Wildscreen Festival Announces 2026 Official Selection
Wildscreen is delighted to announce its Official Selection for Wildscreen Festival 2026
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Wildscreen Festival Announces 2026 Official Selection
Wildscreen is delighted to announce its Official Selection for Wildscreen Festival 2026 (19-22 October in Bath). This marks the fourth year of the Festival’s Official Selection, launched in 2020, to platform original stories, authentic voices and vital messages about the natural world.
Of the 2026 Selection, the programming team said:
“This year’s selection takes us well beyond the places and stories we most often see in environmental cinema, from West Africa and Indigenous communities to the Arctic and the Himalayas. For us, that diversity of voices and approaches was extremely important. Ultimately, the selected films don’t simply tell us that nature is under threat, but make us think differently about our place within it”.
Notable films in the Official Selection include:
- Nuisance Bear (1 x 87’) is from acclaimed filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman and backed by A24. Expanding their celebrated short into a feature, 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.
- A Day on Earth (1 x 88’, UK Premiere), an ambitious participatory documentary filmed on Earth Day 2025 by 76 Indigenous, Afro-descendant and local community creators across 28 countries, offering a rare and intimate glimpse into those living in harmony with nature.
- Wild East (1 x 36’) from National Geographic Explorer Maia Wikler and co-produced by Wildscreen Panda Award-winning presenter Eva Zu Beck.
- A Little Story About Forever (1 x 10’), features Academy Award-nominated actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo and is directed by award-winning Alaskan artist and filmmaker Max Romey. It explores environmental anxiety, hope and what it means to protect the future.
- I’ll Need to Leave For a Little While (1 x 6’, World Premiere), directed by Myles Storey, 2024 Wildscreen EDGE of Nature Grantee, combines puppetry with documentary storytelling. The film features as part of the Kindred Shorts Package, a collection of family-friendly films exploring our connections with the more-than-human world and how we might pass that sense of interconnection on to the next generation.
The Official Selection in numbers
The 2026 Official Selection will see 30 films, comprising of 12 features and 18 shorts, originating from 20 countries screen at the festival.
The selection features films with 60% of Directors identifying as belonging to an underrepresented group, with almost half (45%) of the countries of filming located in the Global South, emphasising Wildscreen’s commitment to platforming underrepresented voices in natural history storytelling.
The Official Selection features 1 World, 4 European and 11 UK Premieres taking place at Wildscreen Festival 2026.
Full list of Wildscreen Festival Official Selection 2026:
FEATURES:
- A Day on Earth, USA, Directed by Paul Redman
- Derek vs Derek, UK, Directed by James Dawson
- In the Path of Giants, Singapore/UK, Directed by Kirsty Anna Wells and Fayed Khan
- La Pietà, Iceland/Lithuania/Spain, Directed by Rafa Molés and Pepe Andreu
- Let Our Mountains Live, Finland/Norway, Directed by Håvard Bustnes
- Lost for Words, France/UK, Directed by Hannah Papacek-Harper
- Lupi Nostri (Our Wolves), Italy, Directed by Samer Angelone
- Nuisance Bear, USA, Directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman
- Overburden, Germany/USA, Directed by Sarita West
- Spirit Animal, Portugal, Directed by Ines von Bonhorst and Yuri Pirondi
- Super Nature, UK, Directed by Ed Sayers
- Whispers in the Woods, France, Directed by Vincent Munier
SHORTS:
- A Little Story About Forever, USA, Directed by Max Romey
- Amma, Do Giraffes Cry?, Czechia, Directed by Kartikeya Saxena
- From Lassen with Love, USA, Directed by Maddy Rifka
- The Glacier Wedding, USA, Directed by Amin Muhammad and Thomas Sawano
- I’ll Need to Leave for a Little While, Malaysia/Vietnam, Directed by Myles Storey
- La Mar, Mexico, Directed by Jean Chapiro Uziel
- Love Birds, USA, Directed by Elliott Kennerson and Angel Morris
- Now That We’re Sending You to The End, USA, Directed by Blake Knecht
- Orla, Czechia, Directed by Marie Lukacova
- Retorno De Las Animas (Arrival of Lost Souls), Mexico, Directed by Nicolas Diaz-Magaloni
- Sila, Slovenia, Directed by Ciril Jazbec and Lucía Flórez
- Some Kind of Refuge, USA, Directed by Alexandra Kern
- Song of Behula, Bangladesh/India, Directed by Akashdeep Banerjee
- Stone Biter: Saving the Arctic Sea Forests, Norway, Directed by Ismaele Tortella
- The Boys and the Bees, USA, Directed by Arielle C. Knight
- The Nut Farmer of Glastonbury, UK, Directed by Elsa Kent, Sam Sutherland and Jack Tierney
- The Rift, UK/Zimbabwe, Directed by Janire Najera and Matt Wright
- Wild East, Romania, Directed by Maia Wikler
The selection will be screened across Bath and Bristol, UK as part of the Wildscreen Festival 2026, with selected Director Q&A’s taking place from 17-22 October. An online film library featuring the selection will be available from 22 September 2026 for three months via the Wildscreen Festival platform.
Screening tickets will be made available on Thursday 10th September, and industry passes are now available through the Wildscreen Festival website. Discover the full line-up of the 30 Wildscreen Festival 2026 Official Selection productions here.