2025 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

2025 Schedule of Films & Events

Here's the complete schedule for the 22nd Annual International Ocean Film Festival (IOFF). For more about the films and to watch trailers, click the links below. Tickets are now on sale on Eventive!

Locations: Saturday, April 5th at Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael and Friday, April 11th- Sunday, April 13th at Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center.

* Indicates that the filmmaker is expected to be in attendance for the Q&A.

Saturday, April 5th

PROGRAM 
Advance Program at Smith Rafael Film Center
4:00 pm & 7:00 pm

  • 4pm -  Salmon Run, Pieter J. Kruit*, (USA) 81 min

  • 7pm - Her Shark Story,Ignacio Walker*, (Chile) 76 min

Friday, April 11th

PROGRAM 1 Ocean Awareness, New Frontiers
4:00 pm

  • Deep Look: A Coral is Born, Rosa Tuirán*, (USA) 6 min 

  • Peixinho (Little Fish), Kaushiik Subramaniam*, (UK) 8 min 

  • Souls, Ian Mun*, (Singapore) 12 min

  • Defend The Deep, Liz Rubin* and Richard Charter, (USA) 23 min 

  • Ocean Watch - A Story of Deep Sea Exploration, Leo Richards, (USA) 40 min

PROGRAM 2 The Power of One Person
7:00 pm

  • Opening Night Musical Guest: The ClimateProject (USA) Wendy Loomis, (USA) 13 min

  • Wild Hope: Whale Shark Homecoming, Geoff Luck, (USA) 15 min

  • Turtle Walker,Taira Malaney*, India, 75 min

OPENING NIGHT PARTY - 9:00 - 11:30 PM
Tide Pool. Ticket purchase required.

Saturday, April 12th

PROGRAM 3 Plastic Pollution, Finding Solutions
10:00 am

  • Wild Hope: The Great Ocean Cleanup, Bethany Jones, (USA) 15 min

  • The Human Side Of Plastic: Babacar Thiaw, Andrew Lynch, Ben Ayers, and Rush Sturges, (USA) 15 min

  • Casa Congo -  Las Tejedoras,  Tabata Piccinelli, (Italy) 21 min

  • Footprints on Katmai, Max Romey, (USA) 22 min

PANEL DISCUSSION -Tide Pool
12:00 pm

  • Stories of Hope: Marine Mammals and Ocean Health in the Bay Area

PROGRAM 4 Sharks: Beyond the Fear
1:00 pm

  • Caleb - Beyond the Bite, Nicola Gerrard, (South Africa) 7 min 

  • Monsters, Skylar Thomas* (USA) 70 min

PANEL DISCUSSION -Tide Pool
3:30 pm

  • Waves of Change: From Plastics and Human Health to the Material Revolution

PROGRAM 5 What We Don't See...Understanding Our Impact
4:00 pm

  • The Mother Of Diamonds: Kimberlite, Alexander Benedik, (Austria) 6 min

  • Immersive, Rohan Thomas*, (UK) 23 min

  • The Big Sea, Lewis Arnold* and Chris Nelson*, (UK) 75 mins

PROGRAM 6 Surfing and Kicking Butt(s)
7:00 pm

  • Above Sinai, Kylie Zarmati*, (USA) 13 min 

  • The Cigarette Surfboard, Ben Judkins*, USA, 93 min

SURF PARTY - 9:00 - 11:30 PM
Tide Pool. Ticket purchase required.

Sunday, april 13th

PROGRAM 7 Whales: A Careful Coexistence
10:00 am

  • Battle of the Blues, Adam Ryokichi Ernster*, (USA) 26 min

  • A Sentinel's End, Thomas John Dietz Ph.D.*, (USA) 9 min

  • One with The Whale, Pete Chelkowski and Jim Wickens, (USA) 80 min

PANEL DISCUSSION -Tide Pool
12:00 pm

PROGRAM 8 Crossing Oceans, What Will We Discover?
1:00 pm

  • 5 Degrees, 6 Minutes, 7AM, Jeremy Chapman and Veronique Ebers, (Germany) 4 min 

  • Arctic Dive, Philipp Herrman Griess, (Germany) 75 min

PANEL DISCUSSION -Tide Pool
3:30 pm

PROGRAM 9 Partnering for Change
4:00 pm

  • Deep Look: Watch this Starfish Protect her Babies from Danger, Josh Cassidy*, (USA) 6 min

  • Saving Seagrass, Robert Boyd*, (USA) 15 min

  • A Living Shoreline, Packard Jennings*, (USA) 17 min

  • Sequoias of the Sea, Natasha Benjamin* and Ana Blanco*, (USA) 54 min 

    *Filmmaker expected for post-screening on stage Q&A