International Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula Montana

Film Screenings

This year, in a new development, all award winning films will be screened at the historic Roxy Theater, headquarters for the International Wildlife Media Center & IWFF.  This will enable filmmakers to see many of this year's award winners and interact with audiences while being able to experience audience reactions in real time!

Seminars, workshops and other events will happen during and around film screening times so that filmmakers and other participants can choose what, where and when to do one event or another.  Being under one roof, (The Roxy Theater) but with multiple screening theaters at the Roxy, it will be easy to move from one event to another.

Throughout the week, filmmakers and other delegates will attend events and parties throughout Missoula and the surrounding area as well.

The Tarkio Retreat will again be hosted by the Montana Island Lodge on Salmon Lake, an unforgettable, natural setting that is both breathtaking and inspiring!

Festival Events, Seminars, Workshops and Parties are being planned now and if you would like to sponsor, participate or contribute, please let us hear from you as soon as possible.

Events Schedule:

SATURDAY, APRIL 27 – OPENING DAY:

WildWalk Parade & WildFest at Southgate Mall

Free Film Screening:  Southgate Mall

SUNDAY, APRIL 28:

Film Screenings at the Roxy:  Noon/3:30pm-5:30pm/6pm-8pm (ongoing films in multiple theaters)

MONDAY, APRIL 29:

Film Screenings/School Matinees at the Roxy:  9:30am – 11:30am/1pm-3pm/5pm-8pm

(Films will screen in multiple theaters – each screening block include several films)

WELCOME FILMMAKERS PARTY

Sponsored by the Montana Film Office & Hosted by IWFF Board President Dr. Janice Givler

6pm-9pm at a private home TBA (For registered film festival delegates, guests and by invitation)

TUESDAY, APRIL 30:

Film Screenings at the Roxy:  9:30am – 11:30am/1pm-3pm/5pm-8pm (ongoing films in multiple theaters)

10:00am – Roxy Theater

Opening Presentation – Saving our Edens of the World:

Ted Turner is known as one of the world's great conservationists/environmentalists and nowhere is his commitment to species and habitat restoration better known than in Montana.  Ted commands a huge presence in Montana because of his Flying D Ranch, using all of his lands essentially as arks for helping to recover imperiled species.  In a new book coming out this spring, called "Last Stand:  Ted Turner's Quest to Save a Troubled Planet," author Todd Wilkinson interviews a wide range of international figures including wildlife filmmaker Chris Palmer.  Turner in fact, was very heavily impacted and mentored by the late Jacques Cousteau and it was that relationship that helped inspire Ted's interest in wildlife documentaries as an important tool in raising public awareness.

Join us as veteran interviewer, author and wildlife filmmaker, Chris Palmer talks with Turner author Todd Wilkinson about the book, the man and the issues, species, and efforts, Turner's life has focused on in the realm of wildlife conservation.

Special Interview & Program:

Tentative:  President's Special Presentation, Hosted by University of Montana President, Royce Engstrom

Special Keynote TBA

WEDNESDAY, MAY 1ST:

Film Screenings at the Roxy:  9:30am – 11:30am/1pm-3pm/5pm-8pm (ongoing films in multiple theaters)

9:00am-7pm:  Tarkio Retreat (all day retreat at the Montana Island Lodge)

THE TARKIO RETREAT:

Moderated by Chris Palmer, Director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking

The Tarkio Retreat:  Forging New Partnerships & Collaborations in Media and Conservation, is a one-day retreat and initiative established by IWFF several years ago.  Its goal and purpose - to bring together unique sectors from media to science, wildlife biology to policy, technology to broadcast and a variety of constituences and work toward common goals and innovative solutions to the challenges faced in wildlife conservation today.  The premise is that media - film, television and the Internet, effectively combined with wildlife science and conservation efforts, taking into consideration many other factors including cultural, social and political issues, policy and government, can together create dynamic and critical solutions.

THURSDAY, MAY 2ND:

Tentative Location & Time:

10:00am – The Payne Native American Studies Center at the University of Montana

Special Seminar:  Indigenous Voices in Filmmaking

Speakers Include:  Silas Haggerty & Jim Miller – "Dakota 38″ featuring clips from this award winning documentary

Special Presentation & Film Premiere:

5:30pm:  Roxy Theater

Rocky Mountain Premiere of "Shooting in the Wild" – Veteran wildlife film producer Chris Palmer's controversial book, "Shooting in the Wild: An Insider's Account of Making Movies in the Animal Kingdom," has been widely praised. Now it has been turned into a film for public television. Hosted by National Geographic emerging explorer and filmmaker Alexandra Cousteau, the film takes a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of natural history filmmaking and shows the reality behind the lens. Chris Palmer will introduce the film and answer questions after the screening.

FRIDAY, MAY 3RD:

The Fate of Our Oceans & Marine Conservation Efforts in the 21st Century

A special focus that was started at the Tarkio Retreat a few years ago, will continue at subsequent International Wildlife Film Festival events, with some of the world's greatest scientists, filmmakers and ocean and marine specialists turning their full attention and discussion to the present state of our ocean environment.  Featuring Howard and Michele Hall, 2013 IWFF Lifetime Achievement Award Winners for Ocean and Marine Media and Conservation, we will explore the depths of the issues facing the fate and future of our ocean environment.  A special feature of this Ocean Day will be a screening of, with discussion before and after of the selected winner of the Best Marine Conservation Message Award.  This film will be selected during Final Judging in March and will be screened during this special ocean day.

60 Minutes to Pitch Media That Matters

Toward the latter part of Festival Week, filmmakers can bring their very best ideas forth for media that matters – films that can and will make a difference in the future of the planet.  And our "commissioners," - people who know what makes a good film great; what is achievable and why it matters, will help to guide the process and select the "best of media that matters."   This annual forum is aimed at helping filmmakers not only produce a great pitch, but get their ideas in front of people who can bring them to life and make them happen.

Technology Today, Tomorrow and into the Future

Hands-on, in the theater and in the field under the truest conditions, technology workshops with the pros – Fujinon, Panasonic, and many others who are producing the technology that will make the difference in programming - what's available at your fingertips now; what's on the horizon, these workshops will delve into the marketplace of technology that will change the way we create and view programming of the future.

Awards Gala

The Awards Gala celebrates the film achievements of the 36th IWFF.  This is the event during this special week when we salute the very best films and celebrate the achievements of the filmmakers, producers, writers, cinematographers, scientists and the people who are at the center of what the world has come to know and love of Wildlife Film!  Now in our fourth decade, this genre has gone from being selective and specialized to being an integral, vital and irreplaceable genre of filmmaking that has taken viewers on a journey like no other.  Wildlife Film has shown us the world in a way that few of us could ever imagine and this is the time and place when we celebrate all that makes this genre so incredibly special, spectacular and invaluable to our understanding of and care for the natural world.

Other Highlights Include:

    New Models Wildlife Conservation & the Critical Role of Wildlife Filmmaking

    3D, Social Media, The Internet, What's Next for the Wildlife Film Industry

    Award Winning Public Film Screenings: Filmmaker & Audience Interaction

    Nightly Parties & the Annual, Traditional Western Barn Dance

    Great Stories Make Great Films:

    Writers & the Art & Nature of the Script