Award-winning wildlife film-maker Victoria Stone dies aged 66
Victoria Stone - In Memoriam - 1958-2024
We are very sad to share the news that Victoria Stone died on Sunday 17th November 2024.
The beautiful tribute below is from her partner in life and work, Mark Deeble, shared on their Deeble & Stone Facebook Page:
"Dear friends, Vicky died yesterday.
I can’t begin to condense a lifetime of love and shared experiences into just a few sentences.
For almost 45 years, we were inseparable - together almost every hour of every day, every week, every month… We traveled far and soared high because we were a team.
Vicky was determined, fair, and forthright, and beneath it, deeply creative. She made things happen. Never one to seek the limelight, she let her work, our films, speak for themselves.
Two years ago, Vicky was diagnosed with advanced cancer. Yesterday, she died peacefully at home, looking out over the cliffs and the ocean she so loved.
She was surrounded by love - family and friends she had brought together, relationships she had nurtured. Her life was one of giving out to others and giving back to the world.
I loved her so much and I can’t believe she has gone."
We send him and all of Vicky's family and many friends our sincerest and deepest condolences, with love.
"Victoria Stone and her partner Mark Deeble have worked together in Africa for over 30 years, telling wildlife stories that have been shown in more than 140 countries with audiences in excess of 600 million. "The Queen of Trees" was called 'a masterpiece' by Sir David Attenborough. Amongst its many awards are a Peabody and United Nations Award. Emmy®-winning "Mzima" joins a long filmography which includes "A Little Fish in Deep Water", "Tale of the Tides", "The Tides of Kirawira", and "Here Be Dragons". Their films have won over 100 international awards in recognition of their artistry and wildlife storytelling. At the prestigious 2020 Jackson Wild Media Awards, "The Elephant Queen" won four awards, including Best Feature. Victoria has an MA from the Royal College of Art and her work has included cinematography, producing, directing and editing." imdb.com/name/nm1564649/bio
A great legacy: The Elephant Queen: How a wildlife documentary inspired rural Kenya – Powerful, award-winning nature films like ‘The Elephant Queen’ have the potential to reshape attitudes and garner support for elephants in rural communities, according to a new study.
New study shows film can transform attitudes towards elephants. Powerful, award-winning nature films like ‘The Elephant Queen’, ??made by filmmakers Mark Deeble, Victoria Stone and Etienne Oliff, have the potential to reshape attitudes and garner support for elephants in rural communities, according to a new study. The findings are crucial at a time when Kenya and other parts of Africa are grappling with escalating human-elephant conflict (HEC). Read: savetheelephants.org/news/the-elephant-queen-how-a-wildlife-documentary-inspired-rural-kenya
RIP Vicky
Watch: The Queen of Trees by Deeble & Stone
One of the most amazing stories in the natural world -- a tale of intrigue and drama, set against grand Africa and its wildlife.
The fig tree and fig wasp differ in size a billion times over, but neither could exist without the other. Their extraordinary relationship underpins a complex web of dependency that supports animals from ants to elephants. Each fig is a microcosm -- a stage set for birth, sex and death.
One of the most amazing stories in the natural world -- a tale of intrigue and drama, set against grand Africa and its wildlife.
The Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival CALL FOR ENTRY is Open for Entries until December 16th!
Turkey's capital Ankara will host a brand-new festival in 2025.
The 1st Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival, will take place from the 15-18th of May, 2025. Entries opened on the 1st of July and will close on the 16th of December 2024.
The festival is organised to draw national and international attention to Anatolia's wildlife, contribute to nature conservation efforts and support the development of wildlife documentary filmmaking. It is aimed to bring together wildlife documentaries and teams from many countries of the world with both the audience and professional or amateur wildlife documentarians, to follow the innovations in the world, to be a pioneer in some areas and to be instrumental in collaborations and co-productions.
The festival, which will include four days of documentary film screenings, Q&As with film crews, workshops and seminars, will also have a competition section where wildlife documentaries from all over the world will be evaluated in short and feature categories.
Founded by director and producer Ece Soydam, who has been producing wildlife documentaries at TRT for nearly twenty years, the festival is organised in partnership with Çigdem Education, Environment and Solidarity Association and Nature Conservation Center, with the support of United Nations GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), European Union Sivil Düs¸ün Programme and Ayten & Aycan. The search for resources continues in order to make the organization, to which various embassies will also contribute, more comprehensive.
Submissions for the festival competition will be open until December 16th, 2024 through filmfreeway.com. Inviting all wildlife documentary filmmakers from Türkiye and across the globe to apply to the festival, the festival team continues to work to present a full program for the 1st Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival on May 15 – 18th, 2025.
I'm going to be a member of the jury for the Short Documentary Category! JP
On the 13th of November, I (Jason Peters!) was announced as a member on the Short Doc category at AWFF 2025.
The announcement read: "Jason Peters, who is responsible for managing wildlife-film.com, the platform uniting wildlife documentary filmmakers globally, has joined our festival jury for the Short Documentary category! Thank you, Jason!"
I am very happy to be involved, and so looking forward to hearding to Ankara next May!
Watch Brock InitiativeWildlife Winners & Losers films on Turkey!
Richard Brock has spent a considerable amount of time making films in Turkey.
In 2017 he released a quintuple of WW&L films about Turkey under the banner "Turkey's Treasures" ... "With a local guide Zafer we reveal rare monk seals, fishing conservation and local life."
Watch the promo below and if you would like to see more of this story please follow the links to watch the films 1-5:
When they're not delivering babies, what do white storks get up to? Seen through their eyes in fascinating Southwest Turkey we join the birds as they rear their own babies.
Cary Grant Comes Home For The Weekend Festival Panel Discussion: Animal Magic!
Join us for an engaging conversation chaired by BBC Free Thinking’s Matthew Sweet.
This illustrated panel will explore the world of animals in cinema, spotlighting Cary Grant’s work with animals in films like Monkey Business, Bringing Up Baby, and The Awful Truth.
Experts Michael Lawrence from the University of Sussex and VFX Supervisor Theo Jones from Framestore will discuss the evolution of VFX in depicting animals on screen, from early practical effects to today’s sophisticated CGI.
We’ll explore how modern techniques would handle classic scenes, showcasing Framestore’s recent creature work alongside early VFX solutions.
This event will also address the outdated practices and ethical considerations of using real animals in films, reflecting on how digital technologies are reshaping our relationship with them.
This event follows a screening of I’m No Angel, where Mae West stars as a lion tamer, and leads into our showings of Monkey Business, featuring a chimpanzee, and Bringing Up Baby, with leopards Nissa and Princess.
We’ll spotlight leopard trainer and stuntwoman Olga Celeste, and delve into the visual effects of Bringing Up Baby, including Cary Grant’s fear of the leopard and Katharine Hepburn’s contrasting fearlessness.
Additionally, we’ll discuss Asta the dog’s roles in both Bringing Up Baby and The Awful Truth.
This event is perfect for film and VFX enthusiasts, offering insights into the evolution of animal representation in cinema and the ethical implications of these practices.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn from industry experts and experience a blend of classic and contemporary filmmaking techniques!
All winners were announced during the Flamingo Award Ceremony. After a careful selection, the jury members - Bero Beyer, Arjan Dwarshuis, Aniek Moonen and Cees van Kempen - have come to a decision... The winners of the Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam 2024 are:
Watch Wildlife Films from your Couch with WFFR Online
Until December 5, 2024, you can watch almost all films* from this edition online for a month!
You can buy a single ticket per film (€5) or a passe-partout for all films (€25).
How does it work? After purchasing a single ticket, you can watch the film for 48 hours, with a passe-partout you can watch all films unlimited until December 5, regardless of the purchase date.
Here you can find the complete online program and you can buy individual films and passe-partouts: wffr.filmchief.com/hub
*Only 'De Wilde Noordzee' cannot be viewed online. All other films from the physical festival can also be viewed online.
Animal Activism On and Off Screen examines the relationship between animal advocacy and the film and television industries.
Leading scholars, activists, and film industry professionals critically analyse the ways in which animal activism has been represented inside and outside film and television programs in relation to the politics of celebrity, vegan, and animal activism.
Case studies include UK, US, and German television crime fiction, feature-length advocacy documentaries such as Blackfish (2013), The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013), The Animal People (2019) and Meat the Future (2020); fiction films such as Okja (2017) and Cloud Atlas (2012); as well as celebrity chefs, French activism and celebrity activists Pamela Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix and James Cromwell.
By exploring three key aspects of the current context for animal rights: representations of activism on screen; activist texts and their reception; and celebrity vegans and animal advocates, Animal Activism On and Off Screen evaluates the efficacy of advocacy narratives in film and on television, and offers important insights intended to inform animal advocacy strategies and campaigns.
“A great read for those interested in activism, how the media spreads messages, and how the cultural landscape around us is formed.” – Anthony Morris, Books+Publishing
Published by Sydney University Press on the 3rd of July 2024
A gift for you from the Arctic ... and Greenpeace
Greenpeace been in the Arctic - a beautiful, fragile ocean on the top of the world that is home to incredible animals like blue whales, polar bears and cold-water corals.
And to say thank you for being a valued oceans defender, we brought back something just for you: a special live performance from Grammy award-winning musician Jacob Collier and Norwegian star AURORA.
The Arctic provided a magical setting for a unique musical experience. But that isn’t the only reason Jacob and AURORA joined us there. They were also helping us highlight the impacts destructive human activity is having on this site of astounding natural beauty.
With the ice melting and the oceans warming, sea life is struggling and the oceans’ ability to fight the climate crisis - through things like carbon storage and heat absorption - is being damaged. At the same time, Norway has become the first country to open up the Arctic to deep sea mining, putting unique ecosystems in this special place at risk.
To defend the Arctic and our oceans as a whole, Greenpeace is campaigning to stop the deep sea mining industry before it starts, and calling for governments to protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
In September 2023, Greenpeace International published 30×30: From Global Ocean Treaty to Protection at Sea setting out the political process to deliver protection for the global oceans. The report explores how cumulative pressures on the high seas are increasing, and quantifies for the first time the growing fishing activity in areas earmarked for protection, using data from Global Fishing Watch.
Our global oceans and all life on Earth hang in the balance.
Add your name to call on leaders to create new ocean sanctuaries and protect our blue planet.
The Battle for Middlewick Ranges by Ross Birnie coming soon!
In Colchester, a battle is raging for one of the last great wildlife refuges in Essex. Middlewick Ranges is home to rare acid grassland—the largest in the county—as well as breeding Skylarks, Barbastelle bats, and the UK’s second-largest Nightingale population.
But now, the Ministry of Defence and developers are pushing to pave it over, risking everything these habitats support. This includes 1,500 species of invertebrates, many of which are threatened by local and national extinction.
The real story? Key ecological data, warnings from Natural England, and an essential 2017 report highlighting Middlewick’s value were withheld from councillors before a decisive vote. Reports were manipulated by commercial consultants to downgrade habitats, prioritising profit over wildlife-rich green spaces.
This isn’t just about one site; it’s a glimpse into a broken planning system where planning officers and developers ignore environmental guidelines; even legally safeguarded wildlife isn’t safe.
National organisations like Buglife, RSPB, and Essex Wildlife Trust have joined grassroots campaigners in this fight, which has now become a stand for nature across the UK.
In a time of biodiversity crisis, The Battle for Middlewick calls for action to save our wild spaces.
Will you join the fight? Watch, share and help protect the irreplaceable.
WWT's Waterlands series 3, streaming now – Megan McCubbin returns to take things as they flow!
The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's British Podcast Award nominated podcast returns for a third series all about the heartbeat of our lands, rivers.
Join host Megan McCubbin to learn about how rivers and life have always been intertwined, providing vital homes for a host of our favourite species and shaping our way of life to this day.
Immerse yourself in the sounds of the riverbank, crashing tides, wild marshes filled with birds and the underwater sounds of the humble pond as we bring to life our incredible wetlands - and reveal their power to shape our future for the better. Join zoologist and wildlife presenter Megan McCubbin as she explores the wonders of our watery worlds and how wetlands have fed, inspired and transported us from countryside to city, source to sea. Our wetlands bring us together across species and continents. They’re the source of life as we know it. Yet wetlands only cover about 6% of our planet, and they’re disappearing fast, despite the fact that people and 40% of all wildlife are reliant on them. This is a podcast all about the wonderful, sometimes surprising and often underappreciated watery places around us, and how they can help us with some of the biggest issues facing life on this planet. You’ll never look at a marsh or pond the same way again.
Agricultural waste accounts for 40 per cent of water pollution, compared to 36 per cent for sewage ... Campaigners have told i they are worried that the independent review into the water sector is sidelining the biggest source of UK river pollution – slurry from cattle and other agricultural waste.
Water is life.
Yet here, in Britain, it's on life support.
We are marching to reclaim our right to clean, healthy and abundant water for all people across the UK.
March for Clean Water is a national gathering of all those concerned and outraged about the state of our waterways.
Together, we can resolve this public health emergency by demanding the new government enforce the current law and deliver new legislation that will end all pollution, and restore our rivers, waterways, seas and reservoirs to full health by 2030.
Billy & Molly wins three at Wildscreen Panda Awards
Natural history festival, Wildscreen has named the winners of this year’s Panda Awards with the Golden Panda Award going to Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, made by Silverback Films for National Geographic.
A unanimous decision by the jury, Billy & Molly was considered the best production for its “level of emotion, ability to touch hearts, and how it illustrated the capabilities of the future of the wildlife genre.”
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story also won the Producer / Director Award and Scripted Narrative Award. Silverback Films, producers of Billy & Molly, also took home the Cinematography Award for Wild Isles: Ocean as well as being nominated in several categories.
Queens, from Wildstar Films, took home two wins: the Series Award and Production Management Team Award. The jury noted that the production team “set up an innovative working practice and production model with an ethos of mentoring and being parents and job sharing.” The programme took home the Series Award for its innovation in moving the genre forward whilst inviting a younger audience with its structure and use of modern/pop music, and the theme of motherhood as a unifying thread between the episodes.
Cinematographer and Director, Alastair MacEwen, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. With a career spanning more than 25 years, MacEwen has made significant contributions to the wildlife film and TV industry, with credits including Our Planet, Planet Earth II, Earth’s Tropical Islands, Perfect Planet and Wild Isles.
The Impact Award went to PATROL (Juli Films and Perpetuo Films – Nicaragua / USA), a powerful film examining the role of cattle ranching in deforestation; whilst the Sustainability Award was given to The Watches 2023 (BBC Studios Natural History Unit – UK) in recognition of the production’s innovative sustainability efforts.
Other winners include Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers (Behaviour Award), Erica Rugabandana for the film Living with Lions (Kuishi Na Simba) (Emerging Talent Award), and Chimp Empire (Editing Award and Music Award).
Full list of winners and nominees
Special awards
Warner Chappell Production Music Golden Panda Award:
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK
Lifetime Achievement Award:
Alastair MacEwen
Christopher Parsons Outstanding Achievement Award:
Jo Sarsby
Behaviour Award – sponsored by Off the Fence
Winner: Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers – EP1: Meet the Raptors Terra Mater Studios and Dandy Lion Films – Austria Lions of the Skeleton Coat
Into Nature Productions – Austria / Netherlands Wild Secrets – Between Water and Woods
Doclights – Germany Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough – Episode 2: Love and Rivals Humble Bee Films and Infield Fly Productions – UK / Canad)
Children’s Award – sponsored by Wildscreen ARK
Winner: A Real Bug’s Life, Ep. The Big City Plimsoll Productions – UK Dr Mark’s Animal Show
Wild Africa – Nigeria / South Africa Save Our Wildlife
Fresh Start Media – UK
Cinematography Award – sponsored by Films at 59
Winner: Wild Isles: Ocean Silverback Films – UK Unwavering
Chris Schmid Studio – Switzerland Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK
Editing Award – sponsored by National Geographic
Winner: Chimp Empire EP1
Key editor: Sam Rogers – Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK Earthsounds
Key editor: Alex Boyle – Offspring Films – UK / US Tiger
Key editor: Nigel Buck BFE – Wildstar Films – UK / India
Emerging Talent Award – sponsored by BBC Studios Natural History Unit
Winner: Erica Francis Rugabandana for the film Living with Lions (Kuishi Na Simba)
Curiosity Stream, Ouragan Films and Siima Media – Tanzania
Hugh Allen for the film The Thin Green Line
National Film and Television School – UK / Cyprus
Dan Short for the film Intercellular
UWE – UK
Field Craft Special Recognition Award – sponsored by Terra Mater Studios
Winner: Sammy Munene, Specialist Filming Driver
Impact Award – sponsored by Save Our Seas Foundation
Winner: PATROL Juli Films and Perpetuo Films – Nicaragua / USA We Are Guardians
Appian Way, Random Hood, Highly Flammable, Mídía Índigena, One Forest – US RHINO MAN
The Global Conservation Corps – US / South Africa
Music Award
Winner: Chimp Empire EP1
Composer: Willian Goodchild – Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK Mammals – Forest
Composer: Thomas Farnon – BBC Natural History Unit, BBC America, ZDF, Youku, France Télévisions for BBC – UK Living With Leopards
Composer: Paul Leonard-Morgan – A Wild Space Production In Association with Natural History Film Unit & Freeborne Media – UK / Botswana
On-Screen Talent Award – sponsored by University of the West of England
Winner: Malaika Vaz in Sacrifice Zone
Untamed Planet in association with the National Geographic Society – US
Eoin Warner in Ireland’s Wild Islands – Episode 3: Echoes of the Past
Crossing The Line Productions – Ireland
Hamza Yassin in Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey Silverback Films – UK
Bertie Gregory in Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory – Episode: Antarctic Killer Waves
Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK
Producer / Director Award – sponsored by Passion Pictures
Winner: Charlie Hamilton-James and Jeff Wilson for Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK
Thomas Winston for Mollie’s Pack
Grizzly Creek Films and IMAX Original Documentaries – US
James Reed and Callum Webster for Chimp Empire EP4
Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK / US
Production Management Team Award – sponsored by Humble Bee Films
Winner: Queens
Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK Frozen Planet II
BBC Studios – UK The Earthshot Prize 2023
Studio Silverback – UK
Scripted Narrative Award
Winner: Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Key scriptwriter: Charlie Hamilton-James – A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK WILDING
Key scriptwriter: David Allen – HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Passion Planet – UK / UK Tiger
Key scriptwriter: Mark Linfield – Wildstar Films – UK / India
Series Award – sponsored by Doclights / NDR Naturfilm
Winner: Queens
Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK Planet Earth III BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University – UK The Great Rhino Robbery
BBC Studios Documentary Unit – UK Australia’s Wild Odyssey
Wild Pacific Media – Australia
Sound Award – sponsored by Films at 59
Winner: Secrets From a Forest
Sound Design: Joe Siddons, Simon Weir & Sound Team – Ravenwood Studios – UK Tiger
Sound Design: Kate Hopkins RDI, AMPS, Tim Owens, Ben Pearce, David E. Fluhr CAST- Wildstar Films – UK / India A Call from the Wild
Sound Design: Anders Tveten, Erik Watland and Re-recording mixer: Bent Holm, Anders Tveten – Artic Light co-produced by Doclights, in association with: NDR, Terra Mater Studios, SVT – Norway
Sustainability Award – sponsored by Aurum Kaleidoscope Foundation
Winner: The Watches 2023
BBC Studios Natural History Unit – UK Pirarucu, The Breath of the Amazon
Banksia Films – Brazil Common Ground
Big Picture Ranch – US Wild Isles: Saving Our Wild Isles
Silverback Films – UK
Watch Dethroned by Aaron Gekoski – Free Online Screening
“Dethroned” is coming Soon! Join the international online screening on November 26th!
Join environmental photojournalist, Aaron Gekoski, as he examines mankind’s relationship with big cats. From Peru to Thailand, Aaron investigates our current relationship with big cats.
“Dethroned” tells the story of how we went from revering big cats to commodifying them.
Hope is not lost, however, as Aaron shows in the course of his journey.
Don’t miss out on this unique collaboration between FOUR PAWS, Four Corners Film & Photography, and Terra Mater.
Join the exclusive online screening and live Q&A on November 26th at 7 PM CET
The wait is over! Your chance to watch Dethroned—a captivating and deeply thought-provoking look into our connection with big cats—has arrived. Join acclaimed photojournalist Aaron Gekoski, Environmental Photojournalist, as he takes a powerful dive into how we treat these magnificent animals. Don’t miss out on this unique collaboration between FOUR PAWS, Four Corners Film & Photography, and Terra Mater.
Join the exclusive online screening and live Q&A on November 26th at 7 PM CET. Secure your spot now! https://brnw.ch/21wO66o
BBC Earth first ever live stream from the Natural History Units’ Big Cats 24/7 camp in Botswana
For the first time ever, BBC Earth will be streaming live from the BBC Studios Natural History Units production shoot in Botswana.
For the first time ever, BBC Earth will be streaming live from the BBC Studios Natural History Units production shoot in Botswana. Fans will have the unique opportunity to ask questions to the on-screen talent directly from the Big Cats 24/7 camp.
The event is commissioned by the BBC Earth genre marketing and digital teams and scheduled to take place at 2pm (BST) on 29th September when BBC Earth will be live from camp in the Okavango Delta Botswana and live streaming exclusively to the BBC Earth YouTube channel with 12.9M subscribers (475.8M views across all videos in 2023). The live stream will feature four of BBC’s on-screen camera operators including, Anna Dimitriadis, Gordon Buchanan, Brad Bestelink and Sets Nthomiwa who are currently there filming series two of Big Cats 24/7. They will be ready to answer natural history enthusiasts’ questions during the live session.
On Wednesday 18th September at 2pm (BST) the BBC Earth Instagram page will open to fans to pre-submit their questions ahead of the live stream on 29th September. During the event, the team on the ground will be ready to answer questions from natural history enthusiasts live from the camp.
The Big Cats 24/7 live stream offers fans a unique experience with exclusive access to the NHU production teams and on-screen talent, deepening their connection with BBC Earth's natural history content through immersive, interactive engagement. By tapping into audiences' love for behind-the-scenes content, this initiative connects them directly to the on-location experience.
The first series of Big Cats 24/7 is currently available to view on BBC iPlayer and PBS in the US, where an elite camera team follow a group of African big cats, day and night, for six months. Filmed using the very latest technology, Big Cats 24/7 gives viewers an unprecedented insight into the lives of the lions, leopards and cheetahs of Botswana’s awe-inspiring Okavango Delta – a place described as one of Africa’s last great natural sanctuaries.
The team of camera experts, which includes wildlife cinematographers Gordon Buchanan, Vianet Djenguet and Anna Dimitriadis, and an award-winning local Botswanan camera crew lead by Brad Bestelink, must track the cats across unforgiving terrain, keeping their cameras rolling 24/7. It’s a mission that will push them to their limit, as they deal with wildfire and extreme weather in one of the wildest places on the planet.
Cutting-edge tracking technology means the team can follow the cats’ movements more closely than ever before, and state-of-the-art low-light cameras allow them to capture previously unseen nocturnal behaviour for the very first time.
Following on from series one, series two of Big Cats 24/7 will be broadcast in 2025 and continue to follow the stars featured in the first series, as well as introducing some new faces, allowing viewers a front row seat as the team document the lives of these beloved big cats.
Big Cats 24/7, a 6×60’ for BBC Two, iPlayer and PBS is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and co-produced by PBS. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The Executive Producers are Roger Webb and Tom Jarvis, the Series Producer is Rowan Crawford and the Production Manager is Gillian Goodlet. The Commissioning Editor is Sreya Biswas. The Executive in Charge for PBS is Bill Gardner.
Read: Creating a production hub in the Delta – bbc.co.uk – "I’ve been working in television production for longer than I care to remember, and, just when I was about to hang up my TV boots, I somehow stumbled across “Big Cats 24/7”. It has turned out to be one of the highlights of my career.
There have been many challenges, but we are blessed with an exceptional team, both here in the UK and in Botswana. There has also been the opportunity to spend time in the glorious Okavango Delta; to see firsthand the prolific wildlife, richly coloured birds, the beautiful sunlit grasses infused with the smell of wild sage and, of course – the cats. It’s hard not to fall in love with the cats, and to root for them as they face the daily perils and pleasures of life in the Delta." Gillian Goodlet, Production Manager
Above: The terrifying moment a change in wind direction turns a raging wildfire straight towards camp
The Big Cats 24/7 team are on a six-month expedition following lions, leopards and cheetahs in the Okavango Delta. But a huge wildfire threatens both the big cats and the crew, and the team is forced to fight fire with fire.
Love Nature Announces a New Slate of Original Productions Showcasing Stunning Wildlife Cinematography and Riveting Animal Stories
New Love Nature greenlights include Tusker, My Best Friend’s an Animal Season 2 and Enchanted Waters
Blue Ant Studios’ rights division oversees pre-sales and licensing outside of commissioning territories
Love Nature, a wildlife and nature brand with linear and streaming channels available internationally, announced today a new slate of original programming. The new greenlights span a range of captivating natural history from cinematic blue-chip content to unexpected animal stories of resilience and affection. This diverse slate includes fully financed returning series and a new original co-production, illustrating Love Nature’s commitment to investing and collaborating on quality programming. Tusker,from Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Allison Argo and Bob Poole, chronicles the life of a bull elephant and his pivotal role in the wilderness of Kenya. My Best Friend’s an Animal returns with a delightfully adorable second season, while the Enchanted franchise expands with a spellbinding new installment, Enchanted Waters, from Oscar-winning factual production company, Off the Fence.
“These titles demonstrate the breadth of Love Nature’s portfolio. Truly moving animal stories and fresh perspectives on wildlife give our audiences a fascinating look inside the natural world,” said Alison Barrat, SVP, Production & Development, Love Nature. “We’re continuing to work with natural history specialists on beloved returning series and ambitious new projects. This underscores our commitment to creating a line-up of high quality content that makes Love Nature a destination for natural history programming.”
In addition to premiering on Love Nature’s branded linear and streaming platforms, the new programming will also roll out on Sky Nature in the UK, Germany and Italy. The slate leverages Love Nature’s relationship with Blue Ant Studios’ rights division, which oversees licensing opportunities for the new titles outside of the commissioning territories.
Sir David Attenborough: 'The world would be worse off without our stories'
Seventy years after he first fronted a wildlife programme, Sir David Attenborough is keenly aware of the impact they can have.
"The world would be in a far, far worse situation now had there been no broadcasting of natural history," he said.
"People have found it a source of fascination and beauty and interest, and this has become key to looking after the world."
The goal of programmes like Zoo Quest was to capture wild animals for zoo collections, the accepted practice at the time.
Now, Sir David's programmes all carry a strong message - that the natural world is at risk more than ever before.
"People are aware of the problems of conservation in a way which could not exist without broadcasting," he said.
"The perilous state that the natural world is in at the moment, these things are apparent to people all around the world.
"You don't watch a natural history programme, I hope, because you think it's going to be good for the natural world; you do so because it is rivetingly interesting, and complicated, and beautiful.
"The awareness of people around the world about ecological damage, that is due to natural history," he added.
Bristol's association with wildlife programming goes back to the mid 1940s, when The Naturalist was produced on the Home Service by Desmond Hawkins from the city.
"Desmond was the king of natural history broadcasting and an accomplished naturalist," said Sir David.
Ten years later, in 1955, wildlife programme Look, presented by Peter Scott, featured pioneering German filmmaker, Heinz Sielmann, the first person to film inside a woodpecker's nest.
"This was sensational, everyone in Britain was blown away by this, and because there was only one television network, it was all you talked about at the bus stop when you were going into work," recalls Sir David.
The switchboard at the Lime Grove studios was jammed with viewers ringing in to find out more, and it gave the BBC the nudge to set up the Natural History Unit in Bristol in 1957.
'Shows on green slime'
In 1979, Sir David presented Life on Earth, a landmark television programme made in Bristol, which attracted around 15 million viewers.
"Bristol led the world to be truthful," he said.
"It started this with radio, and when television came along, Peter Scott and Desmond Hawkins continued that tradition.
"The other big mega power in broadcasting was the United States, and in the 1970s, viewers there thought natural history was just lions attacking antelopes.
"Bristol's programmes taught them that termites could be just as interesting.
"When we first started trying to get the subscriptions to finance the plans I had, I remember making the mistake in pitching this to an American network controller.
"I waxed very eloquently about how the programme would be the history of life from the microscopic beginning, and the executive turned to me and said 'you mean it's going to be about green slime?'
"I replied 'more or less,' but we managed to flog it in the end."
In this report they say "it was the series "Life on Earth", made in Bristol, which gave the city's Natural History Unit Worldwide fame", of which our very own Richard Brock was a producer on!!
Sir David Attenborough remembers filming perhaps one of the most ground breaking and well loved nature documentaries in the world, 'Life on Earth'. Great video from Michael Palin's interview with Attenborough and his colleagues filmed for BBC show 'Life on Air'.
New Book: Land of the Tiger and Beyond: A filmmaker's extraordinary journey with wild animals, wild people and wild places.by Mike Birkhead
Land of the Tiger and Beyond chronicles Mike’s remarkable journey from aspiring footballer to acclaimed filmmaker.
After an unsuccessful final trial for Leeds United, Mike pivoted to studying zoology, dedicating a decade to the field before founding and running a production company for thirty-five years.
Throughout his career, Mike has produced over 50 documentary films on wild animals, places, people, and science for renowned networks such as BBC, PBS, National Geographic, Terra Mater/Red Bull Media, and Pathé in Paris.
His fascination with Indian tigers began serendipitously over three decades ago, leading to acclaimed programs like “Tiger Crisis,” “Land of the Tigers” series for BBC, “Tiger” (a BBC special), and “Battle to Save the Tiger” hosted by David Attenborough.
Mike’s films resonate with scientists, conservationists, and anyone passionate about preserving our planet’s biodiversity. He earned his doctorate and post-doctorate at the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Oxford University.
Among his notable works are “H is for Hawk: The Next Chapter,” “The Tale of the Peacocks and Tiger,” “Thunderbirds,” “Ostrich: Life on the Run,” “Attenborough’s Wonder of Song,” “Attenborough’s Wonder of Eggs,” and “Attenborough’s Big Birds.”
Watch Toxic Influence, the film exposing the dark side of Dove
As Dove prepares to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their “Real Beauty” campaign, Greenpeace’s new film strips away Dove’s clean image to reveal two decades of ugly environmental destruction.
What is Dove’s Toxic Influence?
Dove, a brand that has long portrayed itself as a champion of ‘real beauty’, confidence, and environmental care, is hiding a dark secret.
Every single day, Dove floods the planet with millions of items of throwaway plastic. This plastic is choking our oceans, killing wildlife, and fuelling an environmental disaster of unprecedented scale. The very communities Dove claims to support are drowning in a sea of single-use plastic, their neighbourhoods transformed into unofficial dumping grounds for corporate waste. This needs to change.
A chance for real change
Dove doesn’t just have the power to change its own business – it can change the whole industry.
In just a few months, world leaders will gather to negotiate a Global Plastics Treaty, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to end the age of throwaway plastic.
Unilever, Dove’s parent company, holds massive sway in these talks. If they feel the pressure from millions of people watching this film, they’ll be forced to back a strong treaty. This could mean all businesses phase out single use plastic in the next 10 years.
This is our chance to make real change, but we need your help to make it work.
Share the video in your group chats, on your social media – wherever people will see it!
The Puffin Picture is a film about this charming seabird, and also about its up and downs over the years as we affect its survival. Its food at sea varies with the climate, so we also explore the worrying connections with the tiny plastics out there. Called nurdles and produced in their billions they're linked to a huge factory and one of the country's richest men. Nurdles may sound amusing, and the puffin is often called "comical", "like a clown", but this picture is definitely serious as well.
Visit the website to see the many available Wildlife Winners & Losers films: brockinitiative.org
Richard Brock says: “There is still time to save the planet. My Wildlife Winners and Losers series is my contribution.
Now it’s your turn. Watch these free films. Choose from these 80+ films of different lengths to inspire you to take action.
They’re free to watch and share with as many people as possible. Use the Series to give you ammunition to help save the planet.”
Is the International Whaling Commission (IWC) a ‘zombie’ organisation that should be disbanded?
As we approach the 40th anniversary of the moratorium on commercial whaling, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is more relevant than ever to the conservation of the world’s whales, dolphins and porpoises.
A recent article in Nature claims the International Whaling Commission has outlived its usefulness and should be dismantled. Absolutely not, argues EIA’s senior campaigner, Clare Perry, who has fought for decades to maintain and strengthen the moratorium on commercial whaling and broaden action within the IWC.
On 15th August, four authors led by Peter Bridgewater, a previous chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) published a comment in Nature entitled “Dismantle ‘zombie’ wildlife protection conventions once their work is done”. In it the authors argue that the IWC has outlived its usefulness and should be retired, devolving its responsibilities for managing commercial and subsistence whaling to national governments, while the Convention on Migratory Species could act as a ‘global whale observatory’ alerting the world to negative trends in any species.
Although they acknowledge the “huge achievement” of the moratorium on commercial whaling, the authors lament that since that time, the IWC has “done little to help conserve the great whales” and failed to “encourage the sustainable harvesting” of whale populations.
It’s hard to understand the motivation of the authors, but the argument to abandon a successful treaty is dangerously flawed – particularly given that more than a quarter of the 92 cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) species are threatened with extinction (i.e., critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable) and 11% are near threatened.
Are Whales Winning? Our attitude to whales and dolphins is confused.
We love them in their home, the sea. We (some) love them in SeaWorld performing tricks. But SeaWorld and its money is now threatened by public opinion, and Japan, Norway and Iceland are the latest survivors still fighting not to save the whales and dolphins in the wild. Who will win in this whale of a tangle? brockinitiative.org/category/poodunnit-a-wildlife-detective-story
Welcome to Wildlife-film.com Since the late 1990s Wildlife-film.com has been the leading source of information for the wildlife filmmaking industry worldwide. For over twenty years the site has been Google's number one ranking site for 'wildlife film' and related searches. Our site is viewed in over 195 countries. Our newsletter, Wildlife Film News, is read every month by thousands of people involved in wildlife filmmaking - from broadcasters and producers, to cameramen - we encourage readers to submit their news. We also serve as an online resource for industry professionals and services. Find producers, editors, presenters and more in our Freelancer section, and find out about festivals, training and conservation in Organisations. We encourage amateur and professional freelancers to join our network and welcome all wildlife-film related organisations to join our team. We are on TikTok!! #wildlifefilm#WildlifeFilmNews#WFN#wildlife#film#newsproduced by @Jason Peters
Following us will encourange more posts, so please do! :)
Image: (c) Tony Soper - Filming grey seals in Pembrokeshire.
BBC Natural History Unit co-founder Tony Soper dies aged 95
A former BBC wildlife TV presenter, author and naturalist has died aged 95.
Tony Soper co-founded the BBC's Natural History Unit, which began in Bristol in 1957 and has since produced countless wildlife programmes around the world.
Mr Soper was born in Southampton in 1929 and brought up in Plymouth, where he started his career at the corporation as a trainee engineer in 1947.
He was a wildlife camera operator, a film producer and went on to present many TV shows, including Birdwatch and Beside the Sea.
Speaking to BBC Radio Devon in 1995, Mr Soper said the team who set up the unit "had to be very resourceful" in its early days.
"Our cutting room set up was a projector and a splicing machine, which we bought from the local camera shop - we lusted after having a camera so we could shoot our own film," he said.
According to his website, he started working as a freelancer in 1963 so he could live closer to the sea in Devon.
He subsequently pursued a career leading wildlife cruises to the Arctic and Antarctica, writing a multitude of books about wildlife in the UK and further afield.
Mr Soper is survived by his wife Hilary, his two sons Tim and Jack and his five grandchildren.
Tony Soper - In Memoriam
10 January 1929 - 18 September 2024
Tony Soper, wildlife TV presenter, author and naturalist, born 10 January 1929, died 18 September 2024
It is with great sadness we share that the wildlife film industry has lost a true legend and visionary, Tony Soper, who has sadly passed away.
A co-founder of the BBC's Natural History Unit, Tony Soper's first involvement with natural history broadcasting was working with Desmond Hawkins and Peter Scott on BBC radio programmes and inaugural natural history television programmes in the early 1950s. Purchasing the Unit's first film camera, Tony then produced the BBC's first full length wildlife film, The Fulmar, in 1958, and went on to produce wildlife programmes for the BBC from across the globe.
1962 saw Tony Soper leave the BBC Natural History Unit, after a brief period as its Head, allowing him to spend more time writing and indulging his passion for travel. In 1963, Tony moved in front of the camera to become Johnny Morris's sidekick in Animal Magic and later presented Nature on BBC2.
Tony narrated numerous programmes for the BBC and National Geographic, and alongside scriptwriting, wrote 14 books on natural history subjects. Tony was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Plymouth and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Our thoughts are with Tony's colleagues, friends and family at this time.
“Tony was a truly great wildlife broadcaster and writer on subjects more important and relevant than ever. He certainly made a difference – to me as well.”
Max Mara Fashion Group announces fur-free policy
After receiving hundreds of thousands of emails from compassionate consumers around the world, thousands of phone calls, countless social media posts and even having a hot air balloon flown over its headquarters in Italy asking it to go fur-free, Max Mara Fashion Group has officially announced a fur-free policy.
In an internal memo to staff, Max Mara said, “The Company does not sell, online nor in any of its physical retail locations, any products made with fur, nor is there the intention to introduce any products made with fur into any upcoming collections of Max Mara Fashion Group brands.”
This was confirmed by a Max Mara executive, who added, “Max Mara, including the MMFG and any subsidiaries, has adopted a fur-free policy and has no intention of introducing fur into any upcoming collection for any of the MMFG brands.”.
This announcement comes after the Fur Free Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 animal protection organisations—including Humane Society International— from over 35 countries, launched a global campaign during fashion weeks in February 2024 in New York City, London, Milan and Paris urging the Italian fashion giant to adopt a fur-free policy. The campaign saw more than 270,000 emails, 5,000 phone calls and countless social media posts delivering a clear message asking Max Mara to go fur-free.
Max Mara Fashion Group has 2,500+ stores in 105 countries and was previously selling items such as mink gloves, fox fur cuffs and a raccoon dog key chain. The brand now joins the world’s major fashion-houses that have already gone fur-free, including Dolce & Gabbana, Saint Laurent, Valentino, Prada, Gucci, Versace, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Armani.
In February this year, Humane Society International/Europe and LAV flew a hot-air balloon over Max Mara’s headquarters in the city of Reggio Emilia during Milan Fashion Week, displaying a fur-free message
P.J Smith, director of fashion policy at Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States, said: “Congratulations to Max Mara for joining so many other fashion brands and retailers that have already taken a stand against the cruel fur trade. Activists around the world came together to ask Max Mara to do the right thing, and they listened, making it clear fur has no place in fashion. Let’s celebrate this win for animals and a fur-free future!”
Joh Vinding, chairman of the Fur Free Alliance, said: “The Fur Free Alliance applauds Max Mara for going fur-free. Max Mara was one of the last global fashion brands that still sold fur, so we’re glad they have now joined a growing list of fur-free brands that want nothing to do with animal cruelty associated with the fur trade.”
Today, over 1,500 brands and retailers have pledged to go fur-free by joining the Fur Free Retailer Program.
Fur and Stupid People - The Downs and Ups of The Arctic Fox
It looks better on an Arctic Fox than on a model. That little white animal needs its beautiful fur to survive the killing conditions of the Arctic winter. It roams far and wide across the ice and snow, and tries to sustain itself and its family when the parents turn dark before winter returns to the tundra of Iceland. Killing conditions threaten there too, not only from hunters and trappers, but worse, much worse is inflicted on captive arctic foxes elsewhere. In tiny cages where they are driven mad in confinement, they are reared to be stripped of their life-saving coat – to be sold at a price not only to the little arctic fox, but to some greedy fashion people clustered round the fox-walk of torture and death.
Welcome Home – The Inspiring New Film Celebrating The Return of Gray Wolves to Colorado
The film that captures the essence and spirit of Colorado wolf recovery efforts.
Following Sir Brian May over a decade-long journey to understand the crisis caused by bovine tuberculosis and his opposition to the controversial badger cull, implemented to curb the spread of the disease in cattle.
Welcome Home celebrates the incredible story of wolf reintroduction to Colorado. When the people of Colorado voted to return wolves to the state, they set in motion a unique conservation success story. Welcome Home shows the value of returning this iconic and beloved carnivore to Colorado and how the state is recovering wolves in a thoughtful way that cares for wildlife and people.
Welcome Home is directed by Alan Lacy, founder of Reel Earth Films. Alan’s first film, “Gray Area: Wolves of the Southwest” is an award-winning documentary that has screened internationally. Alan’s work has aired on National Geographic, Disney+, and PBS Nature, with more upcoming work soon to air on the BBC.
“Protectors Of The Wild” Features Wolf On The Cover Of Variety Magazine At The Venice Film Festival
Peace 4 Animals is thrilled to unveil the groundbreaking cover of Variety Magazine, featuring a wolf from the upcoming documentary Protectors Of The Wild, at this year’s prestigious Venice Film Festival. This momentous initiative aims to raise critical awareness about this majestic yet often misunderstood keystone species and their struggle for survival in an increasingly uncertain world.
Wolves play an indispensable role in maintaining the health and balance of our ecosystems. However, they currently face severe threats, including habitat destruction from cattle grazing on public lands and escalating conflicts with humans. Additionally, hunters often lure them out of the safety of national parks, leading to their untimely demise. With this historic cover, Peace 4 Animals seeks to reshape the narrative around these awe-inspiring creatures and foster meaningful discussions about their vital role in our natural world.
“By featuring a wolf on the cover of Variety, we are bringing attention to a species that deserves our utmost respect and understanding, instead of being unjustly vilified,” said Katie Cleary, President of Peace 4 Animals. “Our latest documentary, Protectors of the Wild, underscores our collective responsibility to safeguard wolves in North America and across the globe. It’s a call to action for coexistence between humans and our precious wildlife.”
"We are extremely concerned about the mass culling of wolves in Europe. We strongly urge you to uphold the current conservation status of wolves and to prioritise preventive measures to protect livestock from attacks."
Wolf hunting is back.
It’s a top priority project on Ursula Von der Leyen’s desk, and if we don't act fast, hundreds of wolves will soon be shot dead all over Europe.
Hunted for centuries close to extinction, wolves have recovered thanks to a strict conservation policy—with a positive impact on species regulations and biodiversity.
Now old fears and misconceptions have resurfaced, and the EU Commission wants to weaken their protection without reliable scientific data and despite effective alternatives to protect livestock.
But nothing is settled yet:
In weeks, EU member states will cast their votes. Insiders predict it’ll be tight and President von der Leyen is pushing hard for it. That’s why dozens of environmental organisations are mobilising people across Europe—add your name and share with your friends: We must coexist with wolves, not kill them!
Greta Thunberg joins Palestinian call to boycott Chevron
Prominent climate activist Greta Thunberg has joined demands to boycott Chevron over its supplying of energy to Israel.
Greta Thunberg: “In Palestine and all over the world, the fight against colonialism and corporations’ destruction of the planet are intrinsically linked. Look at Chevron. Everyone knows that Chevron is one of the world’s biggest climate criminals, but the oil giant is also fueling Israel’s genocide in Palestine.”
Join the #BoycottChevron for Gaza campaign - and send a letter to Chevron CEO Mike Wirth now.
We have watched in horror as Israel bombs hospitals, homes, and nurseries in Gaza, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and burying countless more under the rubble. The survivors are left to die slowly, as Israel cuts off access to food, clean water, and gas to 2.2 million people.
Meanwhile, Big Oil is profiting from this genocide. The Chevron corporation supplies Israel’s war machine with light and power via the operation and co-ownership of the major gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestinian land. Both Chevron and Israel enrich themselves from these projects – continuing a pattern of ongoing occupation and apartheid.
We demand that Chevron divest from its projects in Israel - and end support of the genocide and apartheid in Palestine.
We echo the call from the Palestinian Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to build pressure on Chevron until it no longer conducts business that gravely violates Palestinian human rights and benefits Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime.
Join the #BoycottChevron campaign and send a letter to CEO Mike Wirth now using the tools on the right. We can't let up until there's a permanent ceasefire and an end to the occupation of Palestine!
Learn more about the campaign at Boycottchevron.info
What do the Palestine movement and environmental movement have in common? Plenty.
Recently, at the intersection, our girl Greta Thunberg is uplifting a BDS call to boycott Chevron because of their exploitation of Palestinian land and resources. : “In Palestine and all over the world, the fight against colonialism and corporations’ destruction of the planet are intrinsically linked,” said Thunberg. “Look at Chevron. Everyone knows that Chevron is one of the world’s biggest climate criminals, but the oil giant is also fueling Israel’s genocide in Palestine.” Chevron runs pipelines and extracts natural gas on occupied land in partnership with Israel and the company is a major economic partner of the Israeli government. They made an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue from Tamar and Leviathan gas sales alone in 2022.
Beyond Chevron, the bombing of Palestine itself is immensely harmful to the planet. In just the first two months of the war, the carbon emissions generated from the bombardment are on par with that of the country of New Zealand or Uruguay annually. Even after the military occupation retreats, they will leave behind contaminated soil, water, and air.
Overall, scholars estimate that militaries are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, it's integral for the movement against climate change to stand against war. This is something Great is very vocal about, even if it loses her centrist followers and fans. By standing up for Palestine, Greta Thunberg is making enemies.
"UK Butterfly Emergency Declared" by Butterfly Conservation
Wondering where all the butterflies have gone? You're not alone.
In 2024, we've seen butterfly numbers fall across the UK. With 80% of butterflies having declined since the 1970s and a third of moth numbers having fallen in that same period, the time has come to tell the Government enough is enough.
We're calling on the Government to:
1. Declare a nature emergency
2. Implement an immediate and permanent ban on butterfly-harming neonicotinoid pesticides, without exceptions.
If you agree, sign our letter and join leading conservation figures in calling on the Government to take action now: butterfly-conservation.org/emergency
Watch Brock Initiative films featuring butterflies:
White's Flight
Become a butterfly...visiting pretty gardens, veg patches, over streams, along hedgerows, across flower meadows and fly in a unique way over a typical piece of Somerset countryside in England, and how its changing for good and bad. And how you can help our white "guide".
Must Read: Making Animals Public: Inside the ABC’s natural history archive by Gay Hawkins & Ben Dibley
Natural history television on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) has been one of the public broadcaster’s most popular formats. For many viewers, TV has been an important contact zone for engaging with animals they would never encounter in everyday life. These animals have also played a critical role in developing environmental awareness. But how did animals get to be on the small screen and what happened to them when they got there?
Making Animals Public: Inside the ABC’s Natural History Archive traces the cultural and political evolution of the natural history animal on the ABC. It explores different modes of capture from cages to cameras; what has come to count as a natural history animal over time; and the various sites they have inhabited – from nature, to the nation, to the environment, to the planet.
In early natural history programs audiences were invited to watch as sovereign humans there to learn or be entertained by animals that were exotic or aesthetic or scientifically interesting. Whatever the framing, these animals were resolutely other. In recent times, natural history animals have become more assertive. They are now posing uncomfortable questions to human viewers about exploitation, extinction and mutual implication in catastrophic whole earth processes like climate change.
Using a wide range of screen examples ranging from the 1950s to the 2020s, Making Animals Public focuses on shifting cultural and sociotechnical practices in ABC natural history television. Combining science and technology studies, screen studies and critical animal studies, this book develops an innovative interdisciplinary analysis of how televisual animality is crafted and made believable.
Making Animals Public analyses the significant role public television has played in filming and circulating a vast array of animals and habitats that had never been seen before. How these animals were visualised and accounted for has continually evolved. What has remined constant is the fact that natural history television has been a hugely important site for exploring the various politics of human-animal relations – good and bad – and for nurturing environmental awareness in audiences.
About the Authors:
Gay Hawkins is an Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of environmental humanities, STS and the politics of materials.
Ben Dibley is a visiting fellow at Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Australia.
Published by Sydney University Press on 12 June 2024.
"Mindful Moments in Nature" from our fabulous founder, Piers Warren, and a thanks!
Last month's Wildlife Film News (WFN300) was our 25th Anniversary Edition ... Twenty five years since Piers Warren launched Wildlife-film.com as an online community and much-needed resource, helping and connecting wildlife film-makers from all around the World.
I don't think Piers has ever really been given the credit he deserves for his services to the wildlife film-making community ... no wildlife film festival accolades ... for starting this resource and for nurturing the next, and then the next, generation of wildlife film-makers in the UK, and all around the World.
So, I'd like to say:
"Thank you Piers, for all you've done for our community, for wildlife conservation, and personally for me ... You're the best!" JP
If you have a story about any of your experiences with Piers, through this site, on a Wildeye course, on an overseas filming trip, through his books or at films festivals, and want to share, say thanks, please get in touch with your message: member@wildlife-film.com
Piers says "These days I still produce short videos on nature, wildlife, growing food and cooking, including a series of 'Mindful Moments in Nature' films." and I love watching them, so am sharing them here for you all to take a mindful few moments out of your day to relax in nature:
"Mindful Moments in Nature is a series of short films made in nature by Piers Warren with no narration or music but with sounds of nature. It has been scientifically proved that digital nature - such as watching these mindful moments - is good for our mental health - especially if we can't get out into real nature!"
14 Years At The Pinnacle! NFTS Named Top Global Film School by The Hollywood Reporter
The National Film and Television School (NFTS) proudly celebrates its inclusion in The Hollywood Reporter’sTop 15.
Global Film Schools list for an incredible 14th consecutive year. This significant milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to excellence in training for the film, television and games industries offering state-of-the-art facilities, exceptional teaching and unrivalled industry connections.
Other renowned international schools featured on the list include the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, La Fémis and London Film School, the only other UK film school included in the list.
The Hollywood Reporter hailed the NFTS for “fortifying its reputation as one of Britain’s most prestigious institutions” and celebrated the School’s double win at the 2024 BAFTAs for graduate films Jellyfish and Lobster and Crab Day and success at Cannes with animation Bunnyhood winning at La Cinef. The prestigious industry bible also highlighted the newly established The Crown Scholarship programme, funded by a once-in-a-lifetime auction with Bonhams and Left Bank Pictures, raising £1 million to support 100 students attending the NFTS over the next 20 years.
NFTS Director Jon Wardle commented: “Being featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s list for the 14th year is an incredible honour. This accolade reflects the relentless dedication and hard work of our students and staff. It reaffirms NFTS’s commitment to excellence and our ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving industry. We are continually pushing boundaries and leading the way in film, television and games innovation."
Fourteen years of recognition highlight not just consistency but growth and adaptation within the incredibly varied entertainment landscape. NFTS alumni have gone on to achieve remarkable success in many areas of the creative sector, serving as a testament to the quality of education and training provided by the School. Read on to find out more!
Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA
The NFTS runs the only MA course of its kind in the UK, designed to fast track you into the industry. Run in partnership with BBC Studios, the course aims to give students the skills and expertise needed to direct science and wildlife productions, the know-how to produce and direct entire shows and the ability, confidence and knowledge to generate and pitch ideas and formats to commissioning editors.
The course includes masterclasses from industry experts, including the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit, and work experience is available at major wildlife production companies. Our graduates have the opportunity to build a brilliant list of industry contacts and relevant skills for a career as a Producer/Director.
Nathalie Grace, first time shooting producer/director, on capturing seals beneath the waves - and one man’s extraordinary passion for studying them.
The opportunity to step up from shooting assistant producer, to shooting producer/ director is really tough at the best of times, and especially so in the current job climate. Despite this, my journey as a shooting producer-director began this year with ‘The Seal Whisperer,’ an incredible adventure that surpassed all my expectations.
I’d been at Big Wave for the last two years, working as an AP on their marine shows, and during that time Big Wave also paid for me to do my HSE4 Commercial Diving course. After 20 days, and a somewhat intense course of many hours underwater doing full face mask drills, I surfaced with a new qualification. I could now work on Big Wave shows as a shooting underwater AP, or safety diver. Multi-skilling seems to be key to survival.
When executive producer, Sarah Cunliffe said to me she thought it was time I made my first film and suggested pitching for the BBC Our Lives strand, I jumped at it. We mulled on a few ideas but the story that really excited me the most was ‘The Seal Whisperer’. Here was the perfect story to use my marine skills, and tell the extraordinary story of GP Ben Burville’s passion for the seals of the Farne Islands.
By day this busy GP is hard at work seeing patients in Northumberland, in his spare time, he heads beneath the waves to spend time studying the seals. Over 20 years, he’s captured unique seal behaviours that have never been seen before.
With the invaluable support from Sarah, we secured a BBC Our Lives commission, working with brilliant Commissioning Editor, Diana Hare. The ‘Our Lives’ series celebrates life in the UK in all its diversity and actively encourages new directors. I was blown away.
However, for a first film, the project certainly presented its challenges. The Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, are remote. My first shoot was in January to film seals with their pups. Filmed with a long lens from local tour operator, Billy Shiels boat, it was far from easy with choppy seas, and freezing conditions.
Our delivery date was July. Producing a documentary within a tight schedule, covering multiple life stages of seals, and managing a location that was 10 hours away from home, was no easy task. Then add to the mix, juggling childcare for two kids under ten, a full-time GP’s busy schedule, the weather, trying to film a highly mobile marine mammal, and also coordinating the availability of our crew and safety team was needless to say, a big challenge. Harry Harris, (who was also stepping up from PC to Junior PM for the first time) had his work cut out. By June, we’d managed 11 filming days across the seasons. Remarkably, only one shoot failed due to poor water visibility.
Using a thin waveski a biologist gets a grey seal's eye view of life around the beautiful South Cornish coast. Underwater too he meets seals and their fishy prey. Fishermen may compete and that's a problem. On the other hand a seal sanctuary for rescued seal pups may be helping.
Wildscreen Festival Announces 2024 Official Selection
Say hello to the 36 amazing films that make up this years global launchpad for authentic storytellers and original stories across the world.
Wildscreen is delighted to announce its Official Selection for Wildscreen Festival 2024 (14-18th October in Bristol). This is the third year of the Festival’s Official Selection, which is selected by a team of fully independent and professional programmers.
Quote from Chair of Programmers: “On behalf of the programme team, I am delighted to present this lineup of incredible films curated by highly diverse filmmakers. These films span continents, weaving tales from the microscopic world to the majestic march of elephants,” says Chioma Onyenwe, Chair of Programmers; “It is extraordinary to see that the ongoing struggle to save nature is happening on both micro and macro levels. We hope these films inspire and instil a profound sense of responsibility for preserving our planet for generations to come.”
Notable films in the Official Selection include:
Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World (1 x 56’) narrated by trans Hollywood actor Elliot Page. From 2022 Sundance Fellow and Grantee Drew Denny, Second Nature explores everything you didn’t learn in school: from the 1,500 species where homosexuality is observed, to animals that can change sex
Hvaldimir, Conversation with a spy whale (1 x 90’, UK Premiere), the story of a beluga whale that escaped from a secret Russian military base and became a social media phenomenon. Canal+ is attached as a broadcaster, with Mediawan Rights representing
Orca – Black & White Gold (1 x 91’, UK Premiere) from Terra Mater Studios, a thrilling ride inside the battle between a ring of Russian businessmen, monsters, orca catchers and bureaucrats now driving the global captivity trade, and the journalists and activists fighting to protect the animals
Antarctica Unearthed (1 x 63’), an exploration of the Antarctic ecosystems hosting the planet’s smallest animals from National Geographic Explorer Ariel Waldman
Giants Rising (1 x 82’), a journey into the heart of America’s most iconic forests from director Lisa Landers (The Science of Sustainability, Unleashed, Year on Earth)
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.
Considered the highest bar of achievement in natural history filmmaking, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in nature, science, and conservation storytelling.
Over 500 films entered the competition in 2024, with over 1,100 category entries from 74 different countries around the world. Finalists were selected by more than 200 international judges who together screened over 1,000 hours of media.
Winners were announced during the Awards Gala on Thursday, September 5th, 2024 at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. Watch a recording of the ceremony.
2024 Jackson Wild Media Awards Finalists & Winners
Grand Teton Award
Turtle Walker Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
”A beautifully realized portrait of one man’s decades-long efforts to save his nation’s threatened and endangered sea turtles and an inspiring look at how his legacy lives on in the legions of devoted conservationists continuing his work today.” - The Final Jury
SPECIAL JURY AWARDS
Poacher QC Entertainment, Suitable Pictures, Poor Man’s Productions, Eternal Sunshine Productions & PRIME VIDEO
"A riveting, innovative serialized drama that taps into the growing popularity of true crime formats to make critical conservation and environmental issues widely accessible to a global audience. Based on real-life events, this work sets a new standard for how natural history can inform scripted entertainment to drive engagement and impact around the world." - Final Jury
Planetwalker An Encompass Films Production, with Financial Support from Peak Design, Lush Cosmetics, Sierra Club, Nell Newman Foundation, Keystone Policy Center, The JoyTrip Project, Brico Fund, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Explorers Club, Darlene Anderson
"An uplifting biographical account of one man’s extraordinary (17-year) journey walking across the planet in silence to shine a light on the impact big oil is having on the environment. This film is a testament to the transformative power of living one’s beliefs and how an individual’s commitment to action can inspire us all." - Final Jury
Animal Behavior
Winner: Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory: Antarctic Killer Waves
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Mammals: Dark
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, ZDF, YOUKU and France
Télévisions for BBC
Queens: Rainforest Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Ecosystem
Winner: Wilding
A Passion Planet and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios Production
Giants Rising
Tangent Productions in association with the Redford Center
Our Living World: Nature's Amazing Network
Wild Space and Freeborne Media for Netflix
Conservation
Winner:Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Earthsounds: Listening to Our Planet
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
MY MERCURY
A Dog Star Films, JoJi Films Production for A24 Films
Wilding
A Passion Planet and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios Production
People & Nature
Winner: Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Silverback Films and National Geographic
Resident Orca
A film by Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider, produced by Everyday Films for CRAVE, a Bell Media Company, in association with Canada Media Fund and Rogers Documentary Fund.
Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Planet in Crisis
Winner: UNEARTH
Crooked Footprint, 22nd Century Films, LegaSeas, Resilient Foundation and Rogovy Foundation
Planetwalker
An Encompass Films Production, with Financial Support from Peak Design, Lush Cosmetics, Sierra Club, Nell Newman Foundation, Keystone Policy Center, The JoyTrip Project, Brico Fund, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Explorers Club, Darlene Anderson
Searching for Amani
A film by Backroad Pictures, Nicole Gormley, and Debra Aroko
The Here Now Project
Siskel/Jacobs Productions and Eleven Eleven Foundation
Trailblazer
Winner: Queer Planet
Plimsoll Productions and Peacock
Life On Our Planet: In Cold Blood
Netflix, A Silverback Films Production in association with Amblin Television
Poacher: The Confessor
QC Entertainment, Suitable Pictures, Poor Man’s Productions, Eternal Sunshine Productions & PRIME VIDEO
Limited Series
Winner: Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Earthsounds
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Planet Earth III
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Poacher
QC Entertainment, Suitable Pictures, Poor Man’s Productions, Eternal Sunshine Productions & PRIME VIDEO
Feature
Winner: Canary
Oscilloscope Laboratories, End of The Road Films, Act 4 Entertainment, Boardwalk Pictures, and
REI Co-Op Studios
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Silverback Films and National Geographic
Every Little Thing
Dogwoof
Living with Leopards
Netflix, A Wild Space Production in Association with Natural History Film Unit Botswana and Freeborne Media
Global Voices
Winner: Kuishi Na Simba (Living With Lions)
Curiosity Stream, Ouragan Films, Siima Media, VII Foundation and Red Cameras
Ma naye ka Masaala a se ka Wometi (From God To Man)
A co-production of Nia Tero and Upstander Project in association with REI Co-op Studios.
The Last Defenders of Vietnam
Peddling Pictures and CNA, Mediacorp Pte Ltd
Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Onscreen Personality
Winner: Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller Ep. Apes
National Geographic Channel and Muck Media
Featuring: Mariana van Zeller
Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory: Patagonia Puma
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Featuring: Bertie Gregory
Attenborough and The Giant Sea Monster
A BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for BBC and PBS with the WNET Group
Featuring: Sir David Attenborough
Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Featuring: Dr Philip Stander
Cinematography
Winners: Queens: Tiny Jungle Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Director of Photography: Warwick Sloss
Cinematographers: Michael Male, Gail Kukula, Mark Payne-Gill, Tim Shepherd, Justine Evans, Robin Cox, Joris Van Alphen and Mohan SandHu
Mammals: Water
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, ZDF, YOUKU and France Télévisions for BBC
Cinematographers: Dan Beecham, Howard Bourne, Kevin Flay, Jeandre Gerding, Steve Hathaway, Jeff Hester, René Heuzey, Andre Rerekura, Roberto Rinaldi, Nuno Sá, Hector Skevington-Postles, Max Smith, Gavin Thurston and Alex Vail
Our Living World: The Rhythm of Life
Wild Space and Freeborne Media for Netflix
Cinematographers: Knut Aas, Ben Adams, James Aldred, Julian Braatvedt, Juan Pablo Bueno Gomez, Santiago Cabral, Maurício Copetti, Tania Escobar, James Ewen, Richard Fitzpatrick, Steve Hathaway, Michael Mauro, Mark Ó Fearghaíl, Alexander Sommer, Taylor Turner, Guillaume Beaudoin, Bernt Bruns, Santiago Espindola Rodriguez and Dariosky Gonzalez Romero.
Planet Earth III: Extremes
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Cinematographers: Luke Nelson, Kevin Flay, Justin Maguire, John Shier, Barrie Britton, Daniel Hunter, Edward Saltau, Pete Cayless, Justine Evans, Jake Davis, Oliver Mueller, Ronan Donovan, Alain Lusignan, Ryan Deboodt, Cyril Ruoso, Pascal Lorent, Stuart Trowell, Rolf Steinmann, Braydon Moloney
Editing
Winners: Photographer: Krystle Wright: Heart Explosions
Little Monster Films and National Geographic
Editors: Ann Rose, Fanny Lee
A Real Bug's Life: The Big City
Nat Geo WILD and Plimsoll Productions
Editor: Rick Holbrook
Earthsounds: Australian Forests
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Editor: Alex Boyle
Planet Earth III: Freshwater
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Editor: Sam Rogers
Original Music Score
Winner: Queens: Tiny Jungle Queens National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Composer: Morgan Kibby
Among The Wolves
Le cinquieme reve, Belgica Films, Arte France, RTBF, Proximus
Composer: Lionel Polis
Greenland - Feeling the Heat
A Production by NDR Naturfilm, Doclights Vision Airways for NDR In Association with Terra Mater and distributed by ZDF Studios
Composers: Jörg Magnus Pfeil and Eivør Pálsdóttir
Writing
Winners: Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Writers: Will & Lianne Steenkamp, Alan Miller
Attenborough and The Giant Sea Monster
A BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for BBC and PBS with the WNET Group
Writers: Sir David Attenborough, Victoria Bobin and Tom Jarvis
Evolution Earth
Produced by Passion Planet in association with PBS and Arte France for Love Nature.
Writer: Oliver Twinch
Sound
Winner: Earthsounds: Australian Forests
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Sound: Wounded Buffalo
Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold: On Thin Ice
National Geographic and Plimsoll Productions
Dubbing Mixer: Brian Moseley
Field Sound Recordist: Jim Hurst
Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough: Hunters and Hunted
Humble Bee Films Ltd, Infield Fly Productions, Sky Nature, Netflix, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Abacus Media Rights
Sound: Chris Watson, Keith Henderson, Bill Rudolph, Dino Schiavone and Ioannis Spanos
Social
Winner: Wild Hope: Student Rewilders
An HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Red Rock Films Production for PBS Nature on YouTube
Making the Leap
Douglas Main, Zach Baumgartner, and National Geographic
The Unseen
On The Edge and Able & Baker
Unwind
Kate Colley
Student
Winner: Beyond the Bay
Daniel Green, National Film and Television School
A Hole with a View
Felix Prator, National Film and Television School
Against the Herd
Jaxon Derow, National Film and Television School
Death at Sea
Sara Pipernos, University of the West of England - Bristol; Cinematography: Mikey Sneddon; Assistant Director: Nyal Mueenuddin; Major funders: Blue Marine Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Human Rights at Sea International, Sustainable Communities and Fisheries Trust
Shorts - Wild Heroes
Winner: Groundwork: Building Community Through Regenerative Rubber
The North Face and Gnarly Bay
Flora, Fauna, Funga
National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab
Indai Apai Darah
Produced by Nia Tero and Sungai Utik Community as a member of the Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara
Shorts - Wildlife & Environment
Winner: The Bird in My Backyard
Trochilus Films, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Boca Chica
A film by Ái Vuong and Samuel Díaz Fernández, TÁPI Studios Reel South, PBS
How Humans Are Reshaping Elephant Evolution
Day's Edge Productions for PBS
Life (cycle) of the Hong Kong Newt
Frigatefilms
Marmots on Toast
Dream Wild Films
Shorts - Impact Stories
Winner: UNDAMMED
PATAGONIA & Swiftwater Films
Existimos en la Memoria (We Exist in Memory)
A Home Collective Production
Directed by: Darian Woehr
Produced by: Hailey Sadler, Bruna Kadletz, Argenia Centeno
Wild Hope: The Frog Ark
An HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Red Rock Films Production for PBS Nature on YouTube
Innovation in Green Production
An Optimist's Guide to the Planet with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
A Canada-United Kingdom Co-production,
A Cream and Wildfire Television Production in association with Bloomberg and Bell Media With the participation of Ill Kippers Aps
Earthsounds
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Planet Earth III
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Rebels with Cause
A Limpet Films Production for WaterBear and Imagine5
Inovation in Green Production
Impact Campaign
Winner: Earthsounds
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
An Optimist's Guide to the Planet with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
A Canada-United Kingdom Co-production. A Cream and Wildfire Television Production in association with Bloomberg and Bell Media. With the participation of Ill Kippers Aps
Planet Earth III
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Winner: We Are Guardians
RandomGood Films, Appian Way, Highly Flammable, Mídia Indígena and One Forest
Catapults to Cameras
Roundglass Sustain and Ashwika Kapur
Impact Producers: Ashwika Kapur, Samreen Farooqui, Suvrajyoti Chatterjee (Heal).
The Elephant Queen
A Deeble, Stone & Oliff Production and Apple Original
Watershed
The Redford Center, Kontent Films
Honorable Mention
399: Queen of the Tetons
A Production of Lucky 8 in association with the WNET Group and PBS
Birdsong
True Films, RTÉ, Coimisiún na Meán
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Thunderheart Films
Chasing Time
Exposure Labs
Farming While Black
Directed by Mark Decena; Produced by Liz Lupino Decena and Kontent Films
The Call of Glaciers
China Global Television Network (CGTN)
For over 30 years, Jackson Wild has been a catalyst for accelerating and elevating impactful storytelling at the nexus of nature, science, and conservation. Through innovative and collaborative community gatherings, skill-building initiatives, and mentorship programs, Jackson Wild creates an inclusive forum for storytellers to more deeply illuminate connections to the natural world and our collective responsibility to the wild.
Jackson Wild’s international board members include: ARRI, ARTE France, BBC Studios, Blue Ant Media / Love Nature, Conservation International, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Doclights, GBH, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Jane Goodall Institute, Lucky 8, NHK, National Geographic Content, National Geographic Society, Nature/WNET, Netflix, NEWF (Nature, Environment, Wildlife, Filmmaking), Off the Fence Productions, ORF Universum, PBS, RED Digital Cinema, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Sony Electronics, Terra Mater Studios, Wanda Films, Waterbear, Wildstar Films, and World Wildlife Fund.
Big Cats 24/7 - Meet the cats and the crew behind the raw, unfiltered observational wildlife series - "I hope this series will reignite people’s love and awareness of big cats"
Following individual lions, cheetahs and leopards for six months, over two extreme seasons, Big Cats 24/7 shows their battle to survive in an increasingly challenging world
In this new raw, unfiltered observational wildlife series, an elite camera team capture the dramatic lives of African big cats in the breath-taking Okavango Delta, Botswana. Wildlife Cinematographers Gordon Buchanan, Vianet Djenguet and Anna Dimitriadis join forces with the Natural History Film Unit, Botswana led by Brad Bestelink and his local camera team.
Following individual lions, cheetahs and leopards for six months, over two extreme seasons, this documentary shows their battle to survive in an increasingly challenging world. From unprecedented wildfire to flood and extreme drought, the cats and camera crew are tested to their limits. With extraordinary, unparalleled access, in an area unvisited by tourists, and the opportunity to film from the ground, the air and through the night, the Big Cat 24/7 team work together to follow the cats’ lives around the clock.
A linear story across six crucial months, the camera team form unique bonds with the cats, and each other. Each episode follows a pivotal point in our cats’ lives, ending on a cliff-hanger. A revolution in low light camera technology means the series showcases previously unseen behaviour at night; cutting-edge drones keep track of the big cat’s movements like never before, and combining the raw endeavour of an expedition with premium natural history footage gives the show a contemporary new approach.
Big Cats 24/7, a 6×60’ for BBC Two, iPlayer and PBS is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and co-produced by PBS. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The Executive Producers are Roger Webb and Tom Jarvis, the Series Producer is Rowan Crawford and the Production Manager is Gillian Goodlet. The Commissioning Editor is Head of Natural History Sreya Biswas. Sylvia Bugg is Editorial Consultant for PBS. Diana El-Osta is the Executive in Charge for PBS.
Jackson Wild 2024 Legacy and Rising Star Awards Announced!
Jackson Wild announced the recipients of their 2024 Legacy Award, as well as the recipient of our 2024 Rising Star Award.
Among Jackson Wild's highest honors, this year's recipients have demonstrated the power of storytelling to inspire real world change and share Jackson Wild's commitment to building an impact driven community of filmmakers, creators, and conservationists who are dedicated to using media to support efforts to create a more sustainable planet. They have been nominated by their peers and selected by the Jackson Wild Board of Directors. To be celebrated at the Jackson Wild Media Awards Gala on September 5!
"Mike Pandey's incredible passion for wildlife conservation and environmental protection over the past 45 years has left an indelible mark not just in India, but across the globe,” said Jackson Wild’s Executive Director, Geoff Daniels. “His powerful films have driven critical legislative changes and inspired millions, setting a benchmark for how storytelling can catalyze real-world impact. It has been a true honor to witness his tireless efforts and celebrate his remarkable legacy."
This year's rising star recipient, Ryan Wilkes, is an award-winning Jamaican Canadian storyteller and documentary filmmaker whose unique blend of scientific expertise and artistic talent has captivated audiences worldwide (@itsryanwilkes) through his work in conservation, wildlife, and science communication. "Watching the trajectory of Ryan Wilkes career from Media Lab fellow to Social Media force and the significant work he is now doing within the documentary and conservation world has been nothing short of extraordinary,” noted Daniels.
Jackson Wild thanks National Geographic Society for sponsoring the Legacy Award, and to HHMI Tangled Bank Studios for sponsoring the Rising Star Award. Delighted to have their support!
DCEFF NAMES NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SETS 2025 DATES
Under new leadership, the Environmental Film Festival returns to the nation’s capital for its 33rd year next March
The Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF), the country’s largest and longest-running showcase of films about issues affecting our planet, announced today that Monica Schorn has been named the organization’s new Executive Director. She will be responsible for guiding DCEFF’s overall strategy and vision heading into their 33rd Annual Festival, officially scheduled for March 20-29, 2025.
A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Schorn brings over 15 years of festival experience with her into the role, including seven in various positions with the Environmental Film Festival. The Silver Spring native’s festival résumé also includes communications, operations, programming, and production roles with Fusion Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Annapolis Film Festival, and AFI DOCS.
“Monica Schorn has the experience, insight, and leadership that we celebrate at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital,” shared DCEFF Founder Flo Stone. “Her clear instinct for teamwork and collaboration, as well as her knowledge of quality films, environmental issues, and strong public programs provide inspiration for our work and future plans.”
Those future plans include another 10-day festival in March 2025, for which DCEFF is now accepting submissions. In an effort to support and highlight the local film community, the Festival is offering a submission waiver code to DC-area filmmakers and films focused on local issues. As always, DCEFF is looking to present the very best in environmental filmmaking, including (but not limited to) films exploring climate change, social justice, conservation, public health, sustainability, and outdoor adventure.
“33 years in and we only have more to say,” shared new Executive Director Monica Schorn. “As an institution at the heart of the nation’s capital, the Environmental Film Festival couldn’t be better positioned to spotlight those on the frontlines of storytelling, activism, policymaking, and community-building. The calibre of filmmaking and the stakes of these conversations have only increased since our inaugural Festival in 1993. It’s an honor to carry on this work, in collaboration with our partners and on behalf of the planet, towards a more just and verdant future.”
Robert Wedderburn has started a wildlife film-making podcast ... and in his first episode, he interviews another Robert, and member ...
In this first episode of his Wildlife Filmmaking Podcast, Robert Wedderburn interviews Robert Hofmeyr of Moving Pictures Africa, a talented South African wildlife filmmaker, about filming big cats and stock footage, while he is busy filming wildlife in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia.
Robert Wedderburn interviews the world's most knowledgeable and talented wildlife filmmakers and conservationists.
Watch the first episode then the rest of the playlist here: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLORy_mzqIzdlLuphHX05bA4Y9vHpFEMGb, including Episode 2, with another member, i.e. Alan Lacy In this episode of the Robert Wedderburn Podcast, Alan Lacy (Wildlife Filmmaker), founder of Reel Earth Films, shares his journey in wildlife filmmaking and the challenges of raising funds for his projects. He discusses his passion for wildlife, particularly coyotes and wolves, and how a childhood encounter with a coyote sparked his interest in nature.
Welcome to our Newest Full Members!
Gareth Cousins – a composer and all around multi-talented music man.
Gareth Cousins Music offers music production and composition – score mixing, recording, music editing and composition.
Victoria Clarke – an Australia-based Presenter/Host/Narrator
Victoria is a freelance television presenter, broadcaster, science communicator and narrator for documentaries and television series specialising in wildlife, science, natural history and adventure/travel.
She studied a Bachelor of Science in Zoology at the University of Queensland, which she paired with formal training in television presenting and communications, and has since combined the two fields as a host for wildlife and natural history media.
Her work as a wildlife presenter has taken her to many interesting and remote places in the natural world, and she is an avid traveller and adventurer.
Victoria believes in the power of storytelling, and it's her objective to share information about our planet, and the scientific discoveries made here, to the wider community through compelling, entertaining and accurate stories.
Victoria knows that through the art of nature filmmaking, the importance of conservation and exposure to the beauty of the natural world can be truly understood and appreciated.
Massimiliano (Max) Finzi – a Marine Supervisor – Assistant Underwater Camera – Water Safety Diver
Max is a professional Marine Supervisor and Safety diver in Media, Film and HATV at Netflix, Prime, Lionsgate, Disney, BBC amongst others.
Based in both the UK (Devon) and Italy.
He says" "I have great experience in water diving safety. I am a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer, an SSI Divemaster Instructor and the HSE Scuba L.4 and I’m also Instructor of many diving specialties; I’m an underwater camera assistant and also operate independently. I also have experience of training cast and crew in scuba diving to facilitate underwater sequences.
I have done over 10,000 dives in extremely different places and locations such as sea, ocean, river, altitude, lake, caves, under ice, deep and wrecks using all different equipments; I have worked as a dive instructor and dive manager for 21 years and in the last 5 as part of a team in the Marine department in film and TV.
Before becoming a diver in 1996 I was a studio still-life photographer a profession that I brought with me underwater;
I have the Gates STO (Setup/Test/Operate) certification made by Esprit Film; RYA PowerBoat L2, VHF Radio Operator, Day skipper.
I also have the IRATA Rope Access certification L1 and A1/A3 Drone open category.
The Panda Awards Nominees
... The Panda Awards sit at the heart of the biennial Wildscreen Festival, and is a chance to celebrate and honour the very best talent in the industry. This year’s competition attracted nearly 700 productions from over 1/4 of the world’s countries, across 15 different award categories.
‘Billy & Molly’, ‘Tiger’ & ‘Chimp Empire’ tie with three nominations each.
Wildscreen, has announced the nominees for the Wildscreen Panda Awards 2024 – the highest honour in the international natural world storytelling industry – for its 42nd edition.
Silverback Films’ Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, ties with heralded Underdog Films & Keo Films’ series Chimp Empire & Wildstar Films’ series, Tiger, for most nominations with three a piece. Bristol-based companies Silverback Films & Wildstar Films each also receive six nomination nods across their titles.
Recognised in the categories of Cinematography, Scripted Narrative, and Producer/Director, the heartwarming tale of Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story is sure to be one of the delights of the year. Set against the backdrop of the striking shores of Shetland, middle-aged man Billy, finds his life transformed by an unlikely friendship with a playful young otter named Molly.
Animal Behaviour fittingly takes centre stage at this year’s awards, with both Chimp Empire & Tiger, shedding new light on some of the animal kingdom’s most iconic and charismatic creatures. Produced by WildStar Films, Tiger – the culmination of 1,500 days of filming – captures young mother Ambar as she raises her rebellious cubs. Meanwhile, Chimp Empire, co-produced by Underdog Films and Keo Films, observes the startlingly complex social dynamics at play in the Ugandan Ngogo Chimpanzee community – by far the largest Chimpanzee community ever discovered.
International features dominated the Impact category, with Patrol, Rhino Man and We Are Guardians, all committed to delivering demonstrable political or societal change beyond the screen. Participatory filmmaking is cemented within each of the impact docs, with the affected communities being co-creators or principal contributors.
This year’s competition attracted nearly 700 productions from over 1/4 of the world’s countries, across 15 different award categories. It sees the re-introduction of Wildscreen’s Children’s Award with schoolchildren in Kenya and Bristol who will decide the overall winner from this year’s selection of shorts & features aimed at kids. The winners of each category and the highly coveted Golden Panda for the best overall production will be announced at the Panda Awards Ceremony, supported by Headline Sponsor Warner Chappell Production Music. The awards take place on 17 October at the Bristol Harbour Hotel in Bristol, UK and will be live-streamed globally.
The Panda Awards are the jewel in the crown of the Wildscreen Festival, the headline event in the natural world storytelling calendar, convening over 2,000 of the world’s leading filmmakers, broadcasters and content creators between the 14-18 October.
Hybrid and online passes for Wildscreen Festival and the Panda Awards Ceremony are available to buy here.
Astonishing story of 20-year South Downs National Park campaign told in riveting new book
The extraordinary story of the 20-year campaign to protect the treasured South Downs with National Park status is told in a new book by Midhurst author Robin Crane.
The former wildlife film producer was one of the original seven who founded the South Downs Campaign and he chaired the meetings throughout the long fight.
Robin said his recently-published book,The Fight for the South Downs, tells the 'almost unbelievable' story of the campaign.
He added: "The story of our 20-year fight to get a National Park is a significant event in local, and national, history. This is a story that I believe needed to be told, how a swathe of south-east England became a National Park, protected for future generations for them to enjoy and nurture.
"All of us who were involved are proud of what has become the South Downs National Park. John Templeton, one of our doughty campaigners, said of our story that ‘you couldn’t make it up, it is something too astonishing to be believed!’.
"I have received rave reviews about the book. I’m greatly encouraged by people who knew nothing of our history, who have said that once they began reading the book, the story was so gripping they couldn’t put it down.”
Robin was ‘thrilled to bits’ to have the cover picture by Gordon Rushmer, as it encapsulates the South Downs, featuring downland, woodland, river, fields and community in one stunning painting.
The Fight For The South Downs – The long struggle to protect one of Britain's most treasured landscapes Written by Robin Crane, Edited by Margaret Paren
Those who have a deep affection for Britain’s countryside will be totally absorbed by this extraordinary history of environmentalists’ efforts to conserve the glorious South Downs.
After describing the special qualities of the area and earlier attempts to safeguard it, the story of a twenty-year campaign to secure National Park status for this special part of England is recounted.
Strong forces opposed, but the South Downs Campaign, which eventually grew to represent 159 national, regional and local groups, won through and the national park was established in 2010.
Author Robin Crane chaired the meeting of seven people who founded the South Downs Campaign in 1990. He remained chairman until the South Downs National Park was finally designated. From the outset the campaign was run by a team of both volunteers and professionals. The Campaign for National Parks, The Ramblers Association, Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex and Hampshire CPREs were the lead organisations. Margaret Paren, who took a prominent role in the last half of the Campaign has edited this book. She chaired the South Downs National Park Authority for its first ten years.
AUTHOR ROBIN CRANE - After seven years as a regular army officer Robin Crane joined Guinness as a maltster. This led him to Lincolnshire where he became actively involved with the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. A film he made for the Trust resulted in the BBC Natural History Unit recruiting him to make programmes for the “World About Us” series. He moved to Sussex in 1967 where he established his own production company and made environmental, scientific, equestrian, training and public relations films which won several national and international awards. He became chairman of the Sussex Wildlife Trust and then chairman of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation In 1999 he was awarded the CBE for services to nature conservation. Meanwhile in 1990 he chaired the first meeting of the South Downs Campaign. He remained as chairman, treasurer and fund-raiser until the South Downs National Park was confirmed. In recognition of this work he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of the University of Sussex in 2010.
The book, published by Brown Dog Books on the 18th of April 2024, is available at: Amazon.co.uk
All Hands On Deck: #FreePaulWatson
On July 21, 2024, Captain Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd and many decade long anti-whaling activist, was arrested by Danish police upon arrival in Nuuk, Greenland, on board the ship John Paul DeJoria.
Danish authorities claim the arrest was made due to an international arrest warrant issued by Japan, related to his anti-whaling campaigns in the Antarctic more than a decade ago.
Paul faces the very real possibility of extradition to Japan, where he could potentially serve a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Captain Paul Watson features in Brock Initiative's Wildlife Winners & Losers Film Series film Are Whales Winning? ... check it out!
Are Whales Winning? Our attitude to whales and dolphins is confused. We love them in their home, the sea. We (some) love them in SeaWorld performing tricks. But SeaWorld and its money is now threatened by public opinion, and Japan, Norway and Iceland are the latest survivors still fighting not to save whales and dolphins in the wild. Who will win in this whale of a triangle?
"I repeat that famous quote from Sir Peter Scott "If we can't save the whale, we can't save anything".
And I'm sure that other grandfather of world conservation, Sir David Attenborough, would agree. He has been saying whaling is over. It isn't. So it would seem.
Try to embarrass the Japanese! How? Boycott Sony etc?"
Examples of huge corporations hit by bad publicity e.g. in Dubai, SeaWorld, Coca Cola, John Lewis, Unilever, Volkswagen, Shell. Every win for conservation adds to the power of film-makers in the future.
¨The Bough Breaks¨, from Mousehole Films, of which we are a proud sponsor alongside the Scottish Wild Beaver Group, is continuing its´ festival successes.
It has been made an official selection at the Montrose LandxSea Film Fest, a little closer to home for the film-makers, than some of the festivals we have been selected for (from the Arctic to South America!). It is Scotland's premier environmental film festival and leading event for films and discussions that spark green ideas and actions.
The film-makers, including member Danny Strong Ecologist & Filmmaker, say they ¨are honoured to have been selected as part of this year's exciting festival line up and one of only ten feature documentaries to be selected from films released in 23/24 - including ¨Billy & Molly - An Otter Love Story¨ (Silverback) and ¨Eagle with the Sunlit Eye¨ (Scout Studio).
Here is the link to the feature in the programme: landxsea.org/theboughbreaks2024 ¨The Bough Breaks¨ will be screened on Saturday 14th September 2024 at 2.50pm.
Planet Earth III Live in Concert: an “intensely impactful” show
Breathtaking footage from the TV series becomes an immersive experience
Mike Gunton is a TV producer and senior executive at the BBC Studios Natural History Unit, the world’s largest production unit dedicated to wildlife filmmaking. In 2009, he became its first creative director. In this role, he is responsible for bringing new stories about the natural world to global audiences, including nature documentary series Planet Earth II (2016) and Planet Earth III (2023).
Gunton is set to serve as the live host for the “intensely impactful and utterly memorable” Planet Earth III live concert coming to London and Manchester later this year. The show, he tells blooloop, aims to remind audiences “how diverse, in a biological sense, and how wonderful the natural world still is.”
At the concert, guests will see a selection of breathtaking moments from the acclaimed TV series on a giant state-of-the-art LED screen, accompanied by music performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.
“There is still so much to see and to understand. It’s hubris of us to think we know everything about the natural world. We do not,” he says.
“In the natural world, the complexity of the ecology, of how the natural world actually works as a machine; we need to understand that, because it’s our salvation. Our lives depend on that, and our survival depends on understanding that.”
Gunton has developed and produced series including Galapagos, Yellowstone, Madagascar, Life, Africa, Shark, Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Life Story, Dynasties and The Green Planet.
Planet Earth III Live in Concert is coming to UK arenas with 3 special performances in London and Manchester in October 2024.
Featuring breath-taking footage from the sensational television series produced by the multi-award-winning BBC Studios Natural History Unit and the remarkable music score by Oscar winner Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Sara Barone for Bleeding Fingers Music, performed by the fabulous City Of Prague Philharmonic orchestra.
Mangrove Photography Awards 2024 Winners Announced
Meet the winners of the Mangrove Photography Awards 2024
... Explore the 52 winning shots from the landmark 10th edition. Purification rituals, climate refugees, SpaceX, and orange lagoons - these are just some of this year's powerful images.
Following weeks of deliberation, we’re excited to reveal the winners of the 10th Mangrove Photography Awards, hosted by Mangrove Action Project.
Today, less than half the world’s original mangrove forest cover remains, and it has never been more important to promote the conservation of these fragile ecosystems. The Mangrove Photography Awards is a vital platform for creatives to captivate our imagination and spark action.
Every year, we’re inspired by the incredible submissions, which help raise awareness of the people and wildlife that rely on mangrove forests, the threats they face, and why urgent action is needed to protect them.
This year’s awards saw a record-breaking 2,500 entries from 74 nations, showcasing the beauty and global significance of mangrove ecosystems around the world.
In the end, it was India’s Supratim Bhattacharjee who captured the judge’s attention with his powerful photo of a young girl in the aftermath of a devastating storm.
In addition, winners have been selected in 6 categories – People, Landscape, Underwater, Threats, Wildlife, and Stories (a portfolio category) – while photographers under the age of 24 competed to become the Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year.
The photos are a compelling reminder of the importance of mangroves for the diversity of life across our coastlines as photographers captured unique relationships and moments from mangrove ecosystems both above and below the water line. They’re also a stark reminder of our need to protect these unique and precious ecosystems.
Selecting our finalists was no mean feat, even for our international panel of judges. This year conservation photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee, wildlife photojournalist Morgan Heim, and photojournalist Christian Ziegler made up our expert jury.
“I was particularly drawn to the Wildlife and Portfolio selections. There were many fascinating stories about life in the mangroves, ranging from scientific insights to restoration of the ecosystem and the difficult conditions people face.” Christian said.
How Disney scientists are shaping the future of sea turtle research — and how you can help
Sea turtles spend 90% of their lives in the ocean. Where do they go and how can we help them? We spoke with Disney’s Dr. Mark and Dr. Zak to find out.
Sea turtle talk
“There’s a lot of sea turtle research that goes on beaches, but over 90% of a sea turtle’s life is spent in the ocean. They will hatch out of that beach and then come back decades later, and we don’t know that much about what they’re doing over those decades and where they go. To have a complete picture of the sea turtle’s life and really know how to protect them, we need to know what’s happening with that 90% of their life when they’re out at sea.”
This is the vision of Disney’s support of sea turtles, as described by Dr. Zak Gezon, conservation director at Walt Disney World. We spoke with Dr. Zak and Dr. Mark Penning, vice president of Disney’s Animal, Science, and Environment unit, about the incredible migration of sea turtle mothers, the company’s interest in nature that began with Walt Disney, and the ways families can get involved in their own backyard.
Tracking sea turtles
Tour de Turtles is an annual event organized by Sea Turtle Conservancy (STC) and participated in by Disney. Each year, female sea turtles naturally make landfall on the ocean shoreline outside of Disney’s Vero Beach Resort, a Disney Vacation Club property on Florida’s east coast, just over 100 miles from Walt Disney World in Orlando. As part of Tour de Turtles, different organizations sponsor the attachment of radio telemetry devices to a handful of these mother turtles. The tracking of the turtles as they return to the sea helps fill in that missing 90% Dr. Zak mentioned.
That is an understudied and critically important piece of their natural history that we need to have more insight about how to do our best job protecting them,” Dr. Zak told us.
One of Disney’s sponsored turtles from 2023, for example — Madame Leota, named such to tie in with last summer’s release of the “Haunted Mansion” movie — has traveled 4,500 miles since her Tour de Turtles debut, making her way from Florida up the Atlantic coast toward Delaware and Maryland.
For 2024, Disney Conservation Fund sponsored a turtle named Ebb, while Disney Cruise Line sponsored Flo. They both departed from Vero Beach on July 27. All are welcome to track the migration journey of Ebb and Flo on STC’s website.
BBC Studios announces series two commission of Big Cats 24/7 ahead of series one debut
BBC Studios Natural History Unit announces the eagerly anticipated series Big Cats 24/7 has been commissioned for Series Two for BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and PBS and is in production.
"Big Cats 24/7 is a thrilling series following amazing animal behaviour. I’m really excited to commission a second series so we can dive straight back in and continue telling the incredible stories of the lions, leopards and cheetahs.” — Sreya Biswas, BBC Head of Commissioning, Natural History
Big Cats 24/7 will launch on the BBC in August this year and PBS in September. It follows the lives of lions, cheetahs and leopards in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, a place described as one of Africa’s last wildernesses. With extraordinary, unparalleled access in a rarely visited area and the opportunity to film from the ground, the air and through the night, the Big Cat 24/7 team work together to follow the cats’ lives around the clock.
Following on from this series two, which will be broadcast in 2025, will continue to follow the stars featured in the first series, as well as introducing some new faces, allowing viewers a front row seat as the team document the lives of these beloved big cats.
Sreya Biswas, BBC Head of Commissioning, Natural History says “Big Cats 24/ 7 is a thrilling series following amazing animal behaviour, with great on-screen talent and set in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Being able to follow the cats for long periods of time has been a unique opportunity and so I’m really excited to commission a second series so we can dive straight back in and continue telling the incredible stories of the lions, leopards and cheetahs.”
Tom Jarvis, Executive Producer says “It’s thrilling to be jumping right back into the dramatic lives of the big cats we have grown to love. What I’m most excited about in this series is that we are able to tell longitudinal and personal stories about the animals we are embedded with, and it feels like you are given a unique window into their world.”
Big Cats 24/7, a 6×60’ for BBC Two, iPlayer and PBS is made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and co-produced by PBS, with BBC Studios handling global distribution. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The Executive Producer is Tom Jarvis, the Series Producer is Rowan Crawford and the Production Manager is Gillian Goodlet. The Commissioning Editor is Head of Natural History Sreya Biswas. Diana El-Osta is the Executive in Charge for PBS.
Jackson Wild Selects Finalists for 2024 Media Awards
Jackson Wild has announced the films selected as finalists for the 2024 Jackson Wild Media Awards. Considered the highest bar of achievement in natural history filmmaking, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in nature, science, and conservation storytelling.
The 2024 Media Awards has been a record-breaking year with close to 500 films entering the competition, making this year's program one of the most exciting and competitive yet! Finalists were selected by more than 200 international judges, who collectively screened over 1,000 hours of media.
"The interest in this year's awards program has simply been off the charts with an exceptional group of judges elevating one of our most inspiring set of finalists ever." Said Geoff Daniels, Executive Director of Jackson Wild. “Given the state of our planet, this list of films has never been more globally relevant, impactful and truly must-see!"
Winners will be announced on Thursday, September 5 during the Jackson Wild Media Awards Gala at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring Maryland. To learn more and attend, visit jacksonwild.org/awards-gala.
Animal Behavior
Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory: Antarctic Killer Waves
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Mammals: Dark
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, ZDF, YOUKU and France
Télévisions for BBC
Queens: Rainforest Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Ecosystem
Giants Rising
Tangent Productions in association with the Redford Center
Our Living World: Nature's Amazing Network
Wild Space and Freeborne Media for Netflix
Wilding
A Passion Planet and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios Production
Conservation
Earthsounds: Listening to Our Planet
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
MY MERCURY
A Dog Star Films, JoJi Films Production for A24 Films
Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Wilding
A Passion Planet and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios Production
People & Nature
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Silverback Films and National Geographic
Resident Orca
A film by Sarah Sharkey Pearce and Simon Schneider, produced by Everyday Films for CRAVE, a Bell Media Company, in association with Canada Media Fund and Rogers Documentary Fund.
Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Planet in Crisis
Planetwalker
An Encompass Films Production, with Financial Support from Peak Design, Lush Cosmetics, Sierra Club, Nell Newman Foundation, Keystone Policy Center, The JoyTrip Project, Brico Fund, Aldo Leopold Foundation, Explorers Club, Darlene Anderson
Searching for Amani
A film by Backroad Pictures, Nicole Gormley, and Debra Aroko
The Here Now Project
Siskel/Jacobs Productions and Eleven Eleven Foundation
UNEARTH
Crooked Footprint, 22nd Century Films, LegaSeas, Resilient Foundation and Rogovy Foundation
Trailblazer
Life On Our Planet: In Cold Blood
Netflix, A Silverback Films Production in association with Amblin Television
Poacher: The Confessor
QC Entertainment, Suitable Pictures, Poor Man’s Productions, Eternal Sunshine Productions & PRIME VIDEO
Queer Planet
Plimsoll Productions and Peacock
Limited Series
Earthsounds
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Planet Earth III
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Poacher
QC Entertainment, Suitable Pictures, Poor Man’s Productions, Eternal Sunshine Productions & PRIME VIDEO
Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Feature
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story
Silverback Films and National Geographic
Canary
Oscilloscope Laboratories, End of The Road Films, Act 4 Entertainment, Boardwalk Pictures, and
REI Co-Op Studios
Every Little Thing
Dogwoof
Living with Leopards
Netflix, A Wild Space Production in Association with Natural History Film Unit Botswana and Freeborne Media
Global Voices
Kuishi Na Simba (Living With Lions)
Curiosity Stream, Ouragan Films, Siima Media, VII Foundation and Red Cameras
Ma naye ka Masaala a se ka Wometi (From God To Man)
A co-production of Nia Tero and Upstander Project in association with REI Co-op Studios.
The Last Defenders of Vietnam
Peddling Pictures and CNA, Mediacorp Pte Ltd
Turtle Walker
Tiger Baby, Ceres, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Emaho Films
Onscreen Personality
Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory: Patagonia Puma
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Featuring: Bertie Gregory
Attenborough and The Giant Sea Monster
A BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for BBC and PBS with the WNET Group
Featuring: Sir David Attenborough
Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Featuring: Dr Philip Stander
Trafficked: Underworlds with Mariana van Zeller Ep. Apes
National Geographic Channel and Muck Media
Featuring: Mariana van Zeller
Cinematography
Mammals: Water
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced with BBC America, ZDF, YOUKU and France Télévisions for BBC
Cinematographers: Dan Beecham, Howard Bourne, Kevin Flay, Jeandre Gerding, Steve Hathaway, Jeff Hester, René Heuzey, Andre Rerekura, Roberto Rinaldi, Nuno Sá, Hector Skevington-Postles, Max Smith, Gavin Thurston and Alex Vail
Our Living World: The Rhythm of Life
Wild Space and Freeborne Media for Netflix
Cinematographers: Knut Aas, Ben Adams, James Aldred, Julian Braatvedt, Juan Pablo Bueno Gomez, Santiago Cabral, Maurício Copetti, Tania Escobar, James Ewen, Richard Fitzpatrick, Steve Hathaway, Michael Mauro, Mark Ó Fearghaíl, Alexander Sommer, Taylor Turner, Guillaume Beaudoin, Bernt Bruns, Santiago Espindola Rodriguez and Dariosky Gonzalez Romero.
Planet Earth III: Extremes
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Cinematographers: Luke Nelson, Kevin Flay, Justin Maguire, John Shier, Barrie Britton, Daniel Hunter, Edward Saltau, Pete Cayless, Justine Evans, Jake Davis, Oliver Mueller, Ronan Donovan, Alain Lusignan, Ryan Deboodt, Cyril Ruoso, Pascal Lorent, Stuart Trowell, Rolf Steinmann, Braydon Moloney
Queens: Tiny Jungle Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Director of Photography: Warwick Sloss
Cinematographers: Michael Male, Gail Kukula, Mark Payne-Gill, Tim Shepherd, Justine Evans, Robin Cox, Joris Van Alphen and Mohan SandHu
Editing
A Real Bug's Life: The Big City
Nat Geo WILD and Plimsoll Productions
Editor: Rick Holbrook
Earthsounds: Australian Forests
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Editor: Alex Boyle
Photographer: Krystle Wright: Heart Explosions
Little Monster Films and National Geographic
Editors: Ann Rose, Fanny Lee
Planet Earth III: Freshwater
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Editor: Sam Rogers
Original Music Score
Among The Wolves
Le cinquieme reve, Belgica Films, Arte France, RTBF, Proximus
Composer: Lionel Polis
Greenland - Feeling the Heat
A Production by NDR Naturfilm, Doclights Vision Airways for NDR In Association with Terra Mater and distributed by ZDF Studios
Composers: Jörg Magnus Pfeil and Eivør Pálsdóttir
Queens: Tiny Jungle Queens
National Geographic and Wildstar Films
Composer: Morgan Kibby
Writing
Attenborough and The Giant Sea Monster
A BBC Studios Natural History Unit production for BBC and PBS with the WNET Group
Writers: Sir David Attenborough, Victoria Bobin and Tom Jarvis
Evolution Earth
Produced by Passion Planet in association with PBS and Arte France for Love Nature.
Writer: Oliver Twinch
Lions of the Skeleton Coast
A film by Will & Lianne Steenkamp for ORF, Thirteen, Arte and WDR
Writers: Will & Lianne Steenkamp, Alan Miller
Sound
Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold: On Thin Ice
National Geographic and Plimsoll Productions
Dubbing Mixer: Brian Moseley
Field Sound Recordist: Jim Hurst
Earthsounds: Australian Forests
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Sound: Wounded Buffalo
Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough: Hunters and Hunted
Humble Bee Films Ltd, Infield Fly Productions, Sky Nature, Netflix, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Abacus Media Rights
Sound: Chris Watson, Keith Henderson, Bill Rudolph, Dino Schiavone and Ioannis Spanos
Social
Making the Leap
Douglas Main, Zach Baumgartner, and National Geographic
The Unseen
On The Edge and Able & Baker
Unwind
Kate Colley
Wild Hope: Student Rewilders
An HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Red Rock Films Production for PBS Nature on YouTube
Student
A Hole with a View
Felix Prator, National Film and Television School
Against the Herd
Jaxon Derow, National Film and Television School
Beyond the Bay
Daniel Green, National Film and Television School
Death at Sea
Sara Pipernos, University of the West of England - Bristol; Cinematography: Mikey Sneddon; Assistant Director: Nyal Mueenuddin; Major funders: Blue Marine Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Human Rights at Sea International, Sustainable Communities and Fisheries Trust
Shorts - Wild Heroes
Flora, Fauna, Funga
National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab
Groundwork: Building Community Through Regenerative Rubber
The North Face and Gnarly Bay
Indai Apai Darah
Produced by Nia Tero and Sungai Utik Community as a member of the Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara
Shorts - Wildlife & Environment
Boca Chica
A film by Ái Vuong and Samuel Díaz Fernández, TÁPI Studios Reel South, PBS
How Humans Are Reshaping Elephant Evolution
Day's Edge Productions for PBS
Life (cycle) of the Hong Kong Newt
Frigatefilms
Marmots on Toast
Dream Wild Films
The Bird in My Backyard
Trochilus Films, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Shorts - Impact Stories
Existimos en la Memoria (We Exist in Memory)
A Home Collective Production
Directed by: Darian Woehr
Produced by: Hailey Sadler, Bruna Kadletz, Argenia Centeno
UNDAMMED
PATAGONIA
Wild Hope: The Frog Ark
An HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Red Rock Films Production for PBS Nature on YouTube
Innovation in Green Production
An Optimist's Guide to the Planet with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
A Canada-United Kingdom Co-production,
A Cream and Wildfire Television Production in association with Bloomberg and Bell Media With the participation of Ill Kippers Aps
Earthsounds
Offspring Films for Apple TV+
Planet Earth III
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University
Rebels with Cause
A Limpet Films Production for WaterBear and Imagine5
Impact Campaign
Catapults to Cameras
Roundglass Sustain and Ashwika Kapur
Impact Producers: Ashwika Kapur, Samreen Farooqui, Suvrajyoti Chatterjee (Heal).
The Elephant Queen
A Deeble, Stone & Oliff Production and Apple Original
Watershed
The Redford Center, Kontent Films
We Are Guardians
RandomGood Films, Appian Way, Highly Flammable, Mídia Indígena and One Forest
Honorable Mention
399: Queen of the Tetons
A Production of Lucky 8 in association with the WNET Group and PBS
Birdsong
True Films, RTÉ, Coimisiún na Meán
Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya
Thunderheart Films
Chasing Time
Exposure Labs
Farming While Black
Directed by Mark Decena; Produced by Liz Lupino Decena and Kontent Films
The Call of Glaciers
China Global Television Network (CGTN)
For over 30 years, Jackson Wild has been a catalyst for accelerating and elevating impactful storytelling at the nexus of nature, science, and conservation. Through innovative and collaborative community gatherings, skill-building initiatives, and mentorship programs, Jackson Wild creates an inclusive forum for storytellers to more deeply illuminate connections to the natural world and our collective responsibility to the wild.
Jackson Wild’s international board members include: ARRI, ARTE France, BBC Studios, Blue Ant Media / Love Nature, Conservation International, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, Doclights, GBH, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Jane Goodall Institute, Lucky 8, NHK, National Geographic Content, National Geographic Society, Nature/WNET, Netflix, NEWF (Nature, Environment, Wildlife, Filmmaking), Off the Fence Productions, ORF Universum, PBS, RED Digital Cinema, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, Sony Electronics, Terra Mater Studios, Wanda Films, Waterbear, Wildstar Films, and World Wildlife Fund.
Cartoon Network Climate Champions Publish Survey on Kids’ Uunderstanding of Electronic Waste
According to the UN, electronic waste (e-waste) is the world’s fastest-growing domestic waste stream, with production expected to reach 82 million tonnes globally per year by 2030, this includes items such as mobile phones, laptops, MP3 players, plugs and batteries. With e-waste increasingly impacting lives across the globe, and the World Health Organisation calling e-waste the ‘next growing threat to the environment’ Cartoon Network has partnered with Envision Racing to launch a cross-platform EMEA wide campaign toinform, engage, and empower children about e-waste.
E-waste is very relevant to Cartoon Network’s audience as it has an increasing impact on kids’ lives. As digital and tech natives, electronics play a fundamental role in their everyday life. All kids around the world can relate to e-waste with toys being a massive source: 7.3 billion e-toys (car racing sets, electric trains, music toys, talking dolls, drones etc) are now discarded annually. That’s an average of 1 per person on Earth!
A research survey undertaken by Cartoon Network found that 70% of children aged 6-11 across the EMEA region, had not heard of e-waste or were aware but not sure / had no idea what it means. Results from the study show that:
MAJORITY OF KIDS AGED 6-11 YRS. CLAIM TO HAVE HEARD OF E-WASTE, BUT IN REALITY, FEW (30%) KNOW WHAT IT MEANS
KIDS IN POLAND (47%), TURKEY (37%) & SOUTH AFRICA (28%) MORE FAMILIAR WITH E-WASTE THAN PEERS IN UK (19%) AND FRANCE (17 %)
POLISH KIDS (81 %) ARE NOTABLY MORE LIKELY TO LINK E-WASTE WITH THE CORRECT DEFINITION vs. OTHER MARKETS; UK (26%) & FRANCE (19%) UNDER-INDEX
MOST KIDS (87 %) HAVE AT LEAST ONE E-WASTE ITEM AT HOME WITH KIDS’ TOYS, HEADPHONES & TABLETS AMONG THE TOP 3
MANY KIDS SAY THEY STORE E-WASTE ITEMS AT HOME OR THROW THEM AWAY, HIGHLIGHTING THE NEED FOR EDUCATION
Source: EMEA Kids Insights, primary research survey conducted on the Quantilope platform, Aug’23; sample size n=1,500, Audience: Kids aged 6-11 yrs. ; Markets: UK, S. Africa, France, Turkey & Poland;
In response to this data, Cartoon Network recognised the opportunity to benefit both the planet and children by using its combined platforms, reach, and the expertise of Envision Racing to highlight the issue of electronic waste. The e-waste campaign aims to raise awareness and understanding through new, fun, relatable, and inspiring content designed to encourage action via e-waste-themed Climate Champions challenges, informative videos, quizzes and trivia.
Cartoon Network Climate Champions’ new e-waste video content will air on the Cartoon Network channel and includes a “Guide to E-waste” video that explains what e-waste is, why it’s an important issue and the basics of how we can help tackle it. Cartoon Network will also air e-waste promos, explaining issues around e-waste with a call to action on how kids can get involved in tackling it, and share weekly uploads to its social & YouTube channels to help broaden reach and drive key e-waste messages home.
In addition, children can find new, fun and informative e-waste content in the Cartoon Network Climate Champions app and on the website. This includes new e-waste challenges, new facts and trivia about e-waste, new quizzes, new voting cards, and new videos featuring real kids talking about the issue of electronic waste.
Among the many e-waste challenges available includes the ‘Device Rescue Mission,’ where children check their homes for old electronic devices that can be recycled, the ‘No Crossed Wires’ challenge, which involves taking care of chargers by preventing damage from wire tangles, and the ‘Phone Numbers!’ challenge, where kids count the number of mobile phones in their homes, including unused ones.
Warner Bros Discovery, VP Brand, Comms and Digital Content Strategy, Monika Oomen says: "E-waste is highly relevant to children, yet our research indicates a notable gap between their intentions and actions, primarily due to a lack of knowledge on proper disposal methods. It is encouraging to witness the agency among kids, and our goal is to help translate their intentions into meaningful actions."
Cartoon Network’s Climate Champions initiative empowers and inspires young people to act and help the environment. Kids aged 6-12 can become Climate Champions by taking on daily challenges and making a significant difference together. The collaboration with the world champion racing team, Envision Racing, underscores Cartoon Network’s commitment to educating young minds.
Cartoon Network further expands the Climate Champions initiative by integrating it into Cartoon Network Game On! Through gamification on Roblox, tackling e-waste challenges is made available in the Metaverse. As previously announced, Cartoon Network and Envision Racing launched a Climate E-Racers mini-game, allowing players to race each other in vehicles customised with e-waste collected in the game, while completing Climate Champions challenges along the way. Incorporating the e-waste Climate Challenges ensures that this crucial message reaches children during their playtime. Launched in May, Climate E-Racers has amassed 1 million visits.
As part of Envision Racing’s Race Against Climate Change programme, the team has long aimed to energise fans to help save the planet, with the growing problem of e-waste a recent focus. In 2023 the team unveiled the world’s first, fully driveable race car made entirely out of e-waste to highlight the growing worldwide problem.
About Envision Racing
Envision Racing is a racing team which develops electric racing technologies and is also one of the founding and most successful outfits in the FIA Formula E World Championship and the current World Champions.
Owned by Envision, Envision Racing has sustainability running through its DNA and was created for one simple purpose, to inspire generations to tackle climate change and transition to e-mobility and renewable energy. Both on and off the track, Envision Racing focus on accelerating and promoting innovation and change that will help us to live more sustainably, using their Race Against Climate Change™ program to mobilise fans around the world to be part of this change.
Cartoon Network is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery and the #1 global animated series network, offering the best in original content for kids and families with such hits as Apple & Onion, Ben 10, Craig of the Creek, The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe, The Amazing World of Gumball, Teen Titans Go!, We Baby Bears, and more. Seen in more than 185 countries, over 450 million homes and in 33 languages, Cartoon Network inspires the next generation of creators and innovators by engaging its audience at the intersection of creativity and technology. Its award-winning pro-social initiatives, Stop Bullying: Speak Up and Cartoon Network Buddy Network are acknowledged and often used resources for kids and adults looking for tools that can assist in dealing with the ongoing issue of bullying.
For anyone that heard the rumours or saw the #RIPCartoonNetwork hashtag: "Cartoon Network would like to clarify that there is no truth to the speculation that the network or the studio are shutting down. With a number of recently announced greenlights, we remain committed to continually investing in innovative content that entertains and inspires our viewers across the globe."
CALL FOR ENTRY – A NEW WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL IN ANKARA TURKIYE
By Ece Soydam
30th July 2024
July 1st, 2024 was a very exciting day for me! It was the date when submissions started for the Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival, the first of its kind in the country.
I am Ece Soydam, a long-time wildlife filmmaker and the very recent founder of this new festival in Türkiye. Having participated in many international wildlife film festivals since the past 20 years, I have always been thrilled to watch great documentaries, meet with and learn from colleagues from around the world and exchange information. Every time I came back from a festival to Ankara, I always talked about it for days and wished the team, my colleagues, the emerging wildlife filmmakers in Türkiye, my friends and my family could experience that atmosphere I so much enjoyed. As I can’t take everyone with me to these festivals, it just dawned upon me one day - “Why not bring the festival to them”? And “Why not introduce wildlife filmmakers to Turkish wildlife?”
The first wildlife documentary film festival of Türkiye will be held in the capital Ankara. Please mark the dates May 15 – 18, 2025!
Submissions are open until December 16th, 2024.
You will find more information on our website very soon. Details about the festival, the city of Ankara and the wildlife of the region and the country will be available at www.aywff.com.tr. We invite you all to submit your documentaries through filmfreeway.com and wait for more announcements about the festival.
We are looking forward to receiving your submissions! Hope to welcome you all and meet many new colleagues in Ankara!
ANKARA INTERNATIONAL WILDLIFE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
The capital Ankara will host a brand-new festival in 2025. For the first time in Türkiye, a documentary film festival about wildlife will be organized. Submissions for the competition section of the 1st Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival, which is planned to take place between May 15 - 18, 2025, opened on July 1st, 2024. Thanks to the interest of many filmmakers, 130 submissions from 36 countries have been received just in the first month.
The festival is organized to draw national and international attention to Anatolia's wildlife, contribute to nature conservation efforts and support the developmen t of wildlife documentary filmmaking. It is aimed to bring together wildlife documentaries and teams from many countries of the world with both the audience and professional or amateur wildlife documentarians, to follow the innovations in the world, to be a pioneer in some areas and to be instrumental in collaborations and co-productions.
The festival, which will include four days of documentary film screenings, Q&As with film crews, workshops and seminars, will also have a competition section where wildlife documentaries from all over the world will be evaluated in short and feature categories.
Founded by director and producer Ece Soydam, who has been producing wildlife documentaries at TRT for nearly twenty years, the festival is organized in partnership with Çigdem Education, Environment and Solidarity Association and Nature Conservation Center, with the support of United Nations GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), European Union Sivil Düs¸ün Programme and Ayten & Aycan. The search for resources continues in order to make the organization, to which various embassies will also contribute, more comprehensive.
Submissions for the festival competition will be open until December 16th, 2024 through filmfreeway.com. Inviting all wildlife documentary filmmakers from Türkiye and across the globe to apply to the festival, the festival team continues to work to present a full program for the 1st Ankara International Wildlife Documentary Film Festival on May 15 – 18th, 2025.
All Through the Night: Why Our Lives Depend on Dark Skies by Dani Robertson
Embark on an illuminating journey with All Through the Night, as Dark Sky Officer Dani Robertson
unveils the wonders of our night skies and reveals the havoc wreaked by light pollution.
Step back in time and discover the electrifying story behind the invention of Edison’s light bulb to the modern-day reign of bright lights that bewilder our planet’s wildlife. Throughout this fascinating history of darkness, Dani uses her personal experience and career to show why night- time is something for us to protect, not be fearful of.
Travel to the realm of dreams and ancient myths inspired by the constellations, understand why scenes captured by some of the greatest artists can no longer be witnessed in the same way today, and learn how the animals we share our world with are unable to hide under the cover of darkness.
Interspersed with inspiring stories from cultures the world over, All Through the Night is both a celebration of the star-speckled blanket above us and a call to reclaim the night, one light switch at a time.
‘It is a thought-provoking book that sends light onto our need to love darkness.’ Mary Colwell, author of Curlew Moon.
‘Read the book, look up in awe, and act.’ Mike Parker, author of All the Wide Border.
Best New Books on Space 2024 – ‘Rarely is a non-fiction book about science this engaging’ – Forbes
Dani Robertson, a Dark Sky Officer for Snowdonia National Park, is originally from Greater Manchester but moved to the Welsh countryside at an early age. She is prolific in her conservation work and passionate about championing the darkness for all and is a regular speaker at public outreach events. Her advocacy for night skies was recognised by the International Dark Sky Association in 2022, when she received the Dark Sky Defender Award. All Through the Night is her first book and will equip readers with the tools for defending our skies. She lives in Wales with her husband and their two dogs. She can be on socials via @DaniDarkSkies
Published by HarperNorth, 14th September 2023, available at Amazon.co.uk
Nature’s Ghosts: The world we lost and how to bring it back by Sophie Yeo
For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment – for good and for bad.
In Nature’s Ghosts, award-winning journalist Sophie Yeo examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries.
Uncovering the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, she seeks out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And she explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth.
Along the way, Sophie encounters the environmental detectives – archaeological, cultural and ecological – reconstructing, in stunning detail, the landscapes we have lost.
Today, the natural world is more vulnerable than ever; the footprints of humanity heavier than they have ever been. But, as this urgent book argues, from the ghosts of the past, we may learn how to build a more wild and ancient future.
‘Sophie writes fantastically, chronicling the most important issues facing nature conservationists today.’ – Chris Packham
'Fascinating, deeply researched and breathtaking in its scope.' – Guy Shrubsole
'A wondrous book and a ticket for environmental time travel.' Tristan Gooley
Longlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation
Published by HarperNorth, 23rd May 2024, available at: Amazon.co.uk
The 10th Anniversary Edition of WFFR is coming ... but also the WFFR 2024 Industry Days!
The 2024 festival will feature the best films from all over the world. We will be screening all of our official selections in the heart of Rotterdam at Cinerama Movie Theater.
The WFFR Industry Days ’24 will take place on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 November2024. Here you can meet/catch-up with other film professionals and participate in workshops, pitch sessions and social events.
Filmmakers can pitch their (planned) project on Friday, November 8th in front of commissioners, producers, broadcasters and distributors from the wildlife film industry. Registration for the Pitch sessions is required.
60,000 of us heading in the same direction ... The #RestoreNatureNow March 22 June 2024
On Saturday 22 June, 60,000 activists walked through London. All ages, all backgrounds, an almost unimaginably broad range of interests and concerns. Even a few years ago we might have seemed disparate, unconnected with each other, but for a glorious, precious few hours we united behind two simple messages: 1) our world is dying, we need more nature - now, and 2) the next government needs to do far, far better than this one. ‘There’s no life without wildlife', ‘More species less faeces’, and frankly the door can’t hit the Tories hard enough on their way out…
It took a long, long time for the huge crowd to make its way down Park Lane and Piccadilly, along Whitehall towards Parliament Square. Hours of drums and whistles, sporadic chanting, and a colorful mile-long crocodile of people. Anti-oil campaigners to anti-hunt activists, bird, butterfly, and badger folk. The Red Rebel Brigade, face-painted children, and elaborate costumes. Small groups with placards about small-scale developments that will smash local wildlife hotspots. Banners the width of the road demanding we all take the climate crisis seriously. Restore Nature Now. Stop treating animals so appallingly. Protest, protest, protest like our lives depended on it. Like the lives of everything depended on it.
Somewhere way up at the front were the organisers and the speakers. Chris Packham, who somehow pulled this event off, a naturalist who has spent his entire adult life working towards bringing us all together like this. Emma Thompson, who spoke about political inaction on climate change, a ‘national treasure’ risking the wrath of fossil fuel lobbyists from the right-wing media. Feargal Sharkey (image below), the most effective - and if you’re of a certain age perhaps the most unexpected - campaigner against the rapaciousness of the privatised UK water industry. Dale Vince, the Ecotricity founder, a vegan who reminded us all that the biodiversity crisis has its deep roots in the food choices we all make. Sarah Finch, whose recent climate change legal challenge against Surrey County Council could prove pivotal in the fight against new oil licences. Nemonte Nenquimo, 2020 Goldman Prize Winner and member of the Waorani nation from the Amazonian region of Ecuador.
So many voices from young to old, from the famous to the less well-known (for now anyway). Impassioned activists talking to impassioned activists. No admonishment. Just a repeated plea to make change.
A huge and peaceful protest
This was - despite the seriousness of the message - a universally celebratory, peaceful and friendly march. That’s not meant as a direct comparison with any other march or any other cause, it’s a personal reflection on spending months writing about violent Boxing Day meets. Of seeing the snarling abuse from ‘countryside supporters’ routinely aimed at small protests against hunting and shooting or the badger cull. Of listening to the shocking experiences of monitors and sabs.
This felt inclusive. There was an air of relief as numbers built before it all started: how many? wow, that’s amazing. And trying to find friends, colleagues or supporters became all but impossible - unless (like in the image above) you found each other before the march began. But once that tide began to surge forward, differently paced, walking, stopping, walking again, it didn’t matter. Here we were, experienced and inexperienced, mingling and folding around each other with broad smiles before a pulse to the left or the right meant you found yourself alongside someone else to talk to or share that communal sense of ‘something is happening here’…
Will it make a difference? It has to.
Marches like this always cause the question to be asked: will it make a difference? In February 2003, around a million people marched in London against the looming Iraq war. The war still went ahead and millions died. This year hundreds of thousands of people have marched for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The war in Palestine still goes on and the beleaguered State looks set to become a bloodied dead zone. Today, 60,000 of us - and some will no doubt have been at those previous protests too - marched for nature. Will it make a difference?
It has to. We are at the crunch point. Right now. The crisis is here.
In February, Georgetown University biologist Colin Carlson calculated that since 2000 climate warming had already killed four million people through malnutrition, floods, diarrhoea, malaria and cardiovascular disease. A recent World Economic Forum report suggests that by 2050 climate change may cause an additional 14.5 million deaths. According to the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events between 2008 and 2016. ‘Climate migration’ is expected to surge in coming decades with predictions that 1.2 billion people could be displaced globally by 2050 due to climate change and natural disasters.
Around the world we are converting more and more land to feed ourselves, taking grasslands, tidal flats, woodland, and forests from wildlife. The UN Environmental Programme says that soils are turning infertile, water sources are drying up, and that one million species are threatened with extinction. That figure will be a huge underestimation as surveys rarely (if ever) keep up with the pace of decline, most species aren’t evaluated anyway, and in 2011 it was estimated that 86% of land species and 91% of marine species had yet to be identified and described.
Here in the UK we have become one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet. In April this year, Buglife reported that the abundance of flying insects ‘splatted’ on vehicle number plates had fallen by a staggering 78% since 2004. 26% of mammal species are now at risk of extinction in the UK. The number of wild birds in Britain has fallen by 73 million since 1970. 97% of flower meadows have been destroyed since the 1950s.
That loss doesn’t even consider the almost incomprehensible 78 billion land animals killed every year for humans to eat. More chickens are killed for food than any other land animal: in a single day, 202 million will be slaughtered. For ducks, the number is 12 million, while 3.8 million pigs, 1.7 million sheep, 1.4 million goats, and 900,000 cows are killed every day. No one knows for sure how many fish and crustaceans are pulled from rivers, bays, and oceans every year but it’s billions and billions more.
All these things are linked. Climate change, depletion, war, and exploitation of humans and non-humans alike - all symptoms of a bewildering lack of commonality, of rampant greed and arrogance, of thickheaded political ambition, of a collective failure of imagination, of speciesism and racism and a horribly widespread belief that some humans matter more than others, and all humans matter more than almost all non-humans.
It’s both the journey and the destination that matters
If any of us want to survive (and yes, of course it’s that serious) that mindset - those mindsets - has to change. The London march shows that an increasing number of us - and the organisations that we support and allow to speak for us - ‘get it’. We understand the linkages, see those connections.
That’s why we marched together towards Parliament and the speeches - holding different placards and banners perhaps, but together. Everyone from soil and plant groups to anti-hunt and conservation groups. Normally cautious NGOs with royal patrons walking alongside animal-rights activists and climate protestors who are prepared to risk arrest. Undivided, even if (temporarily hopefully) just temporarily.
It’s easy from the outside to dismiss a march as something ‘of a moment’, but for anyone who’s been in this sector for any length of time, it was clearly much more than that. The Parliament Square destination of course mattered - it was politically symbolic on one level, a vast exhalation of frustration and anger on another. But the journey mattered too. Not the route we all took down Piccadilly and past the Cenotaph, but the one we have all been taking now for decades. It’s been made despite our perceived differences and it has taken us along a track that has seen dots joined, seen us look past the silos, seen many of the barriers that should never have existed between allies removed.
There has been a growing comprehension that if we work for animals, for wildlife, for the climate, whatever we do, no matter how small or how large, we are working for the very same thing: the future of life - all life - on this planet.
What this march demonstrated above all else is that no matter what we focus on, when it comes to the biggest picture of all many of us are at last heading in the same direction.
(All images Protect the Wild. Many thanks to the Protect the Wild supporters who found us and spent the march with us. We appreciated your insight and feedback on our work, and we really enjoyed your company!)
Please consider donating to Protect the Wild if you support what we stand for! We’re working hard to empower people to protect British wildlife and every pound makes a huge difference: protectthewild.org.uk/donate
Watch live coverage hosted by Megan McCubbin from the Restore Nature Now march in London – special guests include Chris Packham, Feargal Sharkey, Liz Bonnin, Steve Backshall and more!
Keir Starmer and his Government must make nature one of their top priorities, green groups have urged.
A coalition of environmental campaigners, including the National Trust, WWF, RSPB and Extinction Rebellion, have called on the Prime Minister to address five major challenges to protect the UK’s environment and ecosystems. These include doubling the nature and climate-friendly farming budget to £6 billion, introducing new rules to make polluters pay for nature and climate recovery and expanding protected areas. The groups are also calling for the Government to table an Environmental Rights Bill and take climate actions like increasing home energy efficiency, supporting active travel and public transport, and transitioning to renewables. It comes after the coalition joined forces for the Restore Nature Now march in central London during the election campaign last month. More ...
Inside Jane Goodall’s Revolutionary Approach to Animal Research
Our improved understanding of animal behavior is a legacy of Jane Goodall’s work.
When Charles Darwin first began researching animals in the wild, he and the animal researchers who followed in his footsteps believed that only humans were capable of using tools. Nearly a century later, Jane Goodall upended that theory. In the 1960’s, Goodall became the first to discover that chimps could make and use tools. Her discoveries are inextricably linked to her unique style of interacting with chimpanzees in their own habitats. This immersive fieldwork allowed her to uncover details about animals’ social complexity, intelligence and culture, transforming the field of ethology from that point forward.
Part of what made Goodall’s works so indelible is the striking images of her in the field that we have thanks to the National Geographic Society, which helped fund her work. The importance of what these images taught the public about the discoveries of Gombe is matched by their aesthetic brilliance, (much of the National Geographic film was shot by Hugo Van Lawick, a noted wildlife filmmaker and Goodall’s future husband.) And the representation of a young woman scientist did much to encourage other women to follow in her career footsteps.
An Immersive Approach to Animal Research
Goodall first became interested in animal research as a child reading Tarzan in her hometown of Bournemouth, England. Her persistent desire to live in nature among wild animals led her to save the money she earned as a waitress to pay for her ship fare to Africa, where she stayed at a family friend’s farm in Kenya. There, she was told to look into the work of Louis Leakey, an archaeologist she was able to meet during that same trip. Leakey was interested in the behavior of chimpanzees, which he saw as a key to understanding early human behavior. He was impressed by Goodall’s curiosity and encouraged her to study chimpanzees, eventually becoming a lifelong mentor to Goodall.
Her notes were meticulous, as she immersed herself among the chimpanzees and documented her observations in great detail. Her handwritten data on chimpanzee life included details of how chimpanzees formed social groups, how they use tools, their mating habits as well as dominance, feeding and grooming behaviors. The practice of immersing herself among the animals in their day-to-day life was so striking in terms of the breadth and depth of discovery, that it paved a new path into the study of ethology. Today, data continues to be collected at Gombe National Park, but the existing data set housed at Arizona State University continues to be used to make new discoveries. For instance researchers have found that chimpanzees communicating improves their success when hunting. Another study finds that male chimps “mellow out” as they get older.
ORF-Enterprise’s Armin Luttenberger, Terra Mater Studios’ Berend Dreier and PBS Distribution’s Joe Barrett discussed trends in wildlife distribution at the TV Real Festival.
“Nature and wildlife feels very strong at the moment,” Dreier said. “There is a strong trend for escapism. People just don’t want to be bothered with the many problems that we face, while at the same time still wanting to know about them and be educated and make a difference, especially when it comes to environmental issues, conservation issues and so on.”
Stalcup asked how the wildlife distribution business has been impacted by the emergence of FAST channels. For ORF-Enterprise, the experience has been “mixed,” Luttenberger said. “FAST doesn’t follow the same logic in all of the markets. It does not work equally well in all markets worldwide. Territories with very strong linear, free-to-air products may struggle economically to have the same success with FAST products. FAST can be an exciting addition from a distributor’s perspective as an additional channel for us. But in my opinion, the same programmatic rules apply to FAST as they do with handmade linear television. From this perspective, I do not really yet see a compelling impact on the genre itself.”
FAST has been an exciting development for Terra Mater Studios, Dreier said, referencing the company’s partnership with Autentic for the Terra Mater WILD channel in German-speaking countries. “The data we get there from viewer retention to ad sales, inventory sales and so on is really great. The natural history audience feels built-in with FAST channels, especially in our home turf territory. It’s also good that we have this huge back catalog. And all our content is at least HD; most of it is 4K already. It really caters to that audience who just wants to have that lean-back experience and watch beautiful nature on their devices. It’s also a really helpful extension of the life cycle of natural-history content.”
Terra Mater has also found success on YouTube. “We have roughly 450,000 subscribers now, so it’s growing steadily,” Dreier said. “Producing content for that audience works really well. We published a video about the largest beaver dam on Earth and already have more than 2.3 million views. We want to try it to see how the long-form, 50-minute documentaries or even longer work there and understand the algorithm a little better.”
Barrett added, “FAST has allowed a much broader audience to view nature documentaries because they’re largely censor-friendly. Typically, they’re family-friendly. So, you broaden your audience. A lot of the FAST channels are becoming pickier but they do need content. It’s been a wonderful platform for nature to be rereleased.”
Technological developments have been key to driving the genre forward over the last few years, the panelists noted.
“Cameras are being produced in 4K and now 8K resolution and even higher and getting even smaller to capture the natural world in all its beauty and glory,” Dreier said. “With drones, for example, you can now achieve shots for a more reasonable price than when you needed helicopters. Remote cameras and camera traps also help to really get the viewer into the scene and experience elusive animals, elusive scenes like never before. The downside of that is that you get a lot of footage. I hope that AI will help tremendously with the archiving and tagging and making this content more available for future exploitation.”
Queer Nature Photography Awards – The call for applications is now OPEN
The Narwhal Rainbow Alliance, a not-for-profit committed to protecting biodiversity and promoting diversity, is organising The Queer Nature Photography Awards 2024 in Amsterdam.
Why the queer nature photography awards?
Nature is queer, but many people do not know this. That's a shame because by spreading this knowledge people can better understand that 'being queer' is natural and this (bio)diversity should be celebrated.
Queer nature and animal stories have the potential to:
Contribute to the self-acceptance of queers
Contribute to the acceptance of queers by non-queers
Reach new targets groups and involve them more in stopping the current extinction wave by combining queer nature stories with the state of nature.
The Queer Nature Photography Awards gives a stage to our colourful world and offers a fresh perspective on queer topics.
Tourists visit Iceland and the Arctic every summer. Happily they watch whales and whales watch them back. It is, or, at least has been, a successful arrangement and Iceland has become a famous, and trusted, destination for whale-watching, including the world's second largest, the fin whale.
Now, as in The Times of June 12th 2024 reported, Iceland has approved the hunting and killing of 99 fin whales, having previously implied it would phase out this barbaric industry altogether.
Explosive harpoons have been the usual and lengthy way of slaughtering these huge sensitive creatures who no-one wants to eat. They may be contaminated by plastics and chemicals. They belong to the planet.
So Iceland should be boycotted, their tourist industry sabotaged and the fishing ministry's decision cancelled.
It so happens that, recently in Russia, yes Russia, a team of scientists were trying to rescue a humpback, another great whale, trapped in fishing gear. What a contrast! A whale of a tangle!
Richard Brock, 16th June 2024
Outcry as Iceland approves return to whale hunting
Iceland has approved the killing of nearly 100 whales after briefly suspending the practice over welfare concerns.
Animal welfare groups criticised the Icelandic fishing ministry’s decision to issue a licence to the country’s last remaining whaling firm. Hvalur hf will be allowed to kill 99 fin whales during a hunting season which usually lasts until September.
“This will badly tarnish Iceland’s international image,” Clare Perry, a campaigner at the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, said.
Patrick Ramage, director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: “The world has been watching Iceland, waiting for its government to end whaling once and for all. While the numbers and quota period are significantly reduced, slaughtering 99 more whales makes no sense.” More here ...
Are Whales Winning? Our attitude to whales and dolphins is confused. We love them in their home, the sea. We (some) love them in SeaWorld performing tricks. But SeaWorld and its money is now threatened by public opinion, and Japan, Norway and Iceland are the latest survivors still fighting not to save the whales and dolphins in the wild. Who will win in this whale of a tangle?
How to slay a dragon. It’s time to defund nature destruction. Tell governments we must regulate the banks.
For years, we have been on the frontlines of the battle against industries that are ruthlessly destroying our environment. These corporations have no regard for the countless animals they kill, the habitats they obliterate, the Indigenous People they displace, or the severe damage they inflict on our climate.
Now, we are going beyond the realm of these deadly industries: we're going after the head of the dragon. We want to rein in the financial industry that funds these profit-driven and nature-destroying activities. If we turn off the tap, we will be able to stop the fuel that fires the greedy corporate world that destroys our world.
Just one example of this is that EU financial institutions provided €256 BILLION in credit to companies active in sectors driving global nature destruction [1]. Many of these locations are biodiversity hotspots, like Indonesia, Brazil and the Congo Basin Forest.
We are courageously charging into the lair of this beast, whose investments in industries like corporate agriculture, and fossil fuel exploration threaten to drive species into extinction, and deny future generations an opportunity to live in a healthy world.
This is a mammoth journey we are undertaking, but it is critical. Without stopping the flow of money from these financial actors and government subsidies to destructive industries, we cannot halt the exploitation of our planet by these profit-hungry financial beasts.
We invite you to bravely embark on this vital mission with us.
Though the global financial system is complex and daunting, we are confident that with your support, we can navigate the intricate web of global finance regulation and pressure our governments to rein in this monstrous financial industry that places profit above all else.
It's time we took on this monster, cut off its relentless flow of nature-destroying money, and demanded that our governments step up and stop this madness.
Together, we can confront this challenge and make a real difference.
Unregulated banks are pouring billions into corporations that ravage rainforests, wildlife, and natural habitats. Trillions of dollars are propping up these destructive industries, undermining conservation efforts. Our leaders must face the climate and nature crises head-on, free from corporate influence. Nature is for our future, not corporate profit. Governments must prioritise sustainability, equity, and resilience over short-term gains. Intact forests and natural areas are our lifeline, shielding future generations from extreme weather and climate impacts. We urge governments to act now, regulate banks, and enforce strong nature laws.
EDGE Fellowship 2025-2027
– The call for applications is now OPEN
EDGE of Existence: Become an EDGE Fellow
NB. We are only receiving applications from Asia and the Pacific.
One of the most effective ways in which we work to secure the future of EDGE species is by strengthening, supporting, and diversifying conservation leadership. The EDGE Fellowship is a 28-month fellowship for local early-career conservationists from lower- and middle-income countries. We equip these emerging conservation leaders—EDGE Fellows—with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities required to advance their careers and spearhead effective conservation efforts for the world’s most unique and extraordinary species.
Each fellowship involves a comprehensive programme of support and professional development opportunities comprising:
Six weeks of training in person: A four-week Conservation Tools Course in the focal region and an advanced two-week Conservation Impact Course in the UK, plus access to additional online training;
A grant of at least £10,000 for project implementation: The opportunity to fully manage your own budget plus dedicated support to leverage additional funding; and
Continuous mentorship and access to training and coaching opportunities with ZSL and our partners: Wrap around mentorship and access to unique training and coaching opportunities with ZSL and our partners.
You may be eligible for an EDGE Fellowship if your work focuses on an EDGE species included on the 2024 curated list, you are an early career conservationist with less than ten years of paid experience, and you are a national of the country where the proposed focal species occurs.
Watch “The Lone Wolverine of the Wallowas" from Reel Earth Films for FREE now!
The Lone Wolverine of the Wallowas was released on #EndangeredSpeciesDay, May 17th.
Picture this…
You’re deep in the snow-capped mountains. You’re the only person to be found for miles and miles. You’re incredibly lonely and you might not have the resources you need to survive.
This is reality right now for Stormy, which is the only known wolverine in the Wallowas Mountains in Oregon. He’s the star of our multiple award-winning film, “The Lone Wolverine of the Wallowas.” Watch it for free, in honor of Endangered Species day.
This film is part of our Wolverine Impact Campaign.
If you’re unfamiliar with an impact campaign, it’s how we help species survive and thrive through things like scientific research, community outreach, and helping provide a safe environment for species that are at risk of extinction.
In our Wolverine Impact Campaign, every donation we receive goes directly to helping biologists Kayla and Scott Shively save the wolverine population. This includes:
acquiring new trail cameras and equipment to monitor wolverine activity
offsetting travel costs for wolverine research and repopulation
taking care of necessities for backcountry research expeditions
a teaser to the film
a summary of the film + why it matters
ways you can donate towards life-saving research and repopulation efforts for the wolverines
On the Wolverine Campaign Impact page, we also break down some key items that Kayla and Scott need to do their amazing work. You’ll see the exact donation amount they need to get each item.
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping Reel Earth films protect Mother Earth.
‘Super Size Me’ director Morgan Spurlock dies aged 53
US documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has died at the age of 53.
The director, best known for his Oscar-nominated film Super Size Me, died from complications with cancer on May 23, his family said in a statement.
Spurlock began his career as a playwright before rising to international prominence with his fast food documentary Super Size Me, about McDonalds, whichpremiered at Sundance in 2004 and garnered several accolades including best documentary screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.
His other documentaries include Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?; The Greatest Movie Ever Sold; and Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!
How Super Size Me ruined Morgan Spurlock’s body – and hurt McDonald’s
On August 20, 2004, an advertisement appeared in British morning newspapers warning of the dangers of fast food. “If you eat too much and do too little, it’s bad for you,” said the headline – paid for by McDonald’s, the global fast-food chain which sells an estimated 2.3 million Chicken McNuggets in America alone each year.
McDonald’s wasn’t having a sudden attack of conscience over the long-term health effects of its menus. It was in damage control mode ahead of the release that September of a documentary everyone – certainly the entirety of the fast food business – was talking about. The film was Super Size Me, directed by Morgan Spurlock, who has passed away at age 53.
Spurlock’s movie was the rarest of things: a must-see independent documentary that brought about long-lasting change. The premise was that Spurlock would eat nothing but McDonald’s three times a day for 30 days. He also adjusted his exercise regime so that he took the 5,000 steps averaged by most Americans. And where it was offered, he would choose the super sized option from the menu.
The impact was instant and horrific. By day two, he was throwing up from his car window. On day four, he had pulsing feelings in his stomach and on his genitals. “I started to notice this pressure on my chest, and by day nine, I was getting incredibly depressed,” he said. He had become addicted. “I would eat the food and feel fantastic for about an hour. Then I’d feel depressed again.”
Doctors monitoring Spurlock warned he was putting himself in harm’s way. His liver, they said, “was turning to pâté.” By the end of the month, his body weight had increased by one-tenth, and his cholesterol shot up. His girlfriend, a vegan chef, added that Spurlock was “having a hard time getting it up”.
Super Size Me changed the way people thought about food and how McDonald’s sold and marketed it. The fallout was instantaneous. By the end of 2004, the chain began to phase out the ‘super size” option from which the movie took its name (though you could still order super size fries “off menu”). Even before the documentary reached cinemas, McDonald’s had – by sheer coincidence – launched a new “Go Active” menu.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Wildscreen partner to host WildPhotos – a celebration of the world’s best nature photography
WildPhotos is a one-day photography symposium taking place in Bristol, UK, on Sunday 13 October and available online.
A world-class line-up of speakers will come together for a unique programme of talks and panels at Bristol Aquarium that will explore the triumphs and challenges of capturing nature in photography, as well as the future of the genre.
Kathy Moran, current Jury Chair for the Natural History Museum, London’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year and formerly National Geographic Magazine's Deputy Director of Photography, will produce and host the event. The line-up will include unique talks and panels featuring more than a dozen of the world's leading wildlife photographers. The event is aimed at professional and amateur photographers, industry thought leaders, photography suppliers, and conservationists.
Headlining at the event will be Thomas P Peschak, National Geographic Photographer, Explorer and NGS Storytelling Fellow who specialises in documenting both the beauty and fragility of the world’s oceans, islands and coasts. Originally trained as a marine biologist, he embraced photojournalism 15 years ago and is now Director of Storytelling for Save Our Seas Foundation. His images and stories have been awarded 17 times in Wildlife Photographer of the Year and received seven World Press Photo Awards.
The event will also feature a specially curated selection of images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s global community displayed in a public exhibition on College Green, celebrating the best of the world’s wildlife and conservation photographers.
Pauline Robert, Head of Wildlife Photographer of the Year Programme, Natural History Museum said: “For sixty years, Wildlife Photographer of the Year has shown the power of photography to inspire awe and wonder and create advocates for nature. As a part of our anniversary celebrations, we're proud to partner with WildPhotos to gather, connect and encourage talented nature and environmental photographers from around the world.”
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen, commented: “As the home of natural history production, it’s fitting that WildPhotos will be coming to Bristol, bringing world-class inspiring photography to the city ahead ahead of our internationally acclaimed Wildscreen Festival. It’s never been more important to highlight the beauty of the natural world and the danger it faces from the threats of climate change and biodiversity loss. We hope that delegates will find the images and discussions inspiring and that it will spark ideas that create positive change.”
Kathy Moran commented: “I’m honoured to be producing and hosting WildPhotos this year, particularly in this, the 60th anniversary of Wildlife Photographer of the Year and just ahead of the world renowned Wildscreen Festival. I look forward to some lively discussions with some of the world’s most talented photographers working today.”
Thomas P Peschak, photographer, commented: “I believe visual storytelling is a powerful tool for conservation, a means of providing irrefutable proof, empowering emotional connections and motivating behavioral change, all in service of the natural world. I look forward to WildPhotos, not just as a platform to hear and see stories from talented photographers, but also as a timely reminder of just how beautiful yet fragile our biodiversity is.”
WildPhotos will follow the announcement of the winners of the sixtieth Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition on 8 October, and the opening of the flagship exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London on 11 October.
This is a hybrid event, with both in person and virtual tickets available, opening up this world-class line-up of speakers to a global audience.
The truth about cheap chicken with Veganuary's Chris Packham
Veganuary ambassador Chris Packham shares the truth about cheap chicken and the part it plays in deforestation, biodiversity loss, carbon emissions, water pollution and, of course, animal cruelty.
Have you seen POODUNNIT? A Wildlife Detective Story??
Chris says "Soy, from Brazil, driven down the M5 to chicken farms on the side of the River Wye ..."
Dying Wye. Why?
You may have seen and heard about the bad conditions on our waterways, rivers, lakes, shores and coasts. Clean water is precious, both to us and wildlife, as Sir David Attenborough has stressed in his major wildlife conservation series on BBC 1, “Wild Isles”. Fixing it will be a massive challenge and costs will be high affecting what we will have to pay. But who is getting richer too? And how? It’s a scandal, involving what amounts to a crime, or rather a number of crimes.
So, in addition to the massive media coverage and long-term news campaigns, we offer a film “POODUNNIT?”
Different from the inevitable foul examples in what were pristine rivers “POODUNNIT?” tracks down the potential culprits with several Sherlock Holmes logos (+ farts!) in an hour-long hunt for the criminals on one of Britain’s most favourite rivers – the Wye, which flows between England and Wales – 155 miles. The journey follows the threatened Wye, through one year, from source to sea, using that ace fisherman the heron, and the handsome wild duck the mallard, as our guides, revealing whodunit? along the course of the dying Wye.
This is a wildlife detective story, very watchable, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but with a serious intention, plus outstanding wildlife film production values with BBC Natural History Unit experience. Watch it. Become a Sherlock Holmes and find out! “POODUNNIT?” Whodunnit? Is doing it?
“In the Wye, the big problem is intensive chicken farming" - @HughFW
Also read: River Wye needs ‘protection zone’, say Greens and Fearnley-Whittingstall – North Herefordshire candidate and chef also call for water industry overhaul and more support for farmers ...
Announcing this year’s recipients of world-leading prizes for grassroots wildlife conservation…
On Wednesday 1 May at the Royal Geographical Society in London, the 2024 Whitley Awards ceremony recognised and celebrated six grassroots conservationists for their locally-led solutions to the global biodiversity and climate crises.
We also recognised this year’s Whitley Gold Award winner, Purnima Devi Barman and her army of ‘Stork Sisters’.
The inspiring evening was hosted by WFN Ambassadors Tom Heap and Kate Humble.
The Whitley Awards were presented by WFN Patron, HRH The Princess Royal, in front of nearly 400 guests and the event was live-streamed to over 1,100 people and counting around the world, which you can watch here:
Please join us in congratulating our 2024 Whitley Award winners: outstanding conservation leaders working to protect communities, wildlife, and landscapes.
The 47th International Wildlife Film Festival was held from April 20-25th, 2024 in Missoula, Montana and the Winners have been announced!
Best Feature
Cactus Hotel
IWFF Judges’ statement:
This particular documentary really stood out to us not only within its category, but among all of the selections this year. It has it all…drama, unique wildlife, and phenomenal imagery — all woven together with great narration and storytelling.
Whether or not you think you are familiar with Saguaro cactuses and the Arizona desert, Cactus Hotel is sure to show you something you’ve never seen before. This film gives a truly unique and enthralling look at one of the most charismatic icons of the American Southwest.
Perhaps most important of all, Cactus Hotel reminded us that learning is fun, and that we live in a world where fact is oftentimes stranger…and more exciting… than fiction.
Best Short: Flora, Fauna, Funga
IWFF Judges’ statement:
We appreciate a film that makes fungus exciting! Flora, Fauna, Funga beautifully depicts a deep connection with an underappreciated but essential part of nature. We loved that this story began with Giuliana doing research into something that is local to herself and then developing it into something with international appeal and involvement. Flora, Fauna, Funga reminds us that when we take a closer look at something that is seemingly mundane, it can alter the way we see the world around us and incite change on a global scale.
Best Short Short: JoJo – A Toad Musical
IWFF Judges’ statement:
Short and sweet, but with lots of subtext, we recognize this whimsical short for showcasing the creative side of environmental filmmaking. Reminds you to play!
Best Series: Evolution Earth (ep 2 Islands & ep 5 Grasslands)
IWFF Judges’ statement:
From episode to episode, Evolution Earth caught our eye with its scientific analysis, opening ideas of advancement in our natural world. In a time filled with voices of warning and climate change, these stories told the present ways nature continues to push forward and innovate itself.
Best Student Film:
Grasping the Nettle
IWFF Judges’ statement:
This film taught us that with just a little bit of research, a backyard nuisance can be quite useful. A plant so bland and lacking of interest was placed on a magnifying glass, making us wonder what else nettle can be used for in our parts of the world…A winner for its choice of characters, and technical innovation!
Best Youth Program:
School of Fish
IWFF Judges’ statement:
Young leaders in native communities are rare and essential to uplift ideas, confidence, and spirit. In School of Fish, these youth send a message of strength to those who firmly believe in the care of our resources. The cinematography brings us to Alaska, allowing us to share in the riches of their community and feel the necessity to protect. For youth, this is inspiration for agency.
Best New Vision:
Lynx Man
IWFF Judges’ statement:
Distinct, creative view of a life deeply nestled in nature. Lynx Man wins New Vision for a cinematography that allowed the audience to see in the eyes of Hannu, the phantasms of his reality, and his adoration for the animals living amongst him.
Best Living with Wildlife Program – Tie: Among the Wolves & Every Little Thing
IWFF Judges’ statement:
In this category, we found ourselves confronted with making a difficult choice between two films that present very different, but equally important approaches to living with wildlife.
Among the Wolves and Every Little Thing enthralled us both with the stories they depicted, and with their stunning imagery.
One beautifully reveals how nature presents itself in the most intimate ways to the patient and passive observer, while the other documents the burden and the joy that come to those who choose a more interactive path through wildlife rehabilitation.
Ultimately, because we felt that choosing one film over the other would mean making a statement about which is the right way to live with wildlife, we have decided that both films deserve equal recognition. Both Among the Wolves and Every Little Thing will provoke audiences to examine the ways in which we choose to live with wildlife, while presenting us with two equally wonderful and inspiring ways to approach it.
Best Animal Behavior Program:
Modern Goose
IWFF Judges’ statement:
This beautifully layered essay film turned our heads and made us take notice of this seemingly ordinary animal that so many of us take for granted. With humor and patience, the filmmaker has crafted a story that opened our minds, challenged our biases and won our hearts. All done without gimmicks and just terrific filmmaking.
Best Wildlife Conservation Program:
Puffling
IWFF Judges’ statement:
We chose to honor this delicate story of leaving the nest, for both the birds and humans of the film, in recognition of the storytelling craft exhibited here. Complex and authentic, it’s a film that sticks to your soul.
Best Sustainable Planet: A Call from the Wild
IWFF Judges’ statement:
We recognize this film for showcasing big issues from the inside out, by embracing intimacy to tell a story of scope and creatively use contrast to get us to care.
People's Choice Award:A Call from the Wild
It was evident after the first screening that this story struck many Missoulians. Asgeir and Ageliki, thank you for being storytellers and sharing your powerful message through film.
Antidote, a three-part series produced by Earthrise Studio in association with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit.
Earthrise Studio (the impact-driven environmental media company founded by influencer, activist and filmmakers, Alice Aedy, Jack Harries and Finn Harries) have launched the three part episodes of Antidote, inspired by BBC’s Planet Earth III.
This was new three-part short film series produced as part of #OurPlanetEarth, a digital impact campaign from BBC Studios and Wellcome Trust.
Antidote dives into how climate change is endangering our health through air pollution (episode 1), heat stress (episode 2), and infectious diseases (episode 3) – making it clear that to safeguard human health, we must make planetary health a priority. With climate change as the biggest threat of the 21st century, the presenter-led series explores the critical intersections between our planet’s wellbeing and human health. But the good news is, there are antidotes, with incredibly innovative solutions rising to the challenge.
This is also the first time Earthrise has partnered with both BBC Studios Natural History Unit and the Wellcome Trust, in connection with BBC Planet Earth III.
WHO ARE EARTHRISE: NEW GENERATION STORYTELLERS:
Earthrise is an impact-driven media company for people and the planet. Since launching in 2020, Earthrise has amassed more than 3.6 million YouTube subscribers, with a global audience spanning 45 countries. Working to create multimedia content, social impact campaigns and storytelling consultancy, Earthrise has worked with the likes of Stella McCartney, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and Barack Obama. In 2023, Alice Aedy and co-founders, Jack and Finn Harries, were recognised in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for their social impact work.
With Earth Day approaching on 22nd April, Earthrise is leading the way with a series of major creative projects telling radically optimistic climate stories that mobilise action to protect our planet.
Antidote is a three-part series produced by Earthrise Studio in association with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit. Presented by our very own Joi Lee, we’ll be examining the links between the climate crisis and public health.
Our Living World review – Cate Blanchett’s nature show is a rare ray of hope
The Oscar-winner’s powerful documentary proves how fragile the earth’s ecosystems are. From angry hippos to salmon swimming on tarmac, it is truly valuable television
Our Living World begins with a cheesy inspirational quote: “Realise that everything connects to everything else.” Leonardo da Vinci said that, possibly. Soon, this nature series has glowing blue lines running across the screen, and Cate Blanchett on the voiceover, authoritatively announcing that the planet’s species are dependent on each other in ways we cannot immediately see and might not have imagined.
It sounds as if this programme thinks it has discovered the concept of ecosystems, and across four episodes it makes repeated use of the same trick: it shows us one animal or plant, then shocks us with how that one helps another. Gradually, however, the show builds this into a powerful lecture on the climate crisis, conservation and, in particular, the importance of small gestures and how they can have larger effects down the line. In an age when we urgently need to act but the task of maintaining a survivable planet can seem too big for an individual to contemplate, let alone tackle, it’s a valuable lesson.
We start with a rhinoceros commuting through a Nepalese town in rush hour, padding along the tarmac, unconcerned by the traffic or the delighted locals wielding smartphone video-cameras. Humans have built over his natural route from one feeding ground to another. But this is not, on the whole, a show about our species encroaching on the natural world. It’s about how delicate that world is, such that the tiniest infringements can be deadly – and reversing those abuses could be priceless.
We move to the Arctic, where we watch reindeer being stalked by wolves. The wolves’ attentions force the herd to stay on the move, we are told. This means they graze over a wider area. That means there is a larger blanket of uninterrupted snow, and that in turn means the top of the Earth has a bigger reflective panel on its roof to disperse the heat of the sun.
In the sea nearby, the water beginning to freeze is part of a system of ocean currents and temperature movements that manifests on the coast of Africa as a storm, leading to nitrate-heavy rain falling and revitalising the dry savannah. In the watering hole that results, a family of hippos frolic to Austin Powers lounge jazz. Another hippo tries to muscle in; the elder male fights him off; the cool jazz plays again.
We’ve gone from hungry wolves to angry hippos, both cute sequences that could appear in any wildlife documentary. When the rains abate, elephants pick at dry, dead trees, leaving logs on the ground that help to start bushfires, the smoke from which eventually causes phosphorus to nourish the Amazon rainforest, where a brazil nut tree relies on orchids, bees and toothy rodents to flourish.
And so it goes on, with Blanchett’s narration playfully anthropomorphising the participants: “He’ll only live for a year,” she says of a hatching cuttlefish, “so he seems determined to learn as much as he can, as fast as he can.” When the script requires her to arch an eyebrow, you bet she’s going to arch it. “Hares,” it is drily observed, “rarely die of old age.”
The chase between hare and hawk is one of those sequences that elite wildlife programmes spend six months trying to capture, and the last five minutes of those shows is usually devoted to boasting about how they pulled it off. Our Living World isn’t quite at that level: it evidently didn’t get much good footage of claws scraping on fur, so it just edits together some shots of the two animals on their own. Read more ...
Restoration is the key in the fight against biodiversity loss.
In this behind the scenes film Tom Crowther, Doctor Daisy Dent and Doctor Rebecca Cole, ecologists, explain the vast interconnectivity of earth's ecosystems and the importance of restoring areas that have been damaged by humans.
From the Emmy Award-winning team behind Our Great National Parks comes a revealing look at the secret network of connections that unites us all and sustains our planet’s most magical phenomenon: life itself. Narrated by Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett, this docuseries spans the globe to showcase the extraordinary creatures and ecosystems, great and small, that work together to help restore and sustain Our Living World.
As Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher showed, these marvellous creatures are too intelligent to be factory farmed — Philip Lymbery
The mind of an octopus can be compared to a three-year-old child’s. Are we really going to trap them in barren tanks of water while they await slaughter for food?
Camera-shutter eyes blinked as tentacles waved like an elephant’s trunk. A pink, bulbous head formed the epicentre of a complexity of flesh waiting to make the next move. Yet, there was nowhere to go. It was a travesty of nature. An octopus trying to figure out why on earth they were trapped in a barren tank. A snapshot of something that should never be. An animal of the wide oceans now confined for farming’s new frontier.
Octopus are fascinating creatures suffused with nervousness and famed for their intelligence. The brain of an octopus has 500 million neurons, making them as smart as a dog or three-year-old child. But unlike us, an octopus’s neurons are arranged throughout their entire body. Curious problem-solvers, they have a long memory. They can remember how to open a screw-top jar months later. In captivity, they’ve been known to squirt keepers they don’t like and steal fish from adjacent tanks.
If that wasn’t enough to put anyone off farming them, then perhaps their appetite for other fish should make us think again. It means that captive rearing is far from a free lunch. It relies on catching wild fish to feed them. Which means taking three times more weight of fish from the ocean as feed than given back by the ‘end product’. So rather than protecting the oceans, farming octopus would put them under yet more pressure.
Award-winning Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher brought the sensitivities of these intelligent creatures to our living rooms. It showed South Africa-based filmmaker, Craig Foster exploring an underwater kelp forest where he befriended a curious young octopus. Foster described how the greatest lesson his octopus mentor taught him was that humans are part of the natural world around us, and not simply visitors.
And therein lies a lesson: that we should avoid repeating the mistakes of the past by bringing yet more species into degrading farm practices. That compassion, respect, and kinship should be at the forefront of how we treat the fellow creatures with whom we share this lonely planet.
A filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world.
Amphibious Soul: Finding the wild in a tame world by Craig Foster
An awe-inspiring narrative about the power of nature and our place within it, from the creator of My Octopus Teacher, filmmaker Craig Foster.
An adventure story, love story, travelogue, naturalist memoir, and spiritual guide, Craig Foster's Amphibious Soul is a scientist and adventurer’s perspective on “rewilding” – developing a deep connection to our animal selves that can reinvigorate our lives. Told in Craig’s warm and passionate voice, this extraordinary book will change not only the way we interact with the natural world, but the way we fundamentally see ourselves.
Published by Thorsons, 23rd May 2024, available at Amazon.co.uk
Cheep! Very Cheap! Chickens!
The food chain links Tesco, Morrisons, McDonald’s, Nandos and M&S with ever more intensively reared chickens, that’s more demand at lower prices from more and more consumers = us.
Not only do these factory farms produce air pollution, but famously, now, the manure that has wrecked the beautiful (was) River Wye that borders Wales and England. (see “POODUNNIT” www.brockinitiative.org)
American giant corporation Cargill, plus Avara in the UK are in the (extremely) big business of supplying food for chickens, probably grown on cleared forests. So we are at the end of that food chain – not exactly chicken-feed….
Last year 1.1 billion living crowded creatures were slaughtered for meat in the UK, while Britons consume an estimated 80 million eggs a day (The i 27/4/2024)
National Geographic Sets Date and Unveils Trailer for Critically Acclaimed Heartwarming Documentary BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY
From World-Renowned Photographer and Filmmaker Charlie Hamilton James and Produced by Emmy and BAFTA Award-winner Jeff Wilson With Silverback Films, BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY Received Rave Reviews out of Its World Premiere at SXSW
BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY Premieres May 6 on National Geographic and Is Available To Stream on May 7 on Disney+/Hulu
National Geographic released the trailer for the critically acclaimed documentary special BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY, directed by distinguished photographer and filmmaker Charlie Hamilton James and produced by Emmy® and BAFTA Award-winner Jeff Wilson of Silverback Films. The emotionally powerful film shows audiences how the ability to love can reawaken us to the beauty of nature. Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey serve as executive producers, along with National Geographic’s Tom McDonald and Janet Vissering. The film is edited by Sam Rogers, with cinematography by Charlie Hamilton James, Johnny Rolt and Bertie Gregory, and music composed by Erland Cooper. BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY premieres May 6 on National Geographic and will be available to stream the next day on Disney+ and Hulu.
“At its core, BILLY & MOLLY: AN OTTER LOVE STORY is about love between man and wife, and man and otter, and for the natural world. We hope viewers will feel this love radiate when they watch the film.”
When a wild otter in desperate need of help washes up on his jetty in the remote Scottish islands of Shetland, Billy Mail, his wife Susan, and their devoted sheepdog Jade find themselves with a unique new member of their family. When Molly first arrives at the Mail residence, Billy and Susan take it upon themselves to care for the ill otter, providing Billy with a new sense of purpose.
Critics raved following the world premiere at SXSW, calling it “one of 2024’s very best documentaries” (Sunshine State Cineplex) and “an emotional powerhouse of a documentary” (Screen Zealots).
Jane Goodall Is 90! Activist Releases Celeb-Packed Animal Conservation Short Film for Her Birthday
Alicia Silverstone, Ellen Burstyn, and Sen. Cory Booker, among others, joined Goodall in narrating a four-minute short film.
When someone as incredible as Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, UN Messenger of Peace turns 90, you'd expect nothing less than a birthday celebration that not only commemorates her environmental and animal activism, but also invites others to join in the fight. That's exactly what fans of the beloved ethologist got on Goodall's 90th birthday, when a celebrity-packed short film was released in Goodall's honor.
The film begins with an opening statement from Goodall herself, before including the familiar voices of Ellen Burstyn, James Cromwell, Nikki Reed, and so many other eco-conscious, vegan, and animal-loving celebs. Before you join the legions of other activists in having a slice of vegan birthday cake to celebrate Goodall's milestone birthday, please take a moment to watch the short film and get a better understanding of what her life mission is all about.
Jane Goodall turned 90 on April 3, 2024, and is celebrating her birthday with a new short film about animal conservation.
Voices of Hope ~ Words of Wisdom by Dr. Jane Goodall is a rallying cry for those who share in Goodall's belief that humans aren't the only ones capable of complex emotions. The film combines heart wrenching imagery combined with strongly worded voiceovers, begging people to be more mindful of how they interact with animals and the environment.
Not only does Voices of Hope ~ Words of Wisdom by Dr. Jane Goodall touch on the human impacts felt by creatures both big and small, but it takes aim at the factory farms and slaughterhouses where animals being raised for agriculture spend their brutally short lives; it also looks towards the future, touching on climate change and so much more.
“I’ve spent my life working with and for animals. I was born loving them and wanting to learn about them.”
In honor of Dr. Jane Goodall’s milestone 90th birthday, Mercy For Animals and the Jane Goodall Institute are thrilled to release a special short film, Voices of Hope ~ Words of Wisdom by Dr. Jane Goodall, that we produced to commemorate Dr. Goodall’s lifetime of powerful advocacy on behalf of animals, people, and the planet.
The film features an ensemble of esteemed and passionate public figures from all over the world reciting Dr. Goodall’s inspiring words of wisdom. We hope that everyone who watches this film will be uplifted and empowered to make positive choices and changes in the world this year and beyond. In honor of Dr. Goodall, “together we can, together we will.”
VMI Cuts Carbon Emissions for Third Year by 36% on 2022
In its latest carbon audit conducted by Creative Zero, VMI proudly announced a significant achievement in its sustainability journey. After three consecutive years of dedicated efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, VMI has surpassed expectations by achieving a remarkable 36% reduction in its operational carbon footprint in 2023 compared to the 2022, which is a testament to VMI’s unwavering commitment to environmental responsibility and underscores the company’s dedication to making a positive impact on the planet.
VMI’s footprint, including all other relevant scope 3 emissions but without Capital Expenditure is 77.8T CO2e.2 (2022 – 120T CO2e)
77.8T CO2e is the equivalent of:
153 return economy class flights from London to Barcelona,
OR driving a petrol car from Lands End to John O’Groats and back 114 times,
OR the average person living in the UK for 6 years.
Breaking Down the Numbers: Comparing the data from 2023 with the revised base year of 2021, the impact of VMI’s sustainability efforts becomes even more apparent. From 213T in 2021, VMI’s carbon emissions plummeted to 78T in 2023, marking an astounding reduction of 50.7%. These numbers, meticulously calculated in accordance with SBTi (Science-Based Targets initiative) guidelines, reflect VMI’s dedication to surpassing industry standards and driving meaningful change.
This holistic approach underscores VMI’s commitment to addressing emissions across all facets of its operations, demonstrating a multifaceted strategy towards environmental responsibility.
Implications and Future Outlook: VMI’s success in curbing carbon emissions not only showcases the tangible results of its sustainability initiatives but also serves as a beacon of inspiration for others within the industry. By setting ambitious targets, leveraging innovative solutions, and fostering a culture of environmental consciousness, VMI exemplifies how businesses can thrive while prioritizing planet-friendly practices. Looking ahead, VMI remains steadfast in its mission to continue reducing its carbon footprint, exploring new avenues for sustainability, and leading by example in the global fight against climate change.
Conclusion: In a world where environmental challenges loom large, VMI’s achievement stands as a testament to the power of collective action and unwavering commitment to a greener future. As VMI celebrates its remarkable carbon reduction journey, it not only redefines corporate responsibility but also ignites hope for a more sustainable tomorrow. With each milestone reached and every carbon emission mitigated, VMI paves the way for a world where businesses thrive in harmony with nature, proving that sustainability is not just a goal but a fundamental imperative for generations to come.
Sir David Attenborough to present Planet Earth III
The third instalment of the landmark award-winning series made is by BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America and The Open University.
BBC Studios Natural History Unit has confirmed that Sir David Attenborough will present Planet Earth III, the third instalment of the landmark award-winning series.
Mike Gunton Executive Producer said, ‘Planet Earth wouldn’t be Planet Earth without David, so I’m delighted he is presenting the third series. As ever, he has brought his huge enthusiasm and wisdom, has been encouraging about our new perspective and has, I know, really enjoyed seeing the extraordinary new wonders brought to the screen’
‘The opening of the series with David was filmed in the beautiful British countryside in exactly the location where Charles Darwin used to walk whilst thinking-over his Earth-shaking ideas about evolution. It seemed the perfect place for David to introduce Planet Earth III and remind us of both the wonders and the fragility of our planet. ….and for him, of course, the sun shined under blue skies one of the only days it did all summer!.’
Planet Earth III, an 8x60’ series made by BBC Studios Natural History Production co-produced with BBC America, ZDF and France Televisions in partnership with The Open University for BBC. The Executive Producer is Mike Gunton, and the Series Producer is Matt Brandon. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. It will tx on BBC One later this year.
Do you dream of directing the next ground-breaking science TV programme or wildlife documentary?
Explore how the National Film and Television School's 2-year Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA can train you to make captivating content about our world and beyond!
Check out the National Film and Television School's Science and Natural History Promo 2024
... Find out more about the NFTS‘s renowned Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA from the students at the National Film and Television School. Apply online at nfts.co.uk/snh
They say:
"What’s so great about the Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA at NFTS? Here’s a few of our alumni with some answers.
Application window for 2025 closing soon. Click the link to find out more: nfts.co.uk/directing-and-producing-science-and-natural-history"
Wild Woman: Empowering Stories from Women who Work in Nature by Philippa Forrester
An engaging blend of conservation stories and humorous, personal anecdotes from Philippa Forrester about women who, like her, choose to live and work in the wild.
Surviving in the wilderness has long been associated with men, and conservation and environmental biology have traditionally been male-dominated subjects. Yet many remarkable women also choose to live and work in wild and challenging landscapes.
In Wild Woman, Philippa Forrester considers the grit and determination required for women to maintain connections to wildlife and shares stories of female conservation heroes and other extraordinary wild women working in nature.
Talking to women from around the world, Philippa studies and celebrates what it means to be a wild woman. From the sixteenth-century botanist who was the first woman to circumnavigate the globe to modern-day women responding to bear attacks in Yellowstone, working to rewild reserves in South Africa, photographing Caribou in the Arctic and more, Philippa examines how these women benefit from a life spent in the wilderness and also considers what the natural world gains from them.
Relating some of her own experiences from three decades spent travelling around the world and working in some of the wildest places on Earth, Philippa asks: what does it take for a woman to live or work in the wild?
"Wild Woman is a timely reminder of the feminine energy behind some groundbreaking successes in global wildlife conservation.Through deeply personal experiences, Philippa shows us with spirit and gusto that the natural world is a source of strength, wisdom, humour and comfort." – Sophie Pavelle, author of Forget Me Not
"After years of child-rearing and being wifely, Philippa Forrester emerges with a lot of pertinent questions. Wild Woman is a piercing, funny, self deprecating answer to what it is to be wild. Locally, globally, diverse and female, it is full of a lifetime's awe – and wise. This delightfully brilliant, sometimes rightfully angry book, puts women where they should be: at the heart of conservation, knowing what it is to be wild, to tune in, mend and support the natural world and our place in it. I am cheering her, and all these wonderful women on!" – Nicola Chester, author of On Gallows Down
"A powerful testament to why women must have a greater say when conserving our natural world." – Mike Dilger, naturalist and broadcaster
Published by Bloomsbury Wildlife, 29th February 2024, available at: Amazon.co.uk
Natural Causes : The wild life of a wildlife filmmaker by Stephen Mills
Breathed on by a tiger, stalked by a lion, nearly flattened by a rhino, struck by lightning and rocked by an earthquake… A wildlife filmmaker’s life is certainly exciting.
But there’s a serious side to these adventures. In the last 50 years nature films have helped to shape public awareness of both the beauty of the natural world and its plight. Environmental issues that once seemed peripheral are now centre-stage.
Stephen Mills has been a leading cameraperson and writer and this is a book about his life in film. Natural Causes tells the story of his campaigns, his companions, his colleagues, the challenges and charms of the landscapes in which he has worked and the extraordinary wild animals he has filmed. And it is a book about one man’s modest bid to ever-so-slightly change the world. For, at its heart, Natural Causes touches on the profound spiritual importance of nature to us all.
“… if you have a dream, a mission, a wish to change the world, you can do it. You can do it as long as you accept that the dream may shrink, the mission may creep a little and the change you make may be very small and that all those little bites out of your ambitions in no way render them pointless.”
"This is a gripping story about the love of life and of nature itself. As a journalist, Stephen has influenced the agenda; as a film-maker, he’s inspired a wide audience; as a conservationist, he’s averted disasters – but above all, as this book proves, he’s a skilled storyteller. Read, enjoy, laugh and appreciate how small acts and using the power of your voice can change things for the better." – Roz Kidman Cox, former editor BBC Wildlife
Published by Chiselbury, 1st March 2024, available at: Amazon.co.uk
Chris Packham's Birdwatching Guide: From Beginner to Birder by Chris Packham
Let Chris Packham’s passion for birdwatching ignite your own birdwatching journey ...
Wherever we live, we may encounter birds every day, but while we may see them, many of us don’t take the time to look, and while we might hear them, we might not listen. In this informative, fully illustrated birdwatching companion, expert birder Chris Packham inspires us to stop and engage with the wildlife all around us and start to build a relationship with the huge variety of interesting, colourful and characterful birds in all our lives – whether in the town or city, by the coast or in the countryside.
You don’t need any special equipment to become interested in birdwatching, nor do you need posh binoculars or to live on a nature reserve. Let Chris show you where and when to look for birds – whether in your own garden or from your balcony, in your local park or out in the countryside. Use this accessible reference guide to identify the different characters and characteristics of birds and experience the joy that comes from spotting a glimpse of a bird and knowing how to identify it.
Let Chris open your eyes and ears to the captivating world of birds.
Discover:
How to identify different species of birds, including key things to look for
How to create bird-friendly spaces to encourage wildlife into your garden
What to find in different bird habitats and learn why certain birds are attracted to specific habitats
All about hides and hide etiquette and equipment you might need to further your birdwatching journey
"This is a great book, as expected from Chris Packham, some excellent bird photographs, beautifully illustrated and put together ... and as the title suggests, perfect for a beginner to help them on their birding journey, whilst being essential for more experienced birders who need a fellow enthusisat like Chris sitting on their bookselves as a reference." JP
"This book isn’t designed for the likes of me, but I was able to show it to a few other folk and one of them said ‘Looks quite useful’ and I noticed they did pick it up several times (when they thought I wasn’t looking) and kept turning the pages with the appearance of real interest. I think this is a good introduction to looking at birds and will work for people of a wide range of ages. If it brings more people to show an interest in this small but very accessible portion of the natural world, and starts them off on a journey where they care more and do more for the environment, then it will be the latest in many such contributions from Chris." – Mark Avery
Published by DK, 7th March 2024, available at: Amazon.co.uk
Wild Treasures: A Year of Extraordinary Encounters with Cornwall's Wildlife by Hannah Stitfall
A nature diary from zoologist and wildlife photographer Hannah Stitfall, about her close encounters with British wildlife in the Cornish countryside.
Get up close to Cornwall's wildlife with this magical guide to the year.
Hannah Stitfall is a wildlife photographer and zoologist, who regularly gets up in the early hours of the morning to try and catch sight of some of Cornwall's best hidden wildlife. She will spend hours on end waiting for a creature to appear among a hedgerow, scurrying across Cornwall's open fields, or taking flight across its towering cliffs and sandy beaches. In these brief, magical moments, Hannah is able to see and capture animal behavior that the general public rarely get to witness.
In this book, Hannah shares her incredible stories, beautiful photographs, and often funny meetings with Cornwall's wildlife through the course of a year. From brown hares boxing in the grass in the spring, watching an otter cub hunt in the wetlands in winter, to witnessing the unique bioluminescence of a glow-worm in the summer, Wild Treasures is a remarkable diary, informative guide and joyous celebration of Cornwarll's wonderful creatures.
'An anarchically charming calendar of Cornwall's wildlife. This is Stitfall in spadefuls; she celebrates the ragged corner of the UK and all its natural treasures. So refreshing!' -- Chris Packham
'Wild adventures found on every page! Hannah perfectly captures the journey and feelings of watching wildlife - the anticipation, the caution, the excitement and, eventually, the utopia. Her words both glue you to the story but also encourage you to get your boots on and find these precious spectacles for yourself. A joyful, heartwarming and important read for nature lovers!' -- Megan McCubbin
Hannah Stitfall is a wildlife filmmaker, broadcaster and zoologist. She's presented for The One Show, BBC Earth and Radio 4, and she's the digital presenter for Springwatch and Winterwatch. Hannah is also the host of Oceans: Life Under Water, a podcast in association with Greenpeace and Crowd Network.
Published by Gaia, 25th April 2024, available at Amazon.co.uk
Wetland Diaries: Ranger Life and Rewilding on Wicken Fen by Ajay Tegala
Tucked away in the flat lands of rural East Anglia lies Wicken Fen, so loved for its big skies and tiny creatures, boasting over 9,000 recorded species.
For 125 years, this wildlife sanctuary has been cared for by the National Trust. A dedicated team look after this precious wetland of international importance, working with herds of free-roaming horses and cattle and weathering the elements to cope creatively with the dramas of a life outdoors at the cutting edge of conservation.
Wetland Diaries is a seasonal account of ranger life on Wicken Fen, saving a once widespread landscape and revealing the spectrum of emotions experienced in the process.
'Ajay’s passion for conservation and his encyclopaedic knowledge of Wicken Fen ooze out of every single page' -- Iolo Williams
Ajay Tegala shares his passion for the natural world through his work as a TV presenter, and his credits include BBC ‘Springwatch’ and the documentary ‘Inside the Bat Cave’. As a wildlife ranger, he is grounded in the world of conservation. At the age of fifteen, he decided to become a conservationist after a week’s work experience with The National Trust. He studied Environmental Conservation and volunteered as an assistant warden on the Norfolk coast at Blakeney Point. After graduating, he became the full-time ranger on the Point, protecting shorebirds and seals.
Published by The History Press, 2nd May 2024, available atAmazon.co.uk
Amphibious Soul: Finding the wild in a tame world by Craig Foster
An awe-inspiring narrative about the power of nature and our place within it, from the creator of My Octopus Teacher, filmmaker Craig Foster.
An adventure story, love story, travelogue, naturalist memoir, and spiritual guide, Craig Foster's Amphibious Soul is a scientist and adventurer’s perspective on “rewilding” – developing a deep connection to our animal selves that can reinvigorate our lives. Told in Craig’s warm and passionate voice, this extraordinary book will change not only the way we interact with the natural world, but the way we fundamentally see ourselves.
A decade ago, living in a city and feeling exhausted and empty, Craig decided to return to his birthplace – the Cape of Good Hope – and dive into the great African Sea forest each day. His daily oceanic adventures not only helped him “rewild”, but helped him come to see his own “amphibious soul” as a powerful metaphor for the human condition. We homo sapiens are by nature wild animals attempting to exist in a docile world. So how can we reclaim our wildness in a world that wants us to stay so tamed?
An extraordinary literary work, Amphibious Soul is a riveting narrative filled with meticulous descriptions of an adventure in the natural world that speaks to readers on an intimate level, challenging us to consider our personal relationship to nature, and inspiring us to realign our daily practices to help save the global ecosystem. Whether we live close to nature or in an urban jungle, Craig shows us how to nurture our individual wildness, tap into our empathy, and deepen our love for all living things. He teaches us to track the wild around us, and by doing so become present in the moment and revel in being wondrously alive.
Featuring breathtaking original photos and QR codes that access mini-videos of never-seen-before animal interactions, Amphibious Soul is a remarkable experience that will transform us and ultimately our world.
“Amphibious Soul is an important book. . . . This book isn't about learning how to be wild but rather a guide to recognizing and reconnecting with the wild in and around us. It is a book that will inspire hope.” – Jane Goodall
"Craig Foster has spent every day in the ocean for years, tracking underwater animals and finding a deep sense of wildness. Amphibious Soul is about connecting to our humanity in the heart of the world, at the tip of Africa. This book will guide you to find your own wild heart wherever you might live." – James Cameron
"Craig Foster’s unique perspective on the natural world is rooted in history, intimate experience, and a deep understanding of the importance of creating our own personal relationship with nature." – Christiana Figueres, Architect of the Paris Climate Agreement, Author of The Future We Choose
Craig Foster is one of the world’s leading natural history filmmakers and co-founder of the Sea Change Project. He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for My Octopus Teacher, and has created over 100 films and documentaries in addition to his photography. He lives in South Africa.
"Imagine the impact made by one man, one octopus, one year, one film, one Oscar and now one book: Amphibious Soul! Foster succeeds as a master storyteller, artist, and filmmaker but his greatest contribution may be his approach to life- among people as well as part of the magnificent multitudes of swimming, flying, crawling, climbing, diving creatures who, if asked, would likely say that Earth is their home as much as it is ours" –
Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer, Founder of Mission Blue, Ocean Elder, Former NOAA Chief Scientist
Published by Thorsons, 23rd May 2024, available at Amazon.co.uk
Where Beautiful Meets Powerful – Real Earth Films
How Wildlife Conservation Makes a Measurable Impact
Have you heard of an impact campaign? It’s a big buzz word in the wildlife conservation industry that’s actually a great thing to be a part of if you’d love to protect & preserve Mother Earth in a powerful way.
In this video, Alan Lacy talks about how Reel Earth Films is making a measurable impact for wildlife conservation + how you can be a part of it!
"Films are powerful resources to help change the hearts and minds of people who watch them and engage them towards building a better future for this planet. Your gift enables us to tell these important stories. Every dollar matters, and goes directly into our efforts to produce inspiring films that connect people to nature, and that ultimately give back to important conservation programs on the ground."
Attention, story tellers of the natural world! This is your opportunity to be part of the very first European Wildlife Film Awards!
The European Wildlife Film Awards (EWFA) honor outstanding films that focus on nature-, wildlife- and conservation themes in Europe.
All selected films will be screened at the EWFA´s own nature film theatre, located in the `Botschaft der Wildtiere´ (Wildlife Embassy) in Hamburg HafenCity, Germany. Very generous prizes will be awarded to the winning films!
BBC Studios Natural History Unit Announced As Headline Sponsor for Wildscreen Festival 2024
Wildscreen, the not-for-profit behind the biggest festival of natural world storytelling globally, today unveils BBC Studios Natural History Unit as Headline Sponsor for the event on 14 – 18 October 2024.
The support of BBC Studios Natural History Unit as Headline Sponsors marks its commitment to supporting the future of the international wildlife film and TV industry, with a focus on driving an inclusive and sustainable global talent pipeline.
BBC Studios Natural History Unit has partnered on a number of projects with Wildscreen, including the first ever Wildscreen Festival African hub in 2022, Wildscreen Festival Nairobi last year and, this coming year, on Wildscreen Festival Tanzania which will take place in June 2024. These events offer bespoke in-person opportunities to support and showcase in-country talent.
Speaking about BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s support of Wildscreen Festival, Wildscreen CEO Lucie Muir said: “BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Wildscreen are perfectly aligned in wanting to push the boundaries of innovation in the wildlife storytelling genre whilst also supporting a more equitable community of storytellers.
“Our Festival convenes thousands of industry leaders and entrants from over 40 countries, providing a platform for connections, funding, education and networking. With their support, we aim to make this year's Wildscreen Festival more impactful, inclusive and innovative than ever before.”
Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, said, “Never has it been more important to tell stories that inspire people to love and protect the natural world. Many of those stories are initiated and nurtured at the Wildscreen Festival so we are really excited and proud to be the Headline Sponsor this year and continue to build an equitable and sustainable industry.”
The 2024 edition of the festival takes place from the 14-18 October 2024 in Bristol and via a globally accessible virtual platform. Hybrid, reaffirming Wildscreen’s commitment to creating an inclusive, accessible and sustainable Festival.
Wildscreen Festival early bird passes are on sale now, with a variety of hybrid and virtual passes available allowing delegates to choose how and when they experience the festival. Tickets can be purchased here.
How do microbes behave outside the laboratory, in places close to us?
You will find the answer in this new series, which aims to offer a radically unique vision of the subject, showing the importance that microbes have for our life and our planet.
Throughout twelve chapters, and using special techniques, we will be able to see the spectacular and unusual world of microbes as we have never been shown until now.
The series is composed of 12 x 25 min episodes. Watch them here on streaming platform Caixaforum+ from the 2nd of May: caixaforumplus.org/c/planeta-microbio
Mangrove Photography Awards 2024 – 10 Years Celebrating Mangroves, Now Open for Entries!
Mangrove Action Project – a global charity dedicated to promoting science-based training to conserve and protect mangroves – has launched their 10th Mangrove Photography Awards. The competition invites photographers of all ages and levels to submit images that showcase the beauty, diversity and fragility of mangrove forests worldwide.
Mangroves are one of the world’s most critical ecosystems – and one of the most threatened. Their ability to store up to five times more carbon in soil compared to tropical inland forests makes them among our most powerful nature-based solutions to the climate crisis. Yet today, less than half the world’s original mangrove forest cover remains.
In an effort to highlight the importance of mangrove forests and the threats they and coastal communities relying on them face, the annual Awards aims to catalyse conservation and restoration efforts for these complex ecosystems. By drawing on the power of visual storytelling, we can deepen peoples’ understanding of the importance of mangroves and ways we can continue to protect them.
There are 5 single image categories that appeal to a range of interests and approaches – Wildlife, People, Landscape, Threats and Underwater – as well as Conservation Stories, a multiple image category allowing photographers to tell powerful narratives related to mangrove habitats.
As in previous years, we’re proud to bring together some of the world’s most celebrated conservationists, wildlife photographers and videographers. This year’s judging panel includes one of India’s most accomplished nature and wildlife photographers, Dhritiman Mukherjee; National Geographic Explorer and International League of Conservation Photographers senior fellow Morgan Heim; and Christian Ziegler, a renowned photojournalist specialising in natural history, conservation and science stories.
Photographers of all backgrounds, ages, and levels are invited to submit their images in any of the categories. A winner will be chosen for each category, with an overall winner being crowned Mangrove Photographer of the Year. Meanwhile, photographers under the age of 23 will vie for the Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year prize. All winners will be announced on 26th July to celebrate World Mangrove Day. The competition is free to enter with cash prizes for each category.
Top 10 best natural sounds - from waves crashing, to haunting whale song ...
Brits claim to feel relaxed among the sounds of nature - but almost half worry that climate change means they may not hear them for much longer.
Brits’ favourite natural sounds include waves crashing against the shore, the gentle trickle of water flowing in a stream – and hauntingly beautiful whale song, research has found. A poll of 2,000 adults found these audio delights were closely followed the morning chorus of birds singing – and the trumpeting crescendo of wild elephants, to round off the top five.
However, 44 percent worry they soon won’t have the chance to enjoy the sounds of nature, because of climate change.
More than a quarter (27 percent) admit to being too busy to listen to the sounds around them while on their travels – with 26 percent of those blaming noisy traffic.
Despite this, 93 percent admit they feel relaxed in the sounds of nature – although fewer than half (49 percent) often make the effort to experience those nearby.
The immersive album was created by wildlife sound recordist, Chris Watson, and award-winning composer, Nainita Desai, and allows listeners to enjoy rare sounds from around the world.
Chris Watson, who worked on David Attenborough’s “Life” series, and the BBC series “Frozen Planet”, said: “I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world and hear nature at its very best.
“We often neglect the joys the sounds of the Earth bring us, over the sights it brings us – but they really do go hand in hand.
“It brings me great pleasure to work on this project, to reveal some of the most inspiring sounds I’ve heard on my travels.
“I hope the tracks transport listeners to the heart of these natural wonders, to where I originally placed my microphones – Dolby Atmos helps take them there.”
EIA at 40 – lifting the lid on Sin City, Laos’ notorious playground for illegal wildlife trade
In the countdown to EIA’s 40th anniversary later this year, we are featuring films and stories from our archive, highlighting our work exposing environmental crime and abuse around the world.
Today, we’re sharing a flashback to a film we made in 2015 to accompany a major Wildlife team investigation and report into Laos’ notorious Sin City.
On the ground, we documented how the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GT SEZ), in Bokeo Province, had effectively become a lawless playground.
The complex comprised a casino, hotel, shops, restaurants, a shooting range and massage parlours – and visitors were able to openly buy endangered species products including tigers, leopards, elephants, rhinos, pangolins, helmeted hornbills, snakes and bears, all smuggled in from Asia and Africa.
Undercover investigators from EIA and our partner Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV) also documented restaurants with endangered species on their menus, from ”sauté tiger meat” and bear paws to reptiles and pangolins.
One business kept a live python and a bear cub in cages, both of which were available to eat on request.
Despite being situated in Laos, the GT SEZ, run by the Chinese company Kings Romans Group, functioned more as an extension of China – it ran on Beijing time, signs were in Mandarin, most workers were Chinese nationals and the Chinese yuan was the main currency.
In the vast expanse of the ocean lies a realm of mystery and beauty waiting to be discovered. Black Whale Pictures, a pioneering filmmaking company, brings innovative underwater cinematography to life using cutting-edge technology to capture the enigmatic world beneath the waves.
At the heart of the French production company Black Whale Pictures lies a profound connection with the ocean. The company’s founder, Antoine Drancey, who has experience as a camera operator, director, and crew member on notable maritime expeditions such as 1Ocean with UNESCO, Barba, and Energy Observer, has combined a deep passion for biodiversity and the sea with technical acumen and established Black Whale Pictures in 2017.
Black Whale Pictures and their Innovative Underwater Approach to Cinematography
A pivotal asset in their technological arsenal since 2022 is the Boxfish Luna, an innovative underwater drone by the New Zealand manufacturer of professional ROVs and AUVs, Boxfish Robotics. This drone has transformed how Black Whale Pictures approaches underwater cinematography. With the Luna, filmmakers can dive into the ocean’s depths without leaving the deck, controlling the camera remotely to capture the elusive beauty of marine life. This ensures their safety and allows them to focus solely on capturing the perfect shot.
The Boxfish Luna allows customisable setup, providing filmmakers with control over their filming. With easy access to shutter speed, ISO, or aperture, Luna offers a range of options to suit any filming scenario. This flexibility empowers cinematographers to unleash their creativity and capture the essence of marine life in stunning detail.
"You can achieve with the Boxfish Luna and its control of everything in the camera whatever you want, and then the small artist in every cameraman can speak."
Antoine Drancey, founder of Black Whale Pictures
However, filming in the ocean comes with its own set of challenges, as Antoine highlighted in his story about a walrus encounter (watch the video to get more details). Despite taking precautions to approach the animals cautiously, unpredictability is an inherent aspect of wildlife filming. A delicate balance between safety and capturing the moment requires quick thinking on the spot and advanced technical expertise from the crew.
Black Whale Pictures demonstrates what professionals can achieve if they have access to the best innovative tools. They push the boundaries of underwater cinematography and envision a future for underwater filmmaking in using professional drones.
Watch the case study interview to learn more about the various aspects of innovative underwater filmmaking and discover the wonders of the underwater world through the underwater drone!
Global Conservation Launches New Film Series: War on Nature
Online Docuseries Spotlights Conservation Heroes in Developing Countries And Their Critical Efforts to Combat Forest Destruction and Species Extinction
Global Conservation, the only international non-profit organization focused on direct protection of endangered National Parks and Indigenous Territories in developing countries, is proud to present its new film series War on Nature.
The ten-episode film series airing on YouTube exposes the ongoing destruction of the world's last intact forests, marine ecosystems, and endangered species on the brink of extinction and chronicles Global Conservation's race to protect them.
The first-of-its-kind series takes the audience to the world's most critical frontline battles in the War on Nature – from Africa to the Amazon, the jungles of the Leuser Ecosystem on the island of Sumatra to the coral reefs of the Derawan Archipelago – to meet the real Heroes in Protection battling to save the planet.
These short films explore the massive impact of illegal logging and mining, palm oil expansion, wildlife poaching, illegal fishing, and burning of the Earth's last intact forests and wildlife habitats.
Heroes in Protection profiled include Farwiza Farhan of HaKA Sumatra, a TIME 100 Awardee in 2023, and Michael Keigwin, MBE of the Uganda Conservation Foundation (UCF), who has dedicated his life to protecting Uganda's endangered national parks and wildlife. In their fight to save our planet, these notable conservation leaders have faced massive illegal wildlife poaching, heavy corruption, and fights against criminal gangs, all with limited financial resources.
"Without these Heroes in Protection, the Earth would not stand a chance against humankind's War on Nature," said Jeff Morgan, Founder and Executive Director of Global Conservation. "Without the direct support of Global Conservation, many endangered UNESCO World Heritage sites, National Parks, Indigenous Territories, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in developing countries face daunting challenges for survival."
Directed and narrated by world-renowned conservation filmmakers like Paul Hilton and Andrea Pistoli, the first two films of the series focus on the War on Nature: Uganda and the recovery of Murchinson Falls National Park and Kidepo Valley National Park, and the War on Nature: Sumatra protecting the Leuser Ecosystem – the Last Place on Earth where tigers, elephants, rhinos, and orangutans exist together in the wild. Upcoming episodes in 2024 in the War on Nature series include Panama, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Borneo, and Marine Protection.
"Every time we lose a species, we are one step closer to our own demise," said Paul Hilton. "By traveling to these locations and meeting the people on the ground, it really hits home how underfunded and underappreciated these Heroes in Protection truly are. Risking their lives daily, these frontlines heroes are dedicating their lives to protect the biodiversity and most critical habitats on our planet, and with Global Conservation's direct funding, equipment, and training, and Global Park Defense and Community Protection methodologies, they are creating scalable and effective models across five continents."
ENDS Report and Watershed Investigations join volunteers from across the United Kingdom to uncover the toxic truth about PFAS pollution.
They've been described as the greatest chemical threat facing humankind in the 21st century.
PFAS, known as forever chemicals, have been building up in the natural environment – and even our own bodies – for decades. They are linked to cancers, hormone-related diseases, obesity and fertility issues in humans, and similar health issues in wildlife.
But where is this pollution coming from and how much of it is flowing into our rivers and out to sea?
In this documentary, ENDS Report and Watershed Investigations join volunteers as they take water samples and wild oysters from estuaries across the United Kingdom to uncover the toxic truth. Former Undertones frontman and clean rivers campaigner Feargal Sharkey and Green Party peer Natalie Bennett respond to the findings.
What else is TOXIC in our waterways? Poo, that's what. Watch Richard Brock's film "POODUNNIT? – A Wildlife Detective Story"
This is a wildlife detective story, very watchable, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but with a serious intention, plus outstanding wildlife film production values with BBC Natural History Unit experience.
Watch it. Become a Sherlock Holmes and find out! “POODUNNIT?” Whodunnit? Is doing it?
Globally, coral reefs are at crisis point – 2023 saw record sea temperatures and warming seas cause corals to bleach. Without action, nearly all reefs could die off in the next 20-30 years. Our Changing Planet joins scientists in a race against time to help damaged reefs recover and survive climate change. Steve Backshall visits the Maldives to take part in a world-first collaboration.
Professor Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University in Australia devised “coral IVF” that helps corals reproduce more successfully. Peter’s technique involves collecting spawn and maximising fertilisation, then allowing the larvae to develop in the safety of a net before releasing them onto reefs that need restoration.
Now, Peter is working with Professor Steve Simpson from Bristol University who discovered that coral larvae move towards the sound of a healthy reef – fish vocalisations trigger them to sink to the bottom, settle and grow.
This remarkable innovation of combining Peter’s fertility treatment to create thousands of baby coral with Steve’s fish recordings to lure them to set up home on a damaged reef could be a game changer for reef restoration.
Back in the UK, Liz Bonnin visits The Coral Spawning Lab in London where Dr Jamie Craggs and his team have worked how to grow corals on an industrial scale by carefully controlling the light, water and temperature conditions. Liz also joins keen diver, Tom Birbeck, who set up a company that builds new reefs from waste material and sees for herself how quickly wildlife takes up residence.
Do you dream of directing the next ground-breaking science TV programme or wildlife documentary?
Explore how the National Film and Television School's 2-year Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA can train you to make captivating content about our world and beyond!
Don't miss the online open day on Tuesday 16th April from 12-1pm.
Do you dream of directing the next ground-breaking science TV programme or wildlife documentary?
Explore how our 2-year Directing and Producing Science and Natural History MA can train you to make captivating content about our world and beyond!
Don't miss our online open day on Tuesday 16th April from 12-1pm. Book your free place: nfts.co.uk/events
Richard Brock is two people. One is a wildlife film-maker and lives in Somerset in Chew Magna. The other Richard Brock is a detectorist who also lives in Somerset, but suddenly rushed off to Shropshire to get the largest gold nugget yet found in England, worth an estimated £30,000. They're only connected via poo!
One of the biggest stories recently has been about pollution on the River Wye and chicken manure. But both "Richard Brocks" got muddled up by both reporters at ITV and BBC who were interested in the nugget and not the poo problem. On the phone message it sounded like "Poodunnit?" - a wildlife detective story, rather than "gold nugget". It nearly got to the point of a crew turning up in Chew Magna to film one Richard Brock, whilst the other Richard Brock was chasing gold in Shropshire and not poo on the River Wye.
You're not likely going to find a nugget of gold anytime soon, but poo nuggets are everywhere, easy to find!!
You may have seen and heard about the bad conditions on our waterways, rivers, lakes, shores and coasts. Clean water is precious, both to us and wildlife, as Sir David Attenborough has stressed in his major wildlife conservation series on BBC 1, “Wild Isles”. Fixing it will be a massive challenge and costs will be high affecting what we will have to pay. But who is getting richer too? And how? It’s a scandal, involving what amounts to a crime, or rather a number of crimes. So, in addition to the massive media coverage and long-term news campaigns, we offer a film “POODUNNIT?” Different from the inevitable foul examples in what were pristine rivers “POODUNNIT?” tracks down the potential culprits with several Sherlock Holmes logos (+ farts!) in an hour-long hunt for the criminals on one of Britain’s most favourite rivers – the Wye, which flows between England and Wales – 155 miles. The journey follows the threatened Wye, through one year, from source to sea, using that ace fisherman the heron, and the handsome wild duck the mallard, as our guides, revealing whodunit? along the course of the dying Wye.
This is a wildlife detective story, very watchable, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but with a serious intention, plus outstanding wildlife film production values with BBC Natural History Unit experience.
Watch it. Become a Sherlock Holmes and find out! “POODUNNIT?” Whodunnit? Is doing it?
Sky Nature unveils first look at Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough
Brand new, three-part nature series uses world class technology to listen to the animal world like never before. Series will launch on Sky Nature and streaming service NOW on Sunday 25 February.
Sky has today (Tuesday 6 February 2024) announced its brand new, ground-breaking nature series - Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough - will launch on Sunday 25 February on Sky Nature, as well as streaming service NOW.
Sky also unveiled the series trailer providing viewers a first look at this unique, three-part series, which explores how animals use sound to communicate, thrive and survive in the natural world.
Incredible footage captured throughout the documentary series will give viewers an intimate look at how baby caiman communicates with each other from within the egg, how lions and hyaenas battle in the dark using sound, how a strange fish baffled residents with its eerie hum, and how some birds have mastered the art of mimicry to remarkable effect. Packed with insight and new scientific discoveries, Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough will transport viewers into the natural world for an unforgettable experience full of wonder.
Filmed in 4K ultra-high definition, each episode of the series will feature in-depth stories of eight animals, followed by five-minutes of Behind-The-Scenes footage. Unveiling the very latest in audio technology, the series uses specially adapted cameras and laser vibrometers, which allows humans to truly eavesdrop on the animal world for the first time and discover new stories and information that have been hidden until now.
The series incorporates microphones so tiny, they fit on your fingertip, and so precise they can detect the noise of a baby caiman calling from inside the egg. With 360-Dolby Atmos Sound, viewers will experience the breath-taking sounds of the natural world as never heard before.
Sharmila Choudhury, Series Producer said: “We are delighted to be able to reveal a fascinating side to the natural world that is often overlooked, showing the many astonishing ways that animals use sound to survive and thrive.”
Poppy Dixon, Director of Documentaries and Factual, Sky UK said: “We’re incredibly excited to bring this ground-breaking natural history series to the Sky audience. Offering a surprising and intimate view of the natural world, through the medium of sound, we’re thrilled to have worked with the incomparable Sir David Attenborough and the Humble Bee team on this innovative project.”
Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough was commissioned for Sky Nature by Zai Bennett, MD of Content, Sky UK&I, Poppy Dixon, Director of Documentaries & Factual and Tom Barry, Commissioning Editor. It is produced by Humble Bee Films (UK) and Infield Fly Productions (Canada). Executive producers are Stephen Dunleavy and Dugald Maudsley, series producer is Sharmila Choudhury.
Abacus Media Rights is handling the international sales of the series.
Nearly 100 billion pieces of plastic packaging are thrown away by UK households every year, and just 12% is recycled in the UK.
It’s time the government got serious about tackling the plastic crisis. You can help by taking part in The Big Plastic Count!
JOIN THE UK'S BIGGEST PLASTIC INVESTIGATION
Count your plastic for one week – 11-17 March 2024.
For one week in March, thousands of schools, households, community groups and businesses will be coming together to count their plastic waste. And we want you to join them.
Almost a quarter of a million people took part in The Big Plastic Count in 2022. Together we revealed that almost two billion pieces of plastic packaging are being thrown away a week. This year you can help build even more evidence to convince UK ministers to lead the way at the global talks that could finally phase out plastic pollution for good.
Check out Brock InitiativeWildlife Winners & Losers films on Plastics
AS RICHARD BROCK SAID IN HIS PLANET CRUNCH BOOK (DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY HERE!) "As an ingenious, widespread and increasingly abundant species we excrete a huge variety of stuff."
Some could be useful to other people elsewhere but the “throwaway” lifestyle has now been encouraged and adopted worldwide. That might seem to be good news, the spread of so-called “progress” but the bad news is that there’s now no “away” to throw it to. Because from the sky to the deepest sea, this stuff is being broken up, and is dispersing and is being
absorbed as part of the ecosystem.
These substances, especially plastics, may be poisonous and kill. And that can include us at the end of the food chain with filter feeders like shellfish which concentrate poisons in their bodies. Similarly, with dolphins and whales; they gradually die from chemicals in the oceans, sometimes also trapped in fishing gear, or the young killed by what’s in the mother’s milk. In the English Channel, PCB’s and mercury, banned 40 years ago, have been found at high levels. In humans they have been linked to cancer.
PLASTICS ARE COVERED IN THE ACCOMAPANYING PLANET CRUNCH FILM:
Sir David Attenborough to present BBC Studios Natural History Unit's Mammals
Co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, Youku and France Télévisions, major new for series BBC One and iPlayer will see Attenborough revisit the extraordinary group of animals.
"I’m delighted Sir David is returning to the BBC to present this fascinating new series. Mammals are the most adaptable and – for my money – adorable animals on earth."
— Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, BBC
Mammals are the most successful animal group on earth. Found on every continent and in every ocean, they’ve evolved to master almost every habitat on our planet. But how?
Twenty years after Life of Mammals, Attenborough revisits this extraordinary group of animals in a major new series for BBC One and iPlayer: Mammals. Full of new, never- before-seen behaviours, this series offers fascinating insights into the most successful animal group in the world. From the tiny Etruscan shrew to the giant blue whale, Mammals will reveal the secrets of their success, and how their winning design, incredible adaptability, unrivalled intelligence and unique sociability have all contributed to their remarkable rise.
By weight less than 6% of today’s mammals are wild animals and many species face extinction. As well as giving viewers an exciting new perspective on a remarkable group of animals, the series will also highlight many of the problems faced by mammals in today’s rapidly changing world.
Each episode explores a different environment; Dark, Cold, Heat, Water, Forest and The New Wild – an episode which explores the ingenious ways mammals are adapting to a world dominated by humans, arguably the most successful mammal of all. And each episode covers a range of remarkable mammals – from the miniature tenrecs of Madagascar to the humpback whales of the Indian ocean.
Roger Webb, Executive Producer says: “Being mammals ourselves, the animals featured in the series and the stories told about them are instantly relatable. It’s impossible not to admire a mother capuchin monkey who’s able to provide her baby with a drink in a dry, sun baked forest or a chimpanzee father giving his family a lesson in finding honey buried underground. This connection to us, makes Mammals an incredibly engaging and compelling piece of television – one that will also lead us to question our role in the lives of the wild mammals we share the planet with.”
Scott Alexander, Series Producer says: “Mammals includes animals like the great apes, the big cats, dolphins, whales as well as the mythical wolverine and adorable tenrec – who wouldn’t want to make a series with such a wonderful cast of animals”.
Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, adds: “Following the enormous success of Wild Isles and Planet Earth III last year, I’m delighted Sir David is returning to the BBC to present this fascinating new series. Mammals are the most adaptable and – for my money – adorable animals on earth, and I can’t wait for viewers to learn more about the remarkable strategies they use to survive in every corner of the planet.”
Mammals, a 6 x 60’ series made by BBC Studios Natural History Unit and co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, Youku and France Télévisions. It was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual and Sreya Biswas, Head of Natural History, BBC Commissioning. The Executive Producer is Roger Webb and the Series Producer is Scott Alexander. It will tx on BBC One and iPlayer this spring.
Chimps Are Our Closest Living Animal Relative And For That Fact Alone They Deserve To Be Celebrated
By Pupfish Publishing
16th February 2024
New Book Coming Soon: The Book of Being Chimp by Wildlife Film-maker Adrian Cale with a foreword by Dr Jane Goodall
Inspired by a fascination for chimps ever since he could use his own opposable thumbs, this is Adrian Cale’s warm and witty look at the wonderful but challenging world of simply being a chimpanzee.
The Book of Being Chimp is an entertaining celebration of the chimpanzee. Written with fact-filled, often witty reverence and featuring 100 of the author’s beautiful photographs, it is a fun and informative step-by-step guide to chimpanzee life. The captivating pictures are accompanied by a simple, humorous, and engaging text which tells you all about the contrasting lives of chimps in the wild and those being rehabilitated at rescue centres.
The book is presented across 40 beautifully designed spreads. Each spread starts with the word 'being' as part of a sequential guide to the various stages, characteristics, behaviour, quirks and challenges of chimp life. From being a mum, being a community and being clever, to being bottle-fed, being ticklish and being encouraged etc, this charming and touching book will leave you brimming with knowledge and rooting for chimps everywhere.
"Emotive, informative, inspirational and enchanting, with stunning photographs and clear writing throughout… If chimps themselves could read, this might well be their own how-to-grow-up guide." - Dr Jane Goodall, DBE - Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute & UN Messenger of Peace
"This warm, witty and beautiful book encourages everyone to see how much we share with chimps – and their right to share the planet with us too." - Patrick Barkham - Bestselling natural history author.
"A beautiful book with stunning photographs, this is a wonderfully humorous, informative and personal story all about chimps. Quite simply, a great read for all the family.” - Iolo Williams - BBC Willdife Tv Presenter (Springwatch, Winterwatch)
"Just when you think chimpanzees can't be any more fascinating! This beautiful book shares new insights into the lives of our closest cousins. Written in a funny and engaging way, you are left feeling empowered to conserve them and their wild environment." Megan McCubbin - BBC Wildlife TV Presenter & Zoologist (Animal Park, Springwatch)
Publisher: Pupfish Publishing
Distributed by CBL Distribution.
RRP £19.99
About the Author
Adrian Cale is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker, writer and naturalist who has made acclaimed TV documentaries for broadcasters including BBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet and Sky. Many are also shown on well-known streaming services.
Adrian has contributed work towards ape conservation for the Jane Goodall Institute, Ape Alliance, and International Animal Rescue.
He is a Fellow at the Zoological Society of London, and one of the Presidents of the Young Peoples Trust for the Environment (YPTE).
Publication date: Tuesday 5th March 2024 Available from all good bookshops!
The first Wildlife Filmmaking Course of its kind: Immersed in nature with Too Wild
By Too Wild
7th February 2024
A nature filmmaking masterclass provided by a team that brings international wildlife stories to the screens of National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, BBC, WWF, Disney+, WildEarth, and more.
The bush is humming full of life, and if we are agile enough to witness and read it, we can share its story through film. Nature lovers and storytellers can now merge and master these two worlds through Too Wild.
Meet South Africa’s first immersive wildlife filmmaking course while living and learning directly in the bush.
Be mentored. Get hands-on experience. Build a showreel. All in the bush.
Too Wild is excited to bring industry professionals and eager learners together in their wildlife filmmaking course. Learners can anticipate a life-changing experience in the wild discovering how to ethically film wild animals while living 6 weeks in the heart of the African bush – in the Timbavati Game Reserve of The Greater Kruger National Park.
Throughout the nature cinematography programme, learners utilise industry-standard camera equipment to create stories and build a showreel, all the while enjoying mentorships from experienced naturalists, trackers, cinematographers, and the post-production team.
Candidates will study directly from a team with collective experience working with National Geographic, Nat Geo WILD, BBC, WWF, Disney+, WildEarth, SABC, DSTV and CGTN. Additionally, students are treated to a premium experience: having renowned wildlife filmmakers as our guest speakers for a day.
Together with our four experienced core team members, students focus on four distinct aspects of wildlife documentaries with a generous film set of over 7,000 hectares to hone their craft.
4 Core Components of the Wildlife Filmmaking Course
The programme’s lessons are conducted in an immersive panoramic teaching style in a small group of 8 learners, with dedicated one-on-one mentoring. We will establish the foundations of researching a story through to final development as our team of expert mentors contribute their unique skills from different fields to understand animal behaviour, the natural environment, impact producing, storytelling, and post-production.
1. Filmmaking
This practical course pillar focuses on teaching learners how to:
Shoot to wildlife industry standards while discovering their creative flairUnderstand animal behaviour and the surrounding environment from the experts
Operate safely and ethically in the wild confidently
Build wildlife camera rigs and use specialised equipment
Create captivating and immersive sequences with their technical skills
2. Impact producing
This creative course pillar focuses on teaching learners how to:
Tell captivating stories from the natural world as tools to create social, behavioural and environmental change
Understand the responsibility you have as a filmmaker and how to behave in the wild
Focus on ethics in wildlife filmmaking - how far do you go to get that shot?
3. Post-production
Our partners, Think Lemonade, specialise in natural history and will be hosting the post-production part of our programme.
This technical course pillar focuses on teaching learners how to:
Creatively weave pictures, sounds, words and colour grading to move in harmony and produce a moving picture
Manage your data, the very foundation of starting to put together a documentary
Build sequences and timelines using editing software
Create a soundscape using natural sounds and music
Learn to shoot for the edit
4. Ecology
At Too Wild, we believe in creating an immersive experience that changes the way people walk through the world by inspiring curiosity, wonder and empathy. As such, we enforce a strict non-interference policy through eco-friendly filmmaking so that the well-being of the animals will always come before the shot.
This ethical course pillar focuses on teaching learners how to:
Learn the foundations of animal behaviour
Explore ecological concepts which will change your way of thinking about the natural
world
Learn to read the tracks and signs of the wild for more immersive storytelling.
Dive into the sensory world and challenge the way we look, smell, hear, taste and feel.
This course is open to ANYONE and all skill levels. We aim to be all-inclusive, as long as the student is above the age of 18. We welcome wildlife enthusiasts, documentary hobbyists, and budding filmmakers ready to jumpstart their career and their portfolios.
Plus, our course is ideal for you if you:
Are a wildlife enthusiast and have an inherent respect for nature and animals
Are an adventurous soul who is looking for an authentic experience with wildlife
Have an interest in film and/or photography
Are a filmmaking student who wants to gain field experience in a Big 5 territory
Are starting in your professional journey and want to get some hands-on experience whilst expanding your skills
Want a break from your day-to-day life to focus on your passions.
Committed to Uplifting Local Talent
In addition to sharing our knowledge and love of capturing the bush with the world, we have a special focus on equipping local talent with the skills to become a wildlife filmmaker. Too Wild has partnered with the Timbavati Foundation, Wild Shots Outreach and Ruggedwear to create a community outreach programme.
A percentage of every student’s fee from the course will go towards sponsoring a student from one of the local communities on the edge of the game reserve, to nurture local talent and produce the next generation of South African wildlife filmmakers. Together, we have the power to inspire change and uplift the youth.
More than a course, a community
Additionally, participants also gain access to the exclusive Too Wild community. Learners depart from the programme, but never fully leave the Too Wild experience. Our course participants are supported as part of a larger network of like-minded individuals with resources and more.
Once a participant, alumni become members of the Too Wild community, which includes:
Joining the global Too Wild WhatsApp Group
Access to exclusive content and workshops
Discussions, networking and opportunities
Staying notified of wildlife-focused science
Support from Too Wild, with access to the mentors
Updates on Too Wild’s evolution and future projects
Another side effect from war in Gaza? Animals starving in its besieged zoos ...
Israel's war with Hamas has created a humanitarian crisis for the millions of Palestinians stuck in Gaza. Most of the population has been displaced by Israel's intensifying military campaign – with the United Nations saying nowhere is safe in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes have hit every part of the besieged strip. Israeli bombardment has even destroyed Gaza zoos, killing many of the animals there. The animals that survived are starving alongside their human caretakers.
The United Nations reports that 90% of the population of Gaza regularly goes a whole day without food. Other basic necessities like clean water, fuel, medicine and medical supplies are all scarce. In the face of all this, some zookeepers in Gaza say animals are dying of starvation. .
In retaliation for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israel, entire neighborhoods have been leveled and the war has killed more than 27,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials.
Veterinarian Dr. Amir Khalil of Four Paws, an organization dedicated to saving animals from war zones, is trying to coordinate a rescue mission from some of Gaza's remaining zoos. He rescued and treated animals during previous conflicts in Gaza and knows the dire conditions the animals were living in even before the war. He contacted the various parties involved, including the Israeli army, Palestine Authority, and locals in Gaza, to try and facilitate.
As the war in Gaza escalates, hopes for his mission dwindle. While seemingly secondary in the shadow of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Khalil spoke with Morning Edition about the importance of saving any innocent life from the horrors of war. "I think it is the wrong time to say whom to save and whom not to save," said Khalil "Everyone has his function to do. I think if I'm able to help one creature, it's enough for me."
The situation in Gaza presents a unique set of challenges and dangers. Khalil describes the need for "intelligence work" before even embarking on the rescue.
"We are prepared for the unexpected ... but the most important thing is the safety and the security for the team," said . Khalil. "So we cannot enter without coordination with all involved stakeholders... So it's like a military operation, in fact."
NB, Wildlife-film.com does not support the existence of this zoo. We are merely reporting on the even sadder state of the animals kept there following Israel's retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza strip, illustrating that people and animals are suffereing alike. None of it is defensible, nor is it self-defence.
BBC Earth and Minecraft Education return with Planet Earth III World
Inspired by BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s landmark series, Planet Earth III Minecraft World launches 16th January.
"We are delighted to partner with Minecraft Education and that children globally will have the opportunity to interact with stories inspired by the Planet Earth III series.” — Matt Brandon, Planet Earth III series producer, BBC Studios Natural History Unit
Following the record-breaking success of the Frozen Planet II Minecraft Worlds, which achieved the most downloads in a single day for an educational game in Minecraft history, with millions of players across 116 countries, BBC Earth and Minecraft Education are teaming up once again. This collaboration is set to engage fans globally with the launch of the Planet Earth III Minecraft World.
The Planet Earth III Minecraft World features immersive landscapes, animals and game-based learning resources, inspired by stories in the latest landmark series from BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit, and will be available from 16th January.
Minecraft is the best-selling game of all time and is especially popular with younger players. Minecraft Education provides educational content for schools globally where students can learn about a wide variety of subjects via creative gameplay. The team at Mojang Studios believes it has a responsibility to use Minecraft to build a better world and inspire generations of game changers, especially around themes of global citizenship and sustainability.
Players can step into extraordinary realms of the natural world to experience the struggles and triumphs of survival while playing as a series of incredible creatures, including the great white shark, the Arctic wolf, a leopardess, and more. Exploring the way these animals’ lives are intertwined by playing as both predator and prey, parent and offspring, friend and ally, they will discover the precarious balance of survival.
The adventure begins at the BBC Planet Earth III Field Station. Here, players select their desired biome, study its wildlife, and embark on tailored activities. By assuming the roles of different animals, students learn about various survival strategies. Each challenge unlocks rewards, deepening the educational experience. By alternating perspectives between various animals, students cultivate empathy and gain a deeper understanding of the ecosystem's balance.
The Planet Earth III Minecraft World is available in 29 languages for both Minecraft Education and Bedrock in the Minecraft Marketplace – a unique opportunity to watch, play, and learn together, taking biology and our understanding of biodiversity far beyond the classroom or living room.
Matt Brandon, Planet Earth III series producer from BBC Studios Natural History Unit says: “We are delighted to partner with Minecraft Education and that children globally will have the opportunity to interact with stories inspired by the Planet Earth III series through immersive gameplay while learning more about our fragile natural world and the creatures we share this planet with.”
Justin Edwards, Minecraft Education's Director of Learning Experiences says: "Minecraft Education is delighted to extend our partnership with BBC Earth, building on our work in Frozen Planet II. The new experience of the natural world in Planet Earth III brings us closer to the animals and their surrounding environment. In this world, you will learn about animals from different continents, across sea, sky, and land, and how they survive and thrive."
Planet Earth III Minecraft World will be available on 16th January globally.
The animal sounds in most nature documentaries are made by humans – here’s how they do it and why it matters
Wildlife documentaries like the BBC’s recent series, Planet Earth III, are renowned for offering breathtaking images of animals in their natural habitats. You’d be forgiven for thinking these shows offer an unmediated portrayal of these animals – an objective window into their lives as they hunt, rest and rear their young. But this isn’t quite the case.
While the images we see are filmed on location, many of the sounds are recorded and added to the programmes later. The sounds of animals walking, chewing food and panting, for example, are almost always recorded by human “Foley artists” in a sound studio far away from the filming location, often weeks or months later. Foley artists are specialists who produce bespoke sounds for film and television soundtracks.
This curious fact is an inevitable consequence of modern wildlife filmmaking. A lot of wildlife documentary footage is shot using telephoto lenses that can zoom in on their subjects from a great distance. But sound recordists typically can’t get close enough to capture clear sound without disturbing the animals.
Wildlife documentaries also tend to require large crews. If sound were recorded on location, it would be muddied by background noises such as crew chatter or car engines. In other cases, the animals make sounds of a frequency or volume that most microphones simply can’t capture clearly.
In my research, I’ve talked to Foley artists who specialise in animal sound and observed them at work in their studios.
How Foley artists work
This Foley process generally involves deciding which of the animal’s actions or movements need sounds to be created for them, and then deciding on the specific qualities those sounds should have.
These decisions often involve the broader sound production team and sometimes the show’s director. The Foley artist then uses their creativity and resourcefulness to create the sounds.
So, what sorts of techniques do they use? It might seem cliched, but the professionals I’ve spoken to really do sometimes knock coconut shells against stone slabs to make the sound of horse footsteps. For an elephant, they might use rocks against a straw-covered tub of compacted earth.
Latest Wildlife Winners and Losers film from Richard Brock, "Chuffed to be Back"!
By Jason Peters
14th January 2024
Richard Brock has been making a film about choughs over the past year, following the publishing of his "Planet Crunch" book and films, and the release of his POODUNNIT? film. He's a busy man! If you're lucky enough to be on his Christmas card list, you will have recieved a card featuring the film.
Cornwall was the last place choughs bred in England, in 1947, before becoming extinct in the country.
Now, in an exciting new success story, they’ve been brought back with a lot of help from their friends.
Captive-bred birds from Cornwall are now flying free in Kent, and Jersey in the Channel Isles.
And the aim is to expand the populations further afield over time.
We follow progress of nesting pairs in Cornwall and see how they get on in this wonderful rescue project in beautiful places.
The film marks “The Return” of ”Wildlife Winners and Losers – How to turn losers into winners” ... A revised, updated, increasingly relevant “archive” from Richard Brock of the Brock Initiative and Living Planet Productions, and author of the book “Planet Crunch” with 3,000 copies donated free worldwide.
Richard, who was previously a producer with David Attenborough on the BBC’s “Life on Earth” and an executive producer on the BBC’s “The Living Planet” from the BBC’s Natural History Unit says “Now there is a greater urgency and need, and action, than ever. So I’ve decided to re-launch and refresh the earlier release of the “Wildlife and Winners” series – how to turn losers into winners”. It so happens that much of that previous message is valid today, and into the future. And it’s that which concerns many, especially young people who are frustrated by the lack of political will and decisive action. So the so-called “Brock Archive” of some eighty (80) titles of various lengths (with many short promos); looking back, now, and forward could have a wide appeal with everyone, everywhere. So, please, consider the best use of this free offer and share it too, so we can, perhaps, make a difference. Just maybe?."
So, start by watching (and sharing please!) the full "Chuffed to be Back" film here:
Did you miss BBC’s Autumnwatch, not shown in 2023?
Now is your chance to catch up with rescue, rewilding and recovery instead. You can help! Please do.
View and share a great choice of movies from then, now and next… - with lots of versions from all over the world especially about our Great British Wild Isles, and what is happening to our “State of Nature”, as in the government’s latest 2023 report, which could affect us all and the wildlife that depends on us.
Nature needs you and the Wildlife Winners and Losers film series can be used a a tool to help make change happen. Richard says “Some years ago when I was in the renowned BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol I was getting more and more angry that some programmes were basically “lying”. I even said that to David Attenborough, perhaps not a great career move. But there was a definite reluctance to show much at all about what was really happening to the planet. In fact, any “gloom and doom” was rejected by the commissioners – in their apparent wisdom. Indeed, the series Blue Planet (One) was shown in full on BBC1 but the truth, in the last episode, was hidden away on BBC2. In the USA, where that last episode “Deep Trouble” was not shown at all, a potential donor to charity said he’d seen the series, as shown, with no problems visible in the oceans. Now, years later, David tells it as it really is – plastics and all. What a difference the truth makes.
He explains, “My series “Wildlife Winners and Losers” looks carefully with well-documented evidence at these changes – past, present and particularly the future.“My series “Wildlife Winners and Losers” looks carefully with well-documented evidence at these changes – past, present and particularly the future.
Using previously unseen footage from the recent past we bring the story right up to date and try to look forward as to the winners and the losers we might expect – and why. As far as I know, no one has done this so deliberately around the world with so many species and places. And you can help too…
With films across over eighty subjects, we find many examples of winners, or, at least those trying not to be losers!”
My Wildlife Winners and Losers series shows that films can be made – with basic footage filmed on any device – to help get the word out about conservation.
“There is still time to save the planet. My Wildlife Winners and Losers series is my contribution."
Now it’s your turn. Watch these free films. Choose from these 80+ films of different lengths to inspire you to take action.
They’re free to watch and share with as many people as possible. Use the Series to give you ammunition to help save the planet.”
All this is free for use anywhere around the world in my attempt to help the planet and its wildlife.
The main idea is that social media will enable people to spread the word using these Wildlife Winners and Losers films as “ammunition” at a time when I believe they are particularly needed.
With so many, and such a variety, it is easy to put together a mix-and-match permutation, under various headings and many aspects of conservation e.g marine, plastics, Africa, tourism, wetlands, rainforests, big corporations, human conflict, etc. – how to turn losers into winners.
Get Earthling Ed's latest book How to Argue With a Meat Eater (And Win Every Time)
“An empowering and deeply informative book" – Moby
Challenge their beliefs; change the world
If you are a vegan, you’ll know all too well how provocative it can be – you never know when you’ll be challenged or how. But being able to face down and rebut arguments against veganism is hugely important. Not just because many of the arguments lack substance, but because every interaction provides a pivotal moment to create change.
How to Argue With a Meat Eater will teach you to not only become a skilled debater, sharing the secrets of renowned vegan educator Ed Winters, but it will arm you with powerful facts and insights that will give pause to even the most devout meat eater.
Providing you with the knowledge to become a better conversationalist and critical thinker, and the motivation to create a more ethical, kind and sustainable world, let this book be your guide and inspiration to know that, no matter what the argument, you can win every time.
"An absolute must-read – it shows how we can communicate incredibly emotive topics with confidence and compassion, and provides the reader with indispensable tools to express themselves clearly and persuasively." — Rich Roll
“Ed Winters builds on his groundbreaking debut book with a follow up that couldn’t be more timely or important. How to Argue With a Meat Eater is an empowering and deeply informative book that will leave readers more enriched and knowledgeable about veganism and how to argue effectively about it. Everyone would benefit from reading this book." — Moby
BBC Studios Natural History Unit and global charitable foundation Wellcome, announce #OurPlanetEarth
New digital impact campaign inspired by, Planet Earth III, and focusing on health impacts of the climate crisis, will be hosted by BBC Earth.
"The NHU plays a vital role in telling impactful stories from the natural world." — Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit
BBC Studios Natural History Unit and global charitable foundation, Wellcome, today announce #OurPlanetEarth – a new digital impact campaign inspired by the globally-renowned Natural History Unit’s latest landmark series, Planet Earth III and expected to reach millions of people globally.
The world's climate is changing, and this is having a direct impact on humans as well as animals. Climate change is affecting the environments in which we live and work, the health of many populations, and the wellbeing of our societies. #OurPlanetEarth, produced by the award-winning digital team from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, hosted by BBC Earth, will bring to life the links between human and planetary health, with a focus on those most affected on the climate frontline.
The accelerating changes across our planet’s ecosystems highlighted in Planet Earth III, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, has drawn global awareness to the beauty and fragility of these regions and the critical juncture we now find ourselves at as well as bringing to the forefront the resulting consequences on human health. From communities in the Amazon Rainforest to those on the savannahs of East Africa; from coastlines and oceans to the heart of our cities, #OurPlanetEarth brings together extraordinary voices from across the planet who are dedicating their lives to making a positive difference for both planetary and human health.
Alan Dangour, Director of Climate and Health at Wellcome said: “Climate change is a threat to humanity just as it is a threat to every living thing on the planet. We’re very pleased to be working with BBC Studios Natural History Unit and harnessing their expertise and powerful artistry to tell the stories of how human health is being affected on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Through this partnership we hope to bring this urgent issue to the attention of audiences world-wide and build momentum for climate action to protect all our lives.”
Jonny Keeling, Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, added: “The NHU plays a vital role in telling impactful stories from the natural world. And we know that the health of our planet is closely linked to human health so we’re proud to partner with Wellcome on the #OurPlanetEarth campaign and, together, reach a global audience. At this critical moment for Planet Earth, we are looking to inspire people with stories of hope that will ultimately promote a healthy planet and healthy people.”
This campaign follows #OurGreenPlanet and #OurFrozenPlanet, two Natural History Unit Impact initiatives launched in association with the Moondance Foundation. These initatives inspired and ignited a deeper understanding of the unique role of green habitats and our planets fragile polar regions, respectively. With unique stories published across multiple BBC Earth and partner channels, the campaigns have generated over one billion global impressions.
The #OurPlanetEarth impact campaign can be followed via BBC Earth’s Website, Facebook, Instagram, & TikTok with new and exclusive content launching every week.
Since the late 1990s Wildlife-film.com has been the leading source of information for the wildlife filmmaking industry worldwide. For over twenty years the site has been Google's number one ranking site for 'wildlife film' and related searches. Our site is viewed in over 195 countries. Our newsletter, Wildlife Film News, is read every month by thousands of people involved in wildlife filmmaking - from broadcasters and producers, to cameramen - we encourage readers to submit their news. We also serve as an online resource for industry professionals and services. Find producers, editors, presenters and more in our Freelancer section, and find out about festivals, training and conservation in Organisations. We encourage amateur and professional freelancers to join our network and welcome all wildlife-film related organisations to join our team.
Wildlife Film News is available every month straight to your Inbox! Subscribe here:
