Wild nature is declining rapidly but it is important to remember that amongst the stories of loss there are inspiring stories of regeneration and positive change as well with nature making a difference in people’s lives, and people valuing and nurturing their natural environment.

The 2019 Conservation Optimism Summit, organised by the University of Oxford in partnership with Synchronicity Earth, will bring together passionate and creative people from around the globe to share ideas and offer solutions for more empowering conservation while continuing to disrupt the doom and gloom narrative.

The summit, to be held this year from 2-4 September at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, will gather people from the worlds of conservation, government, industry, journalism, NGOs, academia, and the creative arts to highlight ways in which we can cross-pollinate new ideas and share our strength and resources.

We are very excited to announce that we will be running a film festival on the evening of Monday 2nd of September in the amazing Oxford University Natural History Museum as part of the summit this year!

The evening will kick off with a panel discussion between our judges around the importance of film making to raise awareness of conservation issues. We will then screen a diversity of short movies belonging to the following categories:

- Super Shorts

- People & Nature: Communities, Heroes & Wellbeing

- Conservation Works: Learning from Success & Failure

- Animation

- Student film

Awards & Prizes

- Winner for the Super shorts category: 1h30 mentoring session with Arlo Brady, CEO of freuds and Zad Rogers, Founding Director of Atomized Studios
- Winner for the People & Nature: Communities, Heroes & Wellbeing category: 1h30 mentoring session with Prasenjeet Yadav, National Geographic Explorer & Photographer
- Winner for the Conservation Works: Learning from Success & Failure category: 1h30 mentoring session with Robin Moore, Director of Communications at Global Wildlife Conservation and Nat Geographic Creative Photographer
- Winner for the Animation category: 1h30 mentoring session with Jilli Rose,
- Winner for the Student category: 1h30 mentoring session with Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen
- Overall winner: An Under The Skin limited edition screen print

Rules & Terms

We strongly encourage you review the following carefully. By submitting your short film, you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to all of the following rules and terms. All short films that have been submitted by our final deadline and that adhere to the following terms will be considered for inclusion in the Good Natured: A Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival.

If you have any further questions, please contact Julia Migné at admin@conservationoptimism.org.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

All short films must be uploaded directly to FilmFreeway. We won’t accept DVD or Blu-Ray screeners. In addition, we cannot accept screener links via email, they must be attached to your submission. To be eligible, the short films must be under five minutes and fit within one of our categories.

SUBTITLES

All foreign-language films must be submitted with English subtitles. If we discover a submission is missing subtitles, we will attempt to email the submitter for an update. Failure to provide working subtitles by the final submission deadline will result in disqualification.

SUBMISSION CATEGORIES

Please review all submission categories carefully before submitting your project. If you believe you have submitted your film to the wrong category, please get in touch with us as soon as possible.

Submission of one film into multiple categories is not allowed but we allow the submissions of up to two films in different categories. Note that only one of your films will be selected so please read our category descriptions carefully to determine where your submission belongs.

COMPLETION DATE

All projects must have been completed on or after September 2016 to be considered for the 2019 Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival.

DEADLINES

Please keep track of the deadline closely and note that all short films must be submitted by 11:59pm GMT on May 31st 2019.

SHORTLISTED FILMS

All works selected must be available by May 31st 2019 for inclusion in the festival.

Should your short film be accepted in the Good Natured: A Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival, you grant Conservation Optimism the right to utilise a 30 seconds excerpt from any short film submitted and accepted for exhibition at the Festival for promotional purposes.

All shortlisted films will screen during the festival and if selected, filmmakers may opt-in so that films will be available to watch online as part of our virtual film festival if the filmmaker opts. All scheduling is purely at the discretion of Conservation Optimism.

SCREENING FEES

Good Natured: A Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival does not pay screening fees for submitted short films. By submitting your project, you acknowledge that Conservation Optimism will not pay to present your work. The shortlisted participants will have to pay for their travel to reach Oxford but won’t have to pay any registration fee to attend the film festival.

COPYRIGHT & LEGAL TERMS

By entering your film for consideration to the 2019 Good Natured: A Conservation Optimism Short Film Festival, you authorise that your work is cleared for festival exhibition and accept full legal responsibility for the intellectual property therein. The submitter and all filmmakers associated with the project shall indemnify and hold harmless Conservation Optimism and any representative or affiliates from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, and loss of or damage to the screening videos entered.

DISQUALIFICATION

Conservation Optimism reserves the right to disqualify any submission, even after a film has been invited or final programming has been announced, at the sole discretion of Conservation Optimism staff.

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  • Serge Dentin

    Great festival! Very pleasant exchanges with the team, nice program. We just regret not being able to attend :( Another time, we hope!

    September 2019
    Helpful
  • Fiona McAndrew

    Although I wasn't able to attend the festival I followed some of it online and found the speakers and other films inspiring. Communication was effective with quick responses, it looks like it is a very well organised festival. I hope to be a part of it again in the future :)

    September 2019
    Helpful