E-Shot Banner Image (6)

News archive

Wildscreen: Science in Storytelling Programme Announced

Annual event brings together world-renowned scientists and filmmakers for science communications summit in Bristol and …

Meet Owen – Our Awards & Events Coordinator

1. Tell us a bit about your role!

I am the Awards and Events Coordinator, meaning I help organise the wide range of amazing events we have popping up throughout the year like screenings, talks and awards.

Wildscreen Panda Awards 2025 Open for Entries

Wildscreen announces coveted industry awards will now take place annually.

Looking back on Wildscreen Festival 2024

“Last week over 2,000+ storytellers from over 60+ countries joined us for Wildscreen Festival 2024. The biggest global gathering of natural world storytellers in the world. And what a week it was.

With over 70+ sessions, masterclasses and workshops, 40+ film screenings, plus all the networking and side events, it was stacked. This year’s theme was ‘storytelling in a changing world’ to reflect what’s happening in both in our industry but also our planet. The Festival embodied our charity’s goal to democratise the creation of and access to nature’s stories. The love, support and sense of community throughout was palpable. Things are tough right now but if we stand alongside each other, we can evolve and adapt and do so with humanity.

The Panda Awards and the Official Selection Programme honoured the stories and storytellers pushing the genre into a new era of creativity, impact and audience.

It takes a whole village to create the Festival. None of this would be possible without our sponsors, supporters and partners. Our Headline Sponsor BBC Studios Natural History Unit; thank you for being the backbone of WSF24. To our Principal Sponsors Save Our Seas Foundation and National Geographic, Warner Chappell Production Music, Headline Sponsors of the Panda Awards Ceremony, our major sponsors, supporters and partners, thank you for helping to provide the space and opportunity for the natural world storytelling community to come together. Your support not only underpins the Festival, but cements Wildscreen the charity year-round, enabling us to deliver our mission to connect people with nature through storytelling through our outreach programmes in the UK and internationally.

Our Festival Advisory Board helped us build a programme that both supported and challenged the community. Thank you for opening your networks, being so collaborative and standing shoulder to shoulder.

Our 230+ speakers, for sharing their knowledge, creativity, hopes and fears. You made that programme the best ever.

To everyone who came, thank you for being part of our family and this amazing community. We can’t wait to follow your journey.”Lucie Muir, Wildscreen CEO

Festival Highlights

Official Selection Screening

On Monday delegates gathered in the Attenborough Auditorium at the end of the day for a celebration of our Official Selection! After hearing from Alison Barrat, Lizzie Daly and Thomas Winston, we celebrated the talent from all corners of the globe featured in this year’s Official Selection. The Programmer Prize was awarded to Orca – Black & White Gold, whilst the Sustainability Prize went to Rave On For The Avon.

On The Edge Showcase

Tuesday saw us coming together to celebrate the world premiere of the four short films produced through our Edge of Nature: Short Film Fund in collaboration with On The Edge. All of these films were created with fresh perspectives and innovative approaches, aiming to engage new audiences with nature and natural history storytelling. The films do an amazing job of this – from long-distance romance, to drag and comedy.

Experience the full films for yourself with all four shorts now available on YouTube.

WildPitch

On Wednesday we saw the return of the highly anticipated WildPitch competition, with 9 individuals/teams competing across three categories. We are thrilled to share the winners!

Human Nature – $8,000 – Arctic Blue (Ismaele Tortella & Anita Norfolk)
Conservation – $8,000 – Seed (Andres Sehinkman)
Animal Behaviour – $8,000 – (American Lion – Lia Nydes)

A huge congratulations to all those who took part in WildPitch. The Attenborough Auditorium was full of emotions and excitement during this year’s pitches. Thank you to our sponsor National Geographic for making WildPitch 2024 possible.

Panda Awards

On Thursday, the Panda Awards 2024 took place in the Bristol Harbour Hotel, sponsored by Warner Chappell Production Music. The ceremony was an incredible celebration of the international wildlife film and TV industry, recognising an array of stellar productions.

Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (Silverback Films and National Geographic) was awarded the coveted Golden Panda, as well as the Producer / Director Award and Scripted Narrative Award. Another multiple award-winner of the night was Queens (Wildstar Films), which took home the Series Award and the Production Management Team Award. Meanwhile, Alastair MacEwan was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

In total we saw a packed week featuring a total of 35 + Headliners, Sessions and Decision Maker Clinics, 10 + Masterclasses, 20 + Workshops, 20 + Screenings featuring 40+ films and 10 + Networking Opportunities, plus 1000s of connections made.

See more photos and festival highlights here via our Wildscreen Festival Image Bank.

What now?

Full hybrid and online ticket holders have access to the platform until January 2025 and those who missed out will shortly be be able to purchase post-festival tickets to explore our film library and catch up on the sessions they missed.

A huge thank you goes out to our team, our festival advisory board, our 70+ volunteers and 230+ speakers plus everyone else who helped shape and build this festival over the past year and make it the success it was. Thank you.

And finally, thanks to our sponsors, without who, non of this would be possible. See the full list here.