Geneva/Jackson Hole, WY/Montreal/Nairobi/New York, 19 February 2020 – Judges and organizers of the World Wildlife Day 2020 Film Showcase have unveiled the finalists of this year’s contest, highlighting 57 outstanding films, picked from a total of 345 entries. The seven final laureates will be announced on 3 March, during the World Wildlife Day celebrations at a high-level event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
The festival was organized by Jackson Wild, the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), along with film professionals. It was announced last November and is the fifth of its kind.
The Showcase is anchored in the theme of this year’s World Wildlife Day: "Sustaining all life on Earth," which aims to celebrate wild fauna and flora as essential components of the world’s biodiversity, to highlight their immense benefits to humanity as purveyor of resources and livelihoods, and to raise awareness about the threats they currently face.
"Global biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, with one million plant and animal species currently threatened with extinction. 2020 is a critical year for transformative change to lay the groundwork for a decade of nature conservation and restoration. The World Wildlife Day 2020 Film Showcase will inspire action by capturing real stories about the irreplaceable benefits that nature provides to support human well-being," said Susan Gardner, Director for Ecosystems for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The theme also underlines the importance of sustainable use of biodiversity, as research continues to shed light on the scale and speed of the biodiversity loss crisis the world is facing, and the role that overexploitation of wildlife and the degradation of habitats and ecosystems play in accelerating it.
The judges – professional filmmakers, biodiversity experts and stakeholders from around the world – selected the finalists in eight categories:
● Science, Innovation and Exploration;
● Issues and Solutions;
● People and Wild Species;
● Stories of Hope;
● Global Voices;
● Web of Life;
● Short; and
● Micro.
Okavango River of Dreams has been selected in the Global Voices category.
A Terra Mater Factual Studios / Wildlife Films production in co-production with Thirteen Productions LLC, Doclights/NDR Naturfilm in association with PBS, CPB, Arte France / Unité Découverte et Connaissance, National Geographic Channels and SVT