BIOPARC Valencia has a cinema, and this autumn it is running four marine documentaries in it. The screenings are a lead-in to the fifth edition of the Wild Oceans FilmFest, which runs at BIOPARC Acuario de Gijón from November 2 to 7. It is the first time the festival has extended to Valencia and to BIOPARC Fuengirola, and both parks are showing the four films that won previous editions.
What is the Wild Oceans FilmFest?
It is an international marine film festival, run by the Fundación BIOPARC since 2022. The foundation’s stated reason for building a film festival rather than another exhibit is that the artistic view is a powerful way to move people, and that the point of the BIOPARC parks, in Valencia, Fuengirola and the Gijón aquarium, is to show the beauty of nature in order to mobilize people to conserve it.
The festival has become an international reference point for marine film, in the foundation’s description of it. For readers in the United States, the useful comparison is a curated documentary series attached to a zoological institution rather than a film market: the films are the draw, and the conservation argument rides along with them.
The four films, and when they screen
All four are shown in their original English with Spanish subtitles.
The series was due to open on Sunday, September 13 at 6 p.m. with Sea of Shadows, the National Geographic Documentary Films production produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. It follows the vaquita, the porpoise of the Gulf of California, which BIOPARC describes as the most endangered marine mammal on the planet, with between seven and 10 individuals left.
On Saturday, September 26 at 5 p.m. comes Soul of the Ocean, which BIOPARC calls a reference work in underwater filming and which draws on more than 10 years of footage of cooperation between species.
On Saturday, October 10 at 5 p.m., during Spain’s October holiday weekend, the park shows Blue Carbon: Nature’s Hidden Power, a CNN Films production connecting scientific research, marine conservation and contemporary culture.
The series closes on Sunday, October 25 at 4 p.m. with Ocean with David Attenborough, from National Geographic. BIOPARC notes that the film broke box office records and frames the screening as its tribute to Attenborough on the occasion of his 100 years.
Seating is limited, and BIOPARC says it will publish fuller information on attending closer to the dates. The park had not stated a ticket price or whether the screenings are included with admission at the time of its announcement.
How many vaquitas are actually left?
BIOPARC gives two slightly different figures in the same announcement, seven to 10 in the body of the piece and 10 in its summary line. Either way the order of magnitude is the point, and an independent authority lands in the same place: NOAA Fisheries states that fewer than 30 vaquitas remain in the wild and, further down the same page, that the species “now number as few as ten animals.” NOAA lists the vaquita as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act, a listing dating to February 8, 1985, and notes it is on Appendix I of CITES.
NOAA attributes the collapse to entanglement in gillnets, and specifically to illegal fishing for totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is trafficked. It describes a decline of close to 50 percent of the population per year beginning around 2011. That is the animal at the center of the film opening this series, which is a reasonable argument for showing it in a room full of people who came to look at fish.
Why a zoo runs a film festival
Marine conservation programming has become a standard part of the aquarium calendar rather than an add-on, and the formats vary widely. The Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town built its Marine Protected Area Day into an international observance, and the Texas State Aquarium put the same argument into permanent architecture with Ocean Odyssey. A film series is the cheapest version of the idea and the easiest to repeat, which is presumably why the Fundación BIOPARC is now running it across three sites instead of one.
Source: BIOPARC Valencia, with vaquita population and listing detail from NOAA Fisheries.
Quick answers
- When are the Wild Oceans FilmFest screenings at BIOPARC Valencia?
Four sessions. Sea of Shadows was due on Sunday, September 13 at 6 p.m.; Soul of the Ocean on Saturday, September 26 at 5 p.m.; Blue Carbon: Nature's Hidden Power on Saturday, October 10 at 5 p.m.; and Ocean with David Attenborough on Sunday, October 25 at 4 p.m. All are in English with Spanish subtitles.
- When and where is the festival itself?
The fifth edition runs at BIOPARC Acuario de Gijon from November 2 to 7, 2026. The Valencia and Fuengirola screenings are a lead-in to it, and both parks are showing the four films that won earlier editions.
- What does it cost?
BIOPARC did not state a price or say whether the screenings are included with park admission. It said seating in the park's cinema is limited and that fuller information on attending would follow.
- How many vaquitas are left?
BIOPARC gives seven to 10 in the body of its announcement and 10 in its summary line. NOAA Fisheries says fewer than 30 remain and, on the same page, that the species now numbers as few as ten animals. NOAA lists the vaquita as Endangered under the Endangered Species Act, listed on February 8, 1985, and on Appendix I of CITES.
