Puffins, elephants and detection dogs: Film Festival’s official selection comes to The Fraser Centre on Wednesday 7 October
The Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival (ECFF) is bringing its acclaimed 2026 official selection to East Lothian, with a one-night screening at The Fraser Centre in Tranent on Wednesday 7 October at 7pm, in partnership with the East Lothian Climate Action Network (ELCAN).
The festival’s main screening, held in April at the National Museum of Scotland, sold out its 220-seat auditorium. This year’s competition drew 87 entries from 30 countries, covering conservation stories from soils to sniffer dogs, and was narrowed down to eight films for the official selection: two from Scotland, four from elsewhere in the UK, one from the USA and one from South Africa.
The 2026 shortlist includes SOS Puffin, a film about efforts to restore seabirds on an East Lothian island.
Other films cover wildlife detection dogs; community conservation regaining and managing land following colonial land acquisition; the use of horse teams to restore river ecology; peatland restoration; the value of volunteers in museum-based conservation programmes; using running as a medium for public engagement with the plight of migrating wild salmon; and a children-led conservation programme on Scotland’s west coast at Ullapool. The screening also includes a bonus short film, Making Rewilding Happen, from the rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture.
The evening concludes with a short panel discussion on conservation projects happening locally and those depicted in the films, with the Scottish Seabird Centre.
View this post on Instagram
An independent panel of judges
The eight films were judged by a panel of conservation and filmmaking specialists: Julian Hector, former Head of the BBC’s Natural History Unit; Beccy Angus, Director of Discovery and Learning at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland; Nicola Brown, Impact Producer and Director specialising in natural history, conservation, science and social injustice; Ashleigh Whiffin, Curator of Entomology at National Museums Scotland; and Mat Larkin, Co-founder and Head of Visual Content at rewilding charity Scotland: The Big Picture.
“All films were praised for the pride with which the film makers and contributors told their stories. The judges enjoyed the breadth of ambition, from covering an event, to telling the story of generations of endeavour to save a landscape. There are many young voices too amongst the nominees, which added to the authenticity and vision running through all the films,” the judging panel said.
“These films show conservation not as a distant crisis but as something people are actively achieving, in Scotland and around the world. We’re delighted to bring this year’s selection to Tranent and to be working with ELCAN to share these stories with a new audience in East Lothian.” — Dr Simon Dures, Festival Director, Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival
“We’re thrilled to host the Conservation Film Festival’s 2026 Tour in Tranent, for ELCAN members and the public. We hope these beautiful stories of wildlife conservation – from East Lothian and beyond – inspire a new generation of local climate and nature action.” — Spokesperson for ELCAN and the East Lothian Climate Hub
Event details
Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival 2026 Tour — full official selection, plus a bonus film Making Rewilding Happen
Wednesday 7 October 2026, 7:00pm
The Fraser Centre, 3a Winton Place, Tranent, East Lothian, EH33 1AF
Tickets: £10 (concession for ELCAN ordinary members), available via TicketSource
The Tranent date is part of a wider ECFF tour taking the festival’s stories beyond Edinburgh, with screenings at the Highland Wildlife Park, the North Devon World Surf Reserve, Alnwick Playhouse and further dates planned around Scotland and beyond.
