World Food Day 2026: A Feast of Films on Beamafilm
Beamafilm
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14/10/2026
World Food Day 2026: Films to Feed Your Curiosity
Good food. Great stories. And plenty of food for thought. Each year on 16 October, World Food Day brings people around the globe together to celebrate food while considering a fundamental question: how can we ensure a better food future for everyone?
This year’s theme, “Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow,” encourages us to think differently about the ways we grow, produce, share and enjoy our food - combining innovation with traditional knowledge to help create healthier and more sustainable food systems. And what better way to explore it than through film?
From kitchen tables to cultures around the world
Food is about so much more than what's on the plate. It carries history and tradition, evokes memories of people and places, and provides a wonderful window into cultures different from our own. This World Food Day, Beamafilm is serving up a feast of films that travel through kitchens, restaurants, farms, gardens, markets and family tables around the world. Meet passionate cooks, chefs, growers and producers. Discover extraordinary ingredients and time-honoured recipes. And explore the rituals and traditions that turn something as everyday as preparing a meal into an expression of family, culture and identity.
Rethinking how we grow our food
There’s plenty of food for thought, too. Long before our food reaches the kitchen, choices are being made about how it is grown, produced, transported and distributed — and some filmmakers are asking whether there might be better ways of doing things.
Our documentaries venture into farms, gardens and communities experimenting with permaculture, sustainable agriculture, local food systems and alternative approaches to growing and producing what we eat. These films challenge aspects of the conventional industrial growing and mass-market production cycle, while introducing people who are working with nature, reviving traditional knowledge and exploring new ideas about how we might feed ourselves more sustainably.
Along the way, they ask some big questions: Where does our food really come from? What does it cost to produce? What gets wasted? And can the decisions we make as growers, producers and consumers help nourish both people and the planet?
Pull up a chair
Of course, food should also be enjoyed! Some of life's best conversations happen around a table, and our World Food Day watchlist celebrates the simple pleasure of cooking, eating and sharing food. Whether you’re a passionate foodie, an adventurous home cook, a gardener or sustainability advocate, a traveller who plans holidays around restaurants — or simply someone who appreciates a delicious meal and a great story — there’s something on the menu for you.
So grab your favourite snack, settle in and explore our World Food Day 2026 Watchlist on Beamafilm. Happy viewing - and bon appétit!
Watch for FREE with a participating library card or on a 30-day trial. Also, you can rent a film for 72 hours.
There is something perverse in our food system. Sunraysia is one of Australia’s great food bowls with the nation’s largest agricultural export income. But residents find themselves buying produce that has travelled...
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An obscure cook from a Périgord truffle farm makes waves in the Élysée Palace when she becomes the personal chef of France's president.
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Exposing the human cost in our food supply
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A father and his daughters experience generational conflict at the dinner table.
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If the world's food production is at peak, why does a child die of hunger every second? The film reveals causes & impacts of the food supply imbalance and explores ways to feed the growing population.
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Food critic Jonathan Gold explores Los Angeles.
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A culinary lifestyle show with a royal difference. In stately homes and royal palaces we will learn about the fine tradition and glamour of the most distinguished kitchens and dining tables around the world.
A documentary that follows the career of chef Paul Liebrandt over the course of a decade in New York City
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Growing an urban food forest in a public park to feed the community.
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Danish chef Noma uproots his team to Tokyo.
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Four fantastic examples of how permaculture is being used in Australian backyards - the ultimate insight into how permaculture can be used in the home garden setting!
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A French chef helps a young girl win a culinary competition.
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Post WW2 Australia flung open its doors to anyone willing to come. One in six of these were Italians, who re-created all the things they missed from home in one particular street of a rundown Melbourne suburb.
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Find inspiration in the stories of people who are designing systems for regenerative, ecological, and resilient communities.
A documentary about three unique restaurants and their respective owners.
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An Australian community come together to explore & demonstrate a simpler way to live in response to global crises. They build tiny houses, plant veggie gardens, practise simple living & discover the associated challenges.
The ultimate nostalgia trip through everything edible in 1960s Britain.
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Cultures intersect when Paul through necessity to save his business gets a top UK chef to be head chef in their Samoan kitchen. Loyalties are tested.
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What is the solution to overfishing? Small-scale, ethically conscious fishing is typically seen as no longer financially viable. But Nate Smith’s Aotearoa New Zealand-based Gravity Fishing business is directly tackling the effects of...
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Back in 2019 we visited Kat Lavers at her Melbourne home, The Plummery.
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Modern veganism that does not want to miss anything is the new lifestyle of a young, healthy generation. But nature has not provided for humans to eat vegan food at all. Veganism has little known health hazards if used...
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A feel good film out of Africa. See how 7,000 Shona Africans moved from malnutrition to abundance. Using sustainable farming including permaculture methods they have turned their lives around.
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An insight into the wonderful world of Artist as Family: Meg, Patrick, and their youngest son, Woody. Living on an urban 1/4-acre section in a small Australian town, their property is designed using permaculture principles.
How to grow a fair and sustainable food system?
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It's hard to grow healthy orange trees. It's even harder to kill them.
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Chef Valerie Rovira shows our program host Jeff Gardner all about the teamwork and creativity required to be a chef and discusses the safety issues in the kitchen.
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UN Days