New York: Judges and organizers of the 2021 World Wildlife Day Film Showcase have unveiled the finalists of this year’s contest, highlighting 38 outstanding films entered in five categories, selected from a total of 275 entries and 12 films designated for Honorable Mentions.
In keeping with this year’s World Wildlife Day theme “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet,” the Showcase highlighted the links between the world’s forests and the wildlife they harbor, the ongoing efforts towards conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, and the millions of livelihoods that directly depend on forests, particularly the indigenous peoples and local communities who are often the guardians of these ecosystems.
The winners will be announced on 3rd March, during the first-ever global virtual World Wildlife Day celebration.
The 2021 Showcase is the sixth film competition jointly organized as part of the annual World Wildlife Day celebrations by Jackson Wild, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The films below have been selected as finalists in five categories:
● People & Forests;
● My Forest;
● Future of Forests;
● Living Forests;
● Forest Micro Movie.
All categories, save for the Forest Micro Movie, have been further divided into two sub-categories, comprising of long form entries, with a runtime above 17 minutes, and the short form entries, with a runtime between 5 – 17 minutes. Micro movies comprise entries with a runtime of up to 5 minutes.
The full list of finalists can be found below or click here.
Winner and finalist films will be shown at events across the world to raise awareness of the importance of conserving forests and forest wildlife, and to shed further light on what can be learned from the extensive knowledge and experiences of forest and forest-adjacent inhabitants when it comes to conserving these ecosystems.
CITES Secretary-General Ivonne Higuero said: “The outstanding entries of this sixth World Wildlife Day Film Showcase will help viewers discover the stories of local and indigenous communities around the world who live in or near forests, whose livelihoods and well-being depend on these ecosystems and the wildlife therein. As we all seek to mend our relationship with Nature, the Film Showcase gives us the opportunity to capture and share the stories of people and communities as they march towards sustainability. The efforts of those who interact with their surroundings in a sustainable way should be an inspiration for us all. We are deeply grateful to all the filmmakers who submitted their works.”
“Finalists selected for this year’s World Wildlife Day Film Showcase highlight the challenges and opportunities we face to conserve our forests and strengthen the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and local communities. Investing in the protection and restoration of forest ecosystems is critical for reducing poverty and inequality, simultaneously, it helps to address the dual nature-climate crises within the COVID-19 context and the Decade for Action for the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.
“Selected by 100+ judges who screened more than 750 hours of film, this portfolio highlights fifty extraordinary stories from forests and communities around the world. Throughout human history, stories have connected each of us with one another and the world we share,” said Lisa Samford, Executive Director of Jackson Wild. “This is more crucial now than ever before. Media has the power to accelerate tangible ways we can work together to restore and protect our planet during these critically important times.”
World Wildlife Day 2021 Film Showcase finalists:
People & Forests (long form):
Australia’s Great Wild North
Wild Pacific Media, Definition Films
Backyard Wilderness
Archipelago Films, Arise Media, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, SK Films and Reconsider
Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees
Merit Motion Pictures, Edgeland Films
Judi Dench’s Wild Borneo Adventure: Untouched and Under Threat
Atlantic Productions for discovery+
People & Forests (short form):
The Church Forests of Ethiopia
Emergence Magazine
Traces
Alchimie Productions, Sébastien Pins
Water Logged
Ramshackle Pictures
My Forest (long form)
Death by a Thousand Cuts
Participant and Documentales Univision present a Tarasios Production in association with Human Pictures
Fools & Dreamers: Regenerating a Native Forest
Happen Films
Great Bear Rainforest
Spirit Bear Entertainment & MacGillivray Freeman Films
Mundiya Kepanga, the voice of the forest
ARTE France and Muriel Barra / Lato Sensu productions
Sacred Forest
Taiwan Public Television Service Foundation
My Forest (short form)
Arunachal Virtual Archive
National Geographic Society, Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department
The Guardians of Dampa
Green Hub (NEN – DFF), Dampa Tiger Reserve
Think Like a Scientist: Renewal
Plumb Productions, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
Ulin
Leo Plunkett, Environmental Investigation Agency
Future of Forests (long form):
After the Wildfires
Northern Pictures for ABC, CBC, Love Nature and Blue Ant International
Eyes In The Forest
Google VizLab
River of Gold
An Amazon Aid Foundation Production in association with Uber Content
The Lost Forest
The Nobel Prize, Grain Media, Rideback Films, National Geographic
Trees, a Global Superpower
Hauteville Productions In Coproduction with INRAE, with the participation of France Télévisions, Planète +, CNC, Procirep/Angoa, International sales: France TV distribution
Future of Forests (short form):
How Old Cell Phones Are Protecting the Rainforest
Seeker Media
How To Get Grizzly Bears the Space They Need to Survive
Seeker Media
Our Planet – How to Restore Our Forests
Silverback Films, Netflix, WWF UK
Reforestation Alert
If Not Us Then Who
Living Forests (long form):
Earth’s Tropical Islands: Borneo
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, PBS
Planet Earth II: Jungles
BBC Studios Natural History Unit, BBC America, ZDF, Tencent, France Televisions
The Magical Four – Our Seasons
Marco Polo Film AG in collaboration with WDR
Tiny World – Woodland
Plimsoll Productions
Unknown Madagascar – Forest of the Indri
Doclights GmbH / NDR Naturfilm, NDR, ARTE, ORF
Living Forests (short form):
Chasing Ghosts
Grizzly Creek Films, bioGraphic
Memories of the Future
a Mares Mexicanos production
Protecting Nature for Good
Day’s Edge Productions for World Wildlife Fund
The Golden Lion Tamarins of Poco Das Antas
National Geographic Society
Forest Micro Movie:
#WildForLife Forest Champion: Mount Kenya Trust
UN Environment, PCI Media
Gajah Borneo
Shervin Hess, Oregon Zoo
Koa Talking to Me
Harpers Ferry Center & Haleakalā National Park, National Park Service
The Man Who Planted A Forest
101India Digital Services
Honorable Mention films include: Alianza Ceibo: Equator Prize Winner of 2020 (UNDP Equator Initiative, What Took You So Long), Can Farms and Forests Coexist? (Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios), Clatter (Rémi Rappe), Eeya (House Tiger Productions), If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change? (Produced by Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios), Jungle Guardian (Doclights GmbH / NDR Naturfilm), Moss Man (Tilapia Film, Topic Studio), Primary Forests (Rojo Visuals and Wild Heritage for IntAct – International Action for Primary Forests), Rearing Giants (Green Hub (NEN – DFF)), Rise of the Warrior Apes (KEO Films for Discovery Network International), Sungai Utik -The Fight for Recognition (If Not Us Then Who), The Ogieks; Guardians of the Mau Forest (Maurice Oniang’o)
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