For all of its noise making about changing attitudes through the medium of film, Climate Change was pretty much silenced in Hollywood’s 2018 offering. There is a noticeable dearth of environmentally themed dramatic films and documentaries, or even references to climate change in storylines, in this year’s nominees. Looks like, once again, it’s going to be left to the impassioned pleas of Hollywood A-Listers via their over-broadcasted Oscars acceptance speeches to wedge Climate Change into the conversation. (Too cynical? #sorrynotsorry).Climate change advocacy group Climarte explains why films, and indeed all arts are critical for combating climate change:"THE ARTS CAN NOT ONLY SHOW BUT INDEED THEY CAN MAKE US FEEL THE VERY PROBLEMS THAT WE ARE FACING. THEY CAN INSPIRE US TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE PART OF NATURE AND NOT SEPARATE FROM IT. CREATIVE THINKING AND EXPRESSION HELP US TO COMMUNICATE AND UNDERSTAND THE RICH RELATIONSHIPS WHICH EXIST BETWEEN ALL THINGS … AS KEY INTERPRETERS OF THIS WONDROUS EXPERIENCE, WE BELIEVE THE ARTS HAS A MAJOR ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY TO ENCOURAGE THE TRANSFORMATIONAL THINKING REQUIRED TO MOVE US AWAY FROM OUR CURRENT DESTRUCTIVE PRACTICES, AND TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY THAT WE NEED TO PROTECT LIFE ON OUR PLANET."The arts are meant to hold a contemplative mirror to society - to our very inner core – and no one shouts this louder than the film industry. So what is going on? Where are the films, the characters, and narrative arcs that reflect the changes and behaviours we need model to combat the greatest issue of our time? In the category of dramatic films, Climate Change offers us the perfect disaster film scenario, yet it’s a film that will never be made because the audience is the villain. Every single one of us. And no one wants to pay to see that film.Perhaps its as simple Hollywood isn’t making climate change films because we simply don’t want them? Have we already reached Climate Change Documentary saturation point? Al Gore’s sobering Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006) was a box office darling grossing US$50million and guaranteeing Gore a job for life on the international talk circuit. However, 11 years later the film’s sequel, imaginatively titled “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” (2017) pulled only US$5.4million and was roundly ignored by movie goers. Leonardo di Caprio’s own passion project “Before the Flood” (2016) bypassed attempts to recoup any money at the box office and was made available free to audiences via National Geographic and various platforms. Even though this was the one film to incite climate change at an individual mark, some say it fell short:"THE FILM WANTS TO SPUR INDIVIDUAL CHANGES IN BEHAVIOR, BUT THERE’S A FAIR AMOUNT IN IT THAT MIGHT DISCOURAGE YOU FROM EVEN TRYING." *The shock and awe of Climate Change on the big screen is simply overwhelming in it's graphic power. The good news is that there are plenty of new influencers, both reinvented career makers and the emerging youth crew joining the more traditional film & video makers, to help us to both understand our world and navigate our way out of this mess.