There’s something quietly revolutionary happening in the world of independent documentary filmmaking, and Super Nature is poised to be at the center of it when it releases on February 19, 2026. This isn’t just another doc—it’s Ed Sayers’ feature directorial debut, shot entirely on Super 8 film, and it’s already generating the kind of buzz that suggests we’re witnessing something genuinely significant emerging from the current creative landscape.
What makes Super Nature particularly fascinating is its unconventional approach to documentary storytelling. In an era where digital filmmaking dominates, Sayers has chosen to work with Super 8—a format that inherently carries warmth, texture, and a certain nostalgic honesty. But calling this a nostalgic exercise would be reductive. Instead, what we’re seeing is a deliberate artistic choice that shapes how audiences will experience the film. That grain, that color palette, that tactile quality of Super 8—it becomes part of the message itself. It’s a filmmaker trusting his instincts and the medium to do the heavy lifting.
The production itself deserves attention. Super Nature has already gained considerable recognition on the festival circuit, premiering at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2025, where it clearly made an impression. The fact that it’s earned a nomination for the 2026 Cinema for Peace Green Prize tells us something important: this isn’t just a technically interesting experiment, but a film with genuine thematic substance. The Cinema for Peace Foundation doesn’t hand out nominations lightly, and being selected among just five films speaks to the impact Sayers has already achieved.
The Team and Their Vision
Behind Super Nature is a coalition of serious film institutions committed to supporting bold documentary work:
- Screen Scotland bringing regional support and infrastructure
- BFI Doc Society Fund demonstrating institutional confidence in the project
- Doc Society lending credibility as a champion of innovative documentary practice
- BFI Distribution handling the UK-Ireland release, ensuring the film reaches audiences who’ll appreciate its craft
This isn’t a passion project left to fend for itself—this is a film that major players in the industry believe in enough to invest resources and promotional muscle behind it.
At just 1 hour and 22 minutes, Super Nature respects viewers’ time while suggesting Sayers has something focused and purposeful to say. There’s no padding here, no assumption that documentary length needs to match runtime. It’s the length it needs to be, which is refreshing in itself.
The film positions itself as “a global love letter”—which immediately signals something different from typical documentary approaches. We’re not dealing with investigations or exposés, but something more personal and expansive.
Why This Matters Now
There’s a particular resonance to what Super Nature represents in 2026. We’re living through a moment where documentary filmmaking is increasingly fragmented across platforms, where attention spans are fractured, and where the art form can sometimes feel stretched between entertainment and activism. Sayers’ decision to create something intentionally analog, something that requires sustained engagement with a particular aesthetic, feels almost radical. It’s a statement about cinema as a medium—one that insists on slowing down, on texture, on the materiality of the image itself.
The Environmental and Social Dimensions
That Cinema for Peace Green Prize nomination hints at something crucial: Super Nature has something meaningful to say about our relationship with the natural world. Environmental documentaries have become increasingly common, but what Sayers appears to be doing—creating what’s described as a “global love letter”—suggests a more nuanced, affectionate approach than we often see. Rather than leading with crisis or catastrophe, the film seems interested in celebration and connection. That’s a different kind of environmental statement, one rooted in love rather than fear.
Looking Ahead to February 2026
As we approach the film’s UK-Ireland release, there’s genuine anticipation building within film circles. The early festival reception has been strong, the institutional support is solid, and the creative approach is genuinely distinctive. While the film currently carries a 0.0/10 rating (understandable since it hasn’t yet reached wider audiences), everything we know about its journey suggests that will change dramatically once people actually see it.
What Ed Sayers has created with Super Nature feels like it could become a reference point—the kind of film that launches conversations about what documentary can be, about the relationship between form and content, and about why some filmmakers still choose to work with analog technology in a digital age. That’s the kind of lasting significance that matters far more than opening weekend box office figures.
The film will be released on February 19, 2026, and based on everything we know so far, it’s worth marking your calendar.
