This year’s third annual Subtropic Film Festival at the Norton Museum of Art is where indie cinema meets social consciousness — with more than 60 short and long features will spotlight stories of immigration, family, and climate change.
The lineup includes a celebration of Florida’s natural beauty with local documentaries like Python Hunt and River of Grass, putting the stunning Everglades in the spotlight.
The festival's co-director, Noelia Solange Rabino, told WLRN the event blends works from painters and filmmakers to tell bigger stories, including serious threats like habitat loss in the Glades region.
“The idea here is to use these films and these visuals and these artists that are dedicating their work to highlight the surroundings, to highlight the urgency.” Rabino said.
For Friday’s opening feature, The Python Hunt, directed by Xander Robin, takes viewers deep into the Everglades, where local filmmakers follow python hunters tracking huge, invasive snakes at night.
The film, which received a Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature at SXSW and the Made in MIA Award at Miami Film Festival, captures the urgent fight to protect Florida’s ecosystem.
The program also shines a spotlight on Sasha Wortzel's River of Grass, a poetic, immersive journey through the Everglades that uses a mix of old footage, live scenes, and dreamlike sequences to explore the region's history, beauty, and environmental struggles.
The Florida Everglades has been experiencing significant habitat loss from urban development and other environmental threats, such as excess phosphorus from fertilizers and runoff polluting waterways, invasive species, and a decrease in biodiversity in its neighboring ecosystems.
“Uniting cinema and visual art for these films elevates our understanding of this vital, fragile ecosystem,” said Ghislain d’Humières, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO of the Norton Museum of Art.
Scheduled screenings and discussions are held both at the Norton and at G-Star Studios, Palm Beach County’s largest working soundstage, in West Palm Beach.
The vast majority of the 65 films are locally made. Rabino said the festival's workshops and training sessions give first-time filmmakers hands-on experience.
“It is just making these things that might not be accessible to someone that didn't go to film school, to now have that opportunity to engage with the medium,” she said.
IF YOU GO
What: Subtropic Film Festival
When/Where: Friday, November 7, 2025 at the Norton Museum of Art; Saturday, Nov 8-9 at Afflux Studios at G-Star Studios.
Information: More details here
