Wildscreen is a wildlife conservation charity based in Bristol, England. The charity was founded in December 1987 from a trust which had operated since 1982, with the initial aim of encouraging and applauding excellence in the production of natural history films and television. The founders included Sir Peter Scott and Christopher Parsons OBE, former Head of the

BBC Natural History Unit The BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is a department of BBC Studios that produces television, radio and online content with a natural history or wildlife theme. It is best known for its highly regarded nature documentaries, including '' ...

Wildscreen Film Festival

The Wildscreen Festival is the world's leading international festival about nature films. It is held biennially in October in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

, England. The festival began in 1982. In 1994, it merged with a biennial wildlife symposium, previously held in the neighbouring city of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

. At Wildscreen Festival wildlife filmmakers and broadcasters from different parts of the world met to view the latest productions, discuss issues of mutual interest, exchange ideas and compete for the Panda Awards. Over the years since then the festival has significantly expanded its scale and content and the charity has also enlarged its remit, including by launching

Arkive ARKive was a global initiative with the mission of "promoting the conservation of the world's threatened species, through the power of wildlife imagery", which it did by locating and gathering films, photographs and audio recordings of the worl ...

, a centralised collection of films and photographs of endangered species.

Wildscreen Festival 2020

In preparation for the 2020 edition of the festival, Wildscreen announced the launch of the newly revamped Panda Awards, the highest honour in the global wildlife and environmental film industry. The 2020 festival will also feature an Official Selection screening programme and a new award to recognise best practice in sustainable production. David Allen, multi award-winning filmmaker, was also announced as Final Jury Chair. The 2020 edition of the industry Festival takes place 19-23 October 2020 in Bristol, UK. The Official Selection screening programme will take place between 17-25 October and be open to both industry and public audiences

Panda Awards

For 2020, the Panda Awards will recognise talent in the following categories; Cinematography, Editing, Emerging Talent (in both film and photography), Music, Photo Story, Producer/Director, Production Team, Scripted Narrative, Series and Sound. There will also be a new Sustainable Production award.

Official Selection

To recognise the broad range of talent and creative storytellers, Wildscreen introduced an Official Selection competition for 2020.

Other initiatives

A physical collection of images, footage and information was started, which went online in 2003. This resource has grown to include over 16,000 species profiles and 100,000 images and videos from over 7,500 of the world's filmmakers, photographers and scientists. Arkive also contains topic pages that focus on various conservation issues, geographical regions and biological subjects. Arkive was used by over a million people around the world each month. In May 2015 Wildscreen launched their newest initiative, Wildscreen Exchange. This conservation initiative provides conservation organisations with access to images, videos and expertise. Wildscreen Exchange contains over 28,000 images and many hours of video that are being used all over the world for campaigns, education resources, community outreach, fundraising and online.

Management

Wildscreen is a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

under English law, governed by a board of 17 independent trustees, chaired by Dick Emery OBE, former CEO of

UKTV UKTV Media Limited, simply known as UKTV, is a British multi-channel broadcaster, which, since 2019, has been wholly owned by BBC Studios (formerly BBC Worldwide), a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. It was formed on 1 November 1992 throug ...

. The chief executive is Richard Edwards, appointed in March 2011 to succeed Harriet Nimmo, who stepped down in January that year after 13 years with the charity, seven in the CEO role. Despite moving to South Africa, Nimmo retains a connection with the charity, in the advisory role of Wildscreen Strategic Director. For the period April 2009 – March 2010 (which was a non-festival year for the biennial Wildscreen Festival), the charity's income was declared as £1,409,722, with expenditure of £1,417,362. Wildscreen is a founder member of the Bristol Natural History Consortium, set up in 2004.

Patrons

* HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh *

David Attenborough Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histo ...

, Naturalist, broadcaster * Dr Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer * Professor E. O. Wilson, Harvard University * Dr George McGavin, Oxford University

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Wildscreen site
Environmental organisations based in England Organisations based in Bristol Nature conservation organisations based in the United Kingdom Charities based in Somerset