly disappear. Through hand-colored archival imagery, digital layer removal, and sound design, the film observes disappearance as a quiet and irreversible process, leaving only traces behind.
