For the third year running, the story consultancy Good Energy has released its Climate Reality Check report, analyzing the season's Academy Award-nominated films. The goal? To see if the defining crisis of our time—climate change—is being represented on screen. This year, the results show a significant and hopeful shift: a record number of films passed the test.
The Test That Measures Our Reality
Inspired by the famous Bechdel-Wallace Test for female representation, the Climate Reality Check asks two deceptively simple questions of a film: Does climate change exist in this story's world? And does a character know it? Good Energy, alongside Rice University professor Dr. Matthew Schneider-Mayerso, created this metric to push for greater visibility of the climate crisis in popular narratives.
This year, researchers applied the test to the 50 films nominated for Oscars. After narrowing it down to the 16 eligible scripted, feature-length films set on Earth in the modern day, they found that five passed. That's a 31% pass rate, a notable jump from 10% in 2025 and 23% in 2024.
The Films That Made the Cut
The five films that passed the Climate Reality Check are a diverse bunch: Arco, Bugonia, Jurassic World Rebirth, The Lost Bus, and Sirāt. On the surface, they couldn't be more different—spanning sci-fi blockbusters, intimate dramas, and global thrillers. But they share a crucial common thread.
"These films reflect ordinary people—a bus driver, a beekeeper, friends at a rave—who dig deep and find the determination to meet the moment," said Anna Jane Joyner, founder and CEO of Good Energy. "In periods of uncertainty and rupture, stories give shape to chaos and help us envision a way forward. At its best, cinema reveals what's at stake and who we might choose to be."
Why This Representation Matters
This isn't just about ticking a box. It's about emotional resonance and cultural narrative. When a character in The Lost Bus acknowledges a changing climate while navigating a tense journey, or when the scientists in Jurassic World Rebirth grapple with humanity's impact on ecosystems, it moves the issue from abstract headline to lived experience. It connects the planetary to the personal.
Take Bugonia, for instance. A film centered on beekeeping could easily stay in the realm of pastoral drama. But by weaving in the reality of environmental collapse affecting its central character's livelihood, it grounds its emotional stakes in a truth audiences recognize. We don't just see a person fighting for their bees; we see someone fighting against a system failing the natural world.
Jurassic World Rebirth producer Patrick Crowley emphasized this need for authenticity, even in fantastical settings. "It's essential that the audience believes the story you're telling could really happen... And if we're reflecting the world as it exists today, that authenticity has to include our relationship with the natural world and the impact we have on it."
A Defining Shift in Storytelling
The rising pass rate over three years suggests this is more than a passing trend. It points to a growing awareness within the industry that ignoring the climate context means telling an incomplete story about modern life. These films are making heroes not out of superheroes, but out of ordinary people facing extraordinary, real-world challenges.
Good Energy celebrates this as "a defining year for climate visibility at the Oscars." The hope is that this visibility becomes the norm, not the exception—that our most popular stories continue to reflect, question, and inspire action on the most pressing reality we all share.
