In February and March, 2025, Wildscreen is taking some of their greatest hits of Wildscreen Festival on the road to share with new communities across the South West and beyond.
What a year! 2024 brought with it a whole host of inspiring new projects, events, partnerships and more to Wildscreen’s door, plus the return of some fan favourites. Join us as we look back on some of our top highlights…
12 finalists of Wildscreen ARK’s 2024 Youth Film and Photography Competition were celebrated at a special event, hosted by Steve Backshall, during last month’s Wildscreen Festival 2024.
What a year! 2024 brought with it a whole host of inspiring new projects, events, partnerships and more to Wildscreen’s door, plus the return of some fan favourites. Join us as we look back on some of our top highlights…
Science in Storytelling
In March we introduced our new one-day event putting science in the spotlight. Highlighting the importance of nurturing relationships between those with knowledge, and those that want to share it, Science in Storytelling took place at Bristol Beacon in our home city of Bristol as well as internationally online, offering a platform for scientists and filmmakers to come together to communicate science effectively and creatively. Proven to be a great success, the event will now return for its second instalment on March 24th 2025.
Wildscreen Festival Tanzania
Following on from the success of our Nairobi festival in 2023, this year, we brought Wildscreen to Arusha, Tanzania with a two-day festival featuring an incredible line-up of headline talks, panels, workshops, commissioning sessions from industry leads across East Africa and around the world. With the support of our partners BBC Studios Natural History Unit and AFRISOS, we were able to celebrate the role of Tanzania in the international wildlife film industry and showcase talent from across the continent.
Wildscreen Festival 2024
Now in its 42nd year, this years festival saw our biggest gathering of natural world storytellers yet, with over 2000 delegates joining us from 62 countries around the world including 230 speakers over a grand total of 105 sessions, masterclasses, workshops, screenings and more, none of which could have happened without the support of our fantastic sponsors, supporters and kit show exhibitors. With over 120 hours of festival content, the 2024 theme of ‘storytelling in a changing world’ reflected both what’s happening in our industry as well as our planet as a whole.
Film Competitions
This year saw our highest-ever submission rate for Wildscreen Festival 2024’s Panda Awards & Official Selection, with films coming in from over a quarter of the world’s countries! 36 films were selected as part of this years Official Selection, and over 680 submissions were reviewed between competitions. This year’s Panda Awards saw the return of the Children’s Award, and welcomed a new Special Recognition Award for Field Craft. ‘Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story’ came out on top taking home this year’s Golden Panda award sponsored by Warner Chappell Production Music.
WildPhotos
This October, we also saw the return of WildPhotos, in partnership with Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of The Year, with a world-class line-up of speakers coming together for a unique programme of talks and panels at Bristol Aquarium Megascreen, that explored the triumphs and challenges of capturing nature in photography, as well as the future of the genre. 310 delegates from 39 countries came togeather to learn from a hugely inspiring line-up of speakers.
WildPitch
This year saw the 3rd and 4th instalments of our fantastic WildPitch competition sponsored by National Geographic, taking place in Arusha and Bristol during our festivals. With hundreds of applicants, 16 finalists and 6 new winners from across the world, the competitions were open to all with a story to tell about nature and our planet, with individuals (or teams) each given 3 minutes to pitch their nature-centred film idea to a jury of leading commissioners and senior executives, in front of a live audience.
Wildscreen ARK
This year saw the launch of Wildscreen ARK, an online nature education hub for young people, built to inspire curiosity about the natural world and empower them to protect it. Launched at the beginning of the year, the first phase of the project has been focusing on UK wildlife, with a plan to expand to global species after this initial phase. With the support of Linbury Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Nisbet Trust, Rocketmakers, plus an amazing community of content contributors, the platform has become an exciting new place to discover videos, images and information all about the nature surrounding us.
Wild West Youth Film & Photography Competition
Open to young people aged 13 – 18 in the south-west, Wildscreen ARK’s Youth Film and Photography Competition ran throughout the summer, with the support of the West of England Combined Authority. Judged by a panel of expert young wildlife filmmakers and activists, the works of 12 finalists were exhibited on college green during October, with the winners announced at a special event hosted at BBC Studios in Bristol.
Wildscreen Network
Wildscreen Network hosted a plethora of networking oppotunties this year, from monthly evening drinks to our fantastic festival networking hub to summer soirees and of course our Christmas party to end off the year. We also saw several great editions to the Wildscreen Network webinar calendar, spanning a variety of topics, from sound design and composition to networking and mentoring 101.
Edge of Nature: Short Film Fund
Four emerging filmmakers and teams from around the world were each granted up to £15,000 to produce a new, innovative, boundary pushing short film that spotlighted Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered species and zones through our Edge of Nature: Short Film Fund in partnership with On The Edge. After bringing their stories to life utilising the training, support and mentorship delivered through the fund, the filmmakers premiered their finished projects at this year’s festival.
Internships
We were able to create 9 new UK and internationally-based internship opportunities this year, including 6 Wildscreen placements through partnering universities and the Nisbet Trust, ranging from communications internships to researcher roles in both our Wildscreen ARK and events teams, as well as 3 storytelling internships through our Emerging Talent Internship Scheme in partnership with WWF-UK, with a total of 2205 paid internship hours worked.
Mentorship
This year saw the delivery of 5 mentoring programmes across events and charity schemes. Wildscreen Festival saw 46 mentees paired up with 26 mentors during the festival week, both in person and online, with 70% of mentees making career progression as a result. In Tanzania, 30 mentorship matches were made, and our Edge of Nature: Short Film Fund and WWF-UK Storytelling Internship Scheme awardees were given access to curated mentorship opportunities throughout their projects and placements.
2024
It’s been a fantastic year, and these were only the highlights! This year has been absolutely jam packed with amazing festivals, projects and partnerships across the whole natural world storytelling industry, now it’s time to bring on 2025!
See you next year folks!
