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Credit: © Chris Vaughan-Jones
Wildscreen is excited to announce Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) as a Principal Sponsor of the 2022 Wildscreen Festival. The 40th birthday edition of the festival will take place between 10-14 October 2022 and marks a new hybrid format for the world’s leading natural world storytelling event.
SOSF, which supports conservation projects on threatened marine life globally, is the first marine-focused NGO to be a Principal Sponsor of the festival. SOSF will lead discussions about marine conservation by creating and producing headliner sessions from their global network of scientists and communicators. They will also present the Panda Awards new Impact category, created to recognize the production that best delivers tangible impacts for nature such as behavior change and policy change.
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen said, “Both Wildscreen and the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) are passionate advocates for conservation and the power of stories in communicating the need for conservation and climate action. Partnering with SOSF is a natural association and we are really looking forward to collaborating with them as part of this year's festival. So often the oceans and marine life are underrepresented in the natural world conversation, and this is a brilliant way to put these conversations centre stage.”
SOSF will also partner with Wildscreen to create the Wildscreen Festival Roadshow – a community initiative that will see the very best films from the festival tour across the UK to engage the public with conservation issues and the most exciting independent natural world storytellers from around the world. SOSF will also be the driving force behind the festival’s international hub in Cape Town, South Africa, bringing together its wildlife storytelling community to connect with the live event in Bristol and support in-person networking.
Dr James Lea, CEO of SOSF said, “Stories reach us on an emotional level, and can inspire change in ways that facts and statistics seldom can. Wildscreen festival, with its roots in film and conservation, is an ideal partner for the Save Our Seas Foundation for engaging audiences with meaningful storytelling that can have an impact on conservation. For example, their new ‘Impact’ category in the Panda Awards is testament to this, and we are delighted to be supporting it.”