The Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival is now in its third year, having been founded by Edinburgh Conservation Science (ECoS), a consortium made up of Scotland-based organisations promoting the inclusion of science into biodiversity conservation management and policy, including National Museums Scotland, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, NatureScot and The University of Edinburgh.
Now in its third year, the Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival is a 90-minute programme of short films (< 5 minutes) all made with the intention of inspiring and engaging a broad audience with stories of positive biodiversity conservation success. For the last two years, the Edinburgh Conservation Film Festival has been fully booked out, so this year we hope to increase the number of screenings of the final programme across multiple venues to allow more people to see the films.
This year's festival has no theme, however, entries should aim to show people the importance of biodiversity conservation for all of us, with the aim of giving agency to individuals to make positive impacts on global biodiversity. Each film should convey a positive message of what we can achieve for the benefit of biodiversity conservation and how our shared society. We are looking for short films that inspire and engage a wide audience. We are particularly interested in stories representing people and their links with the natural world. Please remember, we are after conservation stories, not natural history documentaries focusing on animals or communities that don’t hold a conservation message.
We welcome entries from filmmakers at any stage in their career; students, emerging talent, or established filmmakers. Animations are also accepted.
We would welcome short films (up to five minutes) featuring biodiversity conservation stories from around the globe. We will accept films submitted from anywhere in the world. We will accept films in any language but do require English subtitles.
If you are not sure if your film fits the scope of the festival, please do get in touch (simon@ecff.co.uk).
Remember, we will prioritise films with messages of hope.
We are especially interested in collaborative short films between conservation practitioners or students and film-makers.
Please ensure your film's end credits are not longer than around 30 seconds
Judging panel:
The judging panel includes conservation film professionals, conservation scientists and conservation film-makers.
There is a starting pot of £1500 of prize money up for grabs for the best films. This may increase before the date of the festival!
