‘Nuisance Bear’ Trailer: In Oscar-Contending Documentary, Polar Bears And Humans Collide In Frigid North

EXCLUSIVE: It’s been called “beautifully crafted and meticulously composed,” praised by Werner Herzog, awarded at Sundance and honored with five Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations.

On Wednesday, MUBI released the trailer for Nuisance Bear and announced the theatrical release plan for the documentary directed and filmed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden: It will open in Los Angeles on November 6 and in New York, Canada and the UK on December 4. Watch the exclusive trailer above.

“For thousands of years, polar bears have migrated along the shores of Hudson Bay in northern Canada,” notes a synopsis. “Today, that ancient rhythm collides with a human world of tourism, surveillance, and control. Nuisance Bear immerses viewers in the experience of a polar bear forced to navigate tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as climate change delays the freeze and pushes bears closer to human settlements. When a sacred predator is branded a ‘nuisance,’ it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape.”

The filmmakers shot Nuisance Bear in Churchill, Manitoba, which calls itself the “Polar Bear Capital of the World.” “[W]ith striking intimacy and scale, the film observes bears that are constantly monitored, photographed, and redirected,” the synopsis continues. “In tracing this uneasy coexistence, Nuisance Bear becomes a meditation on how humans manage, commodify, and redefine wildlife—overturning the conventions of the nature documentary and reframing animals not as spectacle, but as active agents in a rapidly changing world.”

The film is produced by Jack Weisman, Gabriela Osio Vanden, Will N. Miller, Teddy Leifer, and Michael Code.

“Ultimately, our aim is to collapse the distance between audience and subject,” Weisman and Vanden said in a statement. “By immersing viewers in the bear’s perspective while exposing the human forces shaping every step of its path, we challenge them to see this landscape, both natural and political, as a shared and increasingly contested space. Nuisance Bear invites us to reconsider who truly belongs here and what coexistence demands of all of us.”

Among the many awards for the film are the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, the 2026 Werner Herzog Film Award, the top prize from the Silk Road International Film Festival in China, and the James Balog Creative Vision Award at Mountainfilm in Telluride, CO. On Tuesday, it was nominated for Best First Documentary Feature, Best Science/Nature Documentary, Best Cinematography and two other awards for the upcoming Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

“From the time we saw the film, we were mesmerized by not only the incredible story of the nuisance bear, but what it says about humanity,” commented Arianna Bocco, Global SVP of Distribution and Acquisitions, MUBI. “The film is beautiful and profound – and we are thrilled to be working with Jack and Gabriela on their stunning feature debut.”

Nuisance Bear is edited by Andres Landau; Cristóbal Tapia De Veer composed the music. Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons narrates the film. Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden serve as directors of photography, with additional cinematography by Sam Holling, Michael Code, Ian Kerr, and Jack Gawthrop. Executive producers include Nicole Stott, Emily Osborne, Harry Go, Nicole Quintero Ochoa, Eric Anoee, Joe Karetak, Alex Pritz, Moudhy Al-Rashid, Sam Frohman, Christine D’Souza, Julia Nelson, Adriana Banta, Emily Goldner, ZZ, and Mike Anders.