Official
Selection

A global launchpad for authentic storytellers and original stories across the world.

Submissions for the 2024 Official Selection are now open!

About the Selection

Introduced in 2020, our Official Selection showcases creative and bold stories that spark positive and restorative action for our natural world, acting as a global launchpad for new and diverse voices. From short and feature films to extended reality productions, these entries from amateur and experienced filmmakers alike are sure to inspire.

Our truly international selection is reviewed by a group of pre-selectors, then curated by a diverse team of programmers.

The Official Selection is separate from the Panda Awards, our industry- and craft-focused film competition.

Meet the Directors

You’ve watched the original stories on our film library, now meet the Directors behind them.

Wildscreen are releasing free-to-access Q&As on our YouTube Channel. Start watching today!

Trophies

Were you selected or an award winner for our 2022 Official Selection? Order duplicate certificates and trophies for the rest of your team before Fri 28 Oct.

 ☆ Film Screenings

After a two year hiatus, we’re excited to be hosting award-winning screenings in unique Bristol venues.

With world premieres on the cards, don’t miss this opportunity to watch original stories and participate in Director Q&As.

The screenings between 10-15 October are supported by the BFI, awarding funds from The National Lottery

Submitting Your Film

Submitting your film for consideration in Wildscreen’s 2024 Official Selection has never been simpler.  

Now accepting submissions exclusively through Filmfreeway, our Earlybird submission discount window opens January 23rd, and will remain open till February 23rd. 

Submissions will of course stay open after this date, though at a slightly higher price, until our final Late deadline closes on May 10th. So what are you waiting for? Get those submissions in! 

Rules & Guidelines for 2024 submitters are listed on our Filmfreeway page, or you can read them in PDF format here.

Our Official Selection is split into two categories: short films, where we accept any film under 30 minutes, including immersive technologies (VR / AR), and Mid-length & Feature films, where we encourage any submitters who’s work clocks in over the 30 minute mark.  

In 2024 we are on the lookout for stories reflecting one or more of the following: 

– Authentic, Indigenous & Underrepresented Voices 
– Biodiversity & Climate Change 
– Interrelationships between Humans and Nature 
– Next Generation of Stewards and Storytellers 
– Solutions & Impact 

Special Award Recipients

As part of our Official Selection, three special awards are also granted to outstanding productions which go out of their way to impress our programmers and audience.

These are the Programmer Prize, The Audience Prize, and Sustainable Merit, with the recipients of the Programmer Prize and Audience Award receiving a cash prize.

Important Submission Dates

  • January 23rd – Earlybird Window Opens
  • February 23rd – Regular Window Opens & Earlybird Window Shuts
  • April 12th – Late Window Opens & Regular Window Shuts
  • May 10th – Final deadline for entries

For more information see our Festival FAQs.

Submitting Your Film

Submitting your film for consideration in Wildscreen’s 2024 Official Selection has never been simpler.  

Now accepting submissions exclusively through FilmFreeway, our Earlybird submission discount window is now open, and will remain open till February 23rd. 

About The Official Selection

Our Official Selection is split into two categories: short films, where we accept any film under 30 minutes, including immersive technologies (VR / AR), and Mid-length & Feature films, where we encourage any submitters who’s work clocks in over the 30 minute mark.  

In 2024 we are on the lookout for stories reflecting one or more of the following: 

• Authentic, Indigenous & Underrepresented Voices 
• Biodiversity & Climate Change 
• Interrelationships between Humans and Nature 
• Next Generation of Stewards and Storytellers 
• Solutions & Impact 

How To Enter

Before submitting your work, please review our competition Rules & Guidelines. You can also listen to them as an accessible audio recording.

All submissions can be made through our submissions portal on FilmFreeway.

Important Dates

  • January 23rd – Earlybird Window Opens
  • February 23rd – Regular Window Opens & Earlybird Window Shuts
  • April 12th – Late Window Opens & Regular Window Shuts
  • May 10th – Final deadline for entries
For more information see our Festival FAQs.

Special Award Recipients

As part of our Official Selection, three special awards are also granted to outstanding productions which go out of their way to impress our programmers and audience.

These are the Programmer Prize, The Audience Prize, and Sustainable Merit, with the recipients of the Programmer Prize and Audience Award receiving a cash prize.

The 2022 Selection

This year, Wildscreen is highlighting 32 productions which tell unique and original stories about our natural world created by authentic storytellers from over 16 countries across the globe. 

Programme Chair, Lucy Mukerjee said, “the programming team and I had a remarkable experience curating the 2022 Wildscreen Official Selections, traveling all over the world via these eye-opening stories, following elusive species, discovering little known ecosystems, and witnessing the lengths that some are going to fight the climate emergency and restore the environment. “

Special Award Recipients

As part of our Official Selection, three special awards are also granted to outstanding productions which go out of their way to impress our programmers and audience.

The recipients of the Programmer Prize and Audience Award each receive a cash prize.

Programmer PrizePanteras, Living Among Wild Cats (Spain)

Audience Award – Wild Romania (Romania)

Sustainability Merit Jaguaretê – Avá – Pantanal in Flames (Brazil)

Full Official Selection

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All That Breathes  India

Before They Fall

Cam William MacArthur

United States

CAUGHT

Emma Silverstone-Segal

Canada

Exposure 

Holly Morris

Canada, US

Gondwana 

Ben Joseph Andrews

Australia

HARRIER

Ciara Flint

United Kingdom

Hypha

Dir: Natalia Cabrera, Ex Pr: Selva Gonzalez

Chile

I Am Capable 

Roxy Furman

United Kingdom

Jaguaretê – Avá – Pantanal in Flames 

Dir: Lawrence Wahba Pr: Jefferson Pedace 

Brazil

 

JOY

Aner Etxebarria Moral

Spain

LYNX 

Laurent Geslin

Switzerland

MIWENE 

Keith Heyward, Jennifer Berglund, Gange Anita Yeti Enomenga, Obe Beatriz Nenquimo Nihua

Ecuador

Mother of the Sea 

Nicolas Brown

Netherlands

My Garden of a Thousand Bees 

Dir: Dave Allen, Pr: Gaby Bastyra, Filmmaker: Martin Dohrn

UK

MYRIAD. Where we connect.

Michael Grotenhoff, Christian Zipfel

Germany

Panteras, living among Wild Cats

Andoni Canela

Spain

Path of the Panther

Eric Bendick

US

Rebellion

Maia Kenworthy, Elena Sánchez Bellot

United Kingdom

SATOYAMA Niigata: Living with Snow

Akihiko IDA

Japan

Saving Giraffes: The Long Journey Home

Dir: Tyler Austin Schiffman, Pr:  Leslie Schwerin

Kenya

Shaba

Ami Vitale

Kenya/UK/US

Stories of You and I

John Davies

UK

The Age of Nature: Awakening

Peter Lown

UK

The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness

Florian Schulz, Myles Connolly

US

The Birdcarver

Felipe Rosa

Brazil

The Caretakers

Tom Hanner

United Kingdom

THE EGG – BURSTING INTO LIFE

Astrid Miller, Johannes Berger, Stephan Krasser

Austria

The Green Planet: Human Worlds

Elisabeth Oakham

UK

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Tigre Gente

Trees for Tamarins 

Whitney Beer-Kerr, Geoff Luck

United States

Whales in a Changing Ocean

Richard Sidey

New Zealand

Wild Romania

Dan Dinu, Cosmin Dumitrache

Romania

Enjoy the Stories

Many of our Official Selection films are available on the Wildscreen Festival event platform.

Virtual Passes are still available to book to enjoy the film library until 16 December.

Our programmers

We have assembled a diverse team of international programmers to curate our Official Selection. They curated our final selection of productions to showcase at the Festival.

Meet the team spanning four continents.

Lucy Jane Mukerjee (she/her)

Senior Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival

Lucy is a queer British-Indian programming disruptor and social impact film curator. Her area of expertise is at the intersection of activism and the arts, specifically where programming and inclusion meet. Since 2018, she has been a Senior Programmer at the Tribeca Festival, where she is responsible for selecting the festival’s narrative and documentary feature films, and strategizing the organization’s LGBTQIA+ outreach.

(Connecticut, USA)

Elizabeth Swanson Andi (she/her)

Elizabeth is a Napu Kichwa visual storyteller, environmental science educator, and community organizer from the Santu Urku/Venecia Kichwa Community on the Napo River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is greatly inspired by the land and people who shaped her. She is motivated by not only the joy of her people but also the loss she and her community have experienced at the face of deforestation and extractivist efforts. Elizabeth believes in the power of collective action and impact storytelling and its crucial role for a viable future.

 (Ecuador)

Chioma Onyenwe (she/her)

Founder & Filmmaker, Raconteur Productions 

Chioma is the founder of Raconteur Productions, a Film Programmer as well as a Creative Indaba Fellow. Drawing on her interdisciplinary training from Imperial College London, Met Film School and Relativity Los Angeles, she has released over 20 productions, telling stories that lie in the intersection of history, culture & identity. In her spare time she is an avid deep-sea diver and mountaineer.

(Nigeria)

James Reed (he/him)

Director, Underdog Films 

James is an Academy-award winning director who runs Underdog Films. He won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature  and Wildscreen’s coveted Golden Panda Award with My Octopus Teacher, which was broadcast on Netflix in 2020.

(Bristol, UK)

Amada Torruella (she/they)

Programmer & Independent Filmmaker

Amada is a Central American director, cinematographer, impact producer and film programmer based between El Salvador and San Diego. Amada explores the body-territory and is interested in portraits of the landscape. Their work has been featured at Blackstar Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Skirball Cultural Center in LA, amongst others.

(El Salvador & San Diego, USA)

Emma Hughes (she/her)

Interactive Arts Producer, Curator and Outdoor Instructor and Educator

Alongside her work as an outdoor instructor and workshop facilitator, Emma Hughes is a producer and curator specialising in interactive and immersive experience making. As an advocate of the arts and outdoors for health and wellbeing, she places community at the heart of her practice, facilitating creative expression and engagement through making and producing work that is playful, accessible and innovative in its use of emerging technology.

(Bristol, UK)

 

The pre-selectors

Our international team of pre-selectors were integral for analysing the high volume of submissions we received into the second edition of our Official Selection. Their reviews created a shortlist of original productions which were shared with our programmers.

Amy Thompson UK

Ana Luisa Santos The Netherlands

Andrea Small USA

 

Anne Weinhold UK

 

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Benjamin Owuor Nigeria

Carole Larsen Canada

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Christian Robson UK

Claire Spelling UK

 

Coralie Migné France

David Pokupec Slovenia

Edo Dzafic Germany

 

Evelyn Smalley UK

 

Hannah Galyop Pam-Hworo Nigeria

Isabelle Groc Canada

Jeremy Hogarth Australia

 

Joe Galuszka UK

 

Kalyan Varma India

Kelly Cherry UK

Laura Pratt UK

 

Martha Fernanda Alvarez Gastelum Mexico

 

Michael Mwang’ombe Kenya

Michael Sanderson The Netherlands

Nadege Laici UK

Nick Samuel Lord UK

Robson Henrique de Carvalho Brazil

Rosa Prosser UK

Sarah-Jane Walsh UK

 

Tom Land UK

 

Share your Story

The Official Selection is part of Wildscreen Festival and will open call for entries again in January 2024.

Follow our page on FilmFreeway to receive updates.