Japan Wildlife Film Festival calls for entries

15 March 2001

The Japan Wildlife Film Festival has once again called for film entries, and Sri Lankan documentary film makers have an opportunity of participating in this event - the largest such film festival in Asia. The festival, organised by the Nature Film Network, a non-profit organisation based in Tokyo, is to be held from August 23 to 26, 2001 in Toyama City, in northern Japan.

The competition is open to new or established filmmakers and television broadcasters, including independent filmmakers anywhere in the world. Films for entry must have been completed after May, 1999 and must have an aspect of natural history as the central focus --- e.g. animal behaviour, ecology, conservation of nature, environmental threats/issues and/or the co-existence with nature and people.

The guidelines for entries and entry forms are available within Sri Lanka from the Sri Lanka Environmental Television Project (SLETP).

All entries must be received in Tokyo by April 30, and award winners will be announced on August 26 at a gala ceremony which closes the festival. A VHS tape and script should be attached to each entry form. Sri Lankan film makers have the option of handing over their entries to the SLETP Office by April 23 to be forwarded to Tokyo by courier.

The Japan Wildlife Film Festival has been held every two years since 1993 in cooperation with the world's largest environmental film festivals -- Wildscreen, in Bristol, UK, and the Jackson Hole Festival in the USA. The festival receives more than 300 entries from 30 countries and is attended by about 30,000 people from all over Japan and the world including the USA, England and China. By selecting the best films and honoring their excellence, Nature Film Network aims to help encourage wildlife film production and to increase its quality. The organizer also hopes to increase people's awareness of the need to protect and conserve the natural environment.

The main event of the festival is a film competition which includes a Grand Prix award, and awards in categories such as Animal Behavior, Underwater, Conservation/Environment, Nature and People, Cinematography and Animation. In total, 20 films will be nominated as finalists, which will be shown to the general public for free during the festival. All films submitted to the competition will be available for private viewing by festival participants in the Video Viewing Room. In addition to the film festival, various seminars and workshops for both adults and children will be held