Filmmakers Joshua and Rebecca Tickell claimed the Golden Globes Prize for Documentary at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Monday, winning the honor for Groundswell, a 94-minute film that frames regenerative agriculture as humanity’s most actionable weapon against climate change.
The prize, presented in partnership with the Artemis Rising Foundation, was announced at Plage des Palmes on the Croisette. Actor and producer Kelvin Harrison Jr. handed the award to the Tickells, who accepted alongside their two children and received a €10,000 cash prize. The jury included Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne and Academy Award-winning producers Regina K. Scully and Geralyn White Dreyfous.
Shot across five continents, the film encounters farmers, scientists, and Indigenous leaders reshaping humanity’s relationship to land. Demi Moore narrates; Woody Harrelson co-executive produces. Prince William also appears, introducing pioneering regenerative rancher Gabe Brown, passing the torch from one generation of stewards to the next. The documentary arrives on Prime Video on June 5th.
The Golden Globes Prize for Documentary was selected from nonfiction films screening at Cannes and its sidebars, and is designed to honor a filmmaker’s sustained engagement with the documentary form over time, rather than a single film. The award was previously given to Eugene Jarecki for his Julian Assange film and to Ross McElwee for Remake at Venice.
Accepting, Joshua Tickell called it “a 27-year journey since my mentor put a Hi-8 camera in my hand and said, ‘film everything that happens.'” Rebecca Tickell used her speech to translate the trilogy’s impact into acreage: when the earlier films were released, American farmland in regenerative transition stood at 3.5 million acres — a figure now exceeding 86 million. Their stated goal is one billion acres globally, which they describe as the tipping point needed to stabilize the climate at scale.
Groundswell is the final chapter of a trilogy that began with Kiss the Ground (2020) and Common Ground (2023). Where Kiss the Ground introduced the science of soil regeneration and Common Ground exposed the systemic failures of industrial farming, Groundswell expands the lens to agricultural systems worldwide, showing how regenerative agriculture can rebuild soil health, sequester carbon, restore biodiversity, and strengthen local economies.
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Alongside the Cannes premiere, the Tickells launched the One Billion Acres campaign. Nespresso became the first company to sign the pledge, committing to have at least 75 percent of its agricultural supply chain verified or certified regenerative.
The jury praised the Tickells for their “longstanding contributions to documentary storytelling and distinctive artistic voice,” adding that “in a world where hope feels audacious,” the filmmakers stand out for inspiring audiences with real solutions. Rebecca Tickell framed the mission plainly: “We are leaving the age of extraction and entering the age of regeneration.”
