Full Wildscreen Programme Revealed

The full screening programme for this year’s Wildscreen of natural history filmmaking has just been announced. The biennial festival runs from Monday 10 to Sunday 16 October, its centrepiece being the prestigious Wildscreen Panda Awards ceremony – aka the Green Oscars – at the Colston Hall on Thursday 13 October. This year’s hosts are TV presenters Steve Backshall and Liz Bonnin.

While filmmakers gather to debate such hot wildlife filmmaking issues as the ethics of using caged animals and staged sequences, and share handy tips on how to avoid being eaten by their subjects, all the nominated films can be seen in a series of public programmes running at the Watershed. Tickets for these will be available from the Watershed box office next week.

Among the world premieres are Life Is One (Tue 11), which tells the story of three orphaned sun bear cubs from Indonesia as they’re returned to the wild, and The Pray (Sun 16) – an action-packed immersion in the world of the dead leaf mantis.

But it’s not all about amazing footage of cute animals and lashings of Attenborough. This year, there’s no shortage of documentaries about mankind’s impact on the planet and its endangered fauna. Hot from the Toronto International Film Festival, the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced The Ivory Game receives its European premiere on Tue 11. This is a hard-hitting investigation, much of it shot undercover, tracing the grisly ivory trade that threatens the very existence of the world’s largest land mammal.

Another Hollywood star getting stuck in to animal rights issues is Ryan (Deadpool) Reynolds, who narrates the IFAW documentary Huntwatch, which charts Brian Davies’s lifelong battle to end Canada’s brutal commercial seal hunt. There’s also another chance to see Racing Extinction (Mon 10), the new film from Louie Psihoyos, Oscar-winning director of The Cove.

Animals aren’t the only victims of human greed, as Yasuni Man (Thur 13) reminds us. Exploring the plight of Amazonian tribe the Waorani, it reveals how generations of these indigenous people have been plagued by deception, exploitation and murder – from missionaries trying to ‘civilise’ them to modern-day oil companies targeting the valuable black gold beneath their feet in the Yasuni National Park.

Can’t make it to the Watershed for screenings? No problem. This year, Wildscreen also comes to you with a series of free pedal-powered screenings of Panda Award-nominated films at venues across the city, from parks to community centres. Sites include St. George’s Park, St. Andrews Park, Arnos Vale Cemetery, the @Bristol Big Screen, Make Sunday Special and Ashton Community Centre. Screenings take place from Sept 21 until Oct 16. Details are still being confirmed. Additional Wildscreen events are also due to be announced on Monday 19 Sept. Keep an eye on the Wildscreen website for the latest news.

Read more: Bristol films in the running for Panda Awards