Press

The Latest News From IWFF

Wildlife Film Fest: How nature can inform new designs

April 21st, 2023 By Sierra Cistone This article was originally published here on the Missoulian website. Kicking off this year’s International Wildlife Film Festival is a documentary that celebrates the genius of nature and offers hope for the future of both people and the natural world. The full-length movie “Biocêntricos” takes the audience deep into … Read more

A bear is killed at school, a student documentary film ensues

April 17th, 2023 By Joshua Murdock This article was originally published in The Missoulian. ALBERTON – Not many seventh-graders produce a documentary film that screens at an international film festival. But not many seventh-graders watch as a police officer shoots and kills a black bear just outside their schoolyard fence, either. It was that wild … Read more

Dr. Jane Goodall to Speak at UM

Jane Goodall: Hope Through Action Sunday, June 26, 2022 UM Oval and Zoom at 6:00 pm This event is free and open to the public. Limited covered seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Attendees are welcome to bring picnic blankets or low chairs and sit on the Oval. This event will happen rain or shine. … Read more

A 2022 IWFF Preview by Sydney Bollinger, THURSDAY MATINEE

April 30, 2022 Thursday Matinee Festival Coverage By Sydney Bollinger When I lived in Missoula, there was one event that I and everybody else in town looked forward to – the International Wildlife Film Festival (IWFF). Beginning with the WildWalk Parade and WildFest, this festival is a celebration of all things wildlife. The festival is … Read more

45th International Wildlife Film Festival Announces Winners

MISSOULA, MT- The 45th International Wildlife Film Festival today announced the winners of the 2022 event. One winner was selected in each of 12 categories with additional jury awards for deserving films.  This years jury was made up of Roshan Patel, Resident filmmaker & Photographer at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institut, Erim Gómez, … Read more

45th International Wildlife Virtual Film Festival | April 23–30, 2022

  MISSOULA, MT-Resilience – of our world, the species living upon it and the filmmakers who capture it all, takes center stage as The International Wildlife Film Festival returns live and in person for a 45th year. This spring, Missoula will once again host groundbreaking and inspirational films from many of the most talented wildlife … Read more

Missoula set to host annual International Wildlife Film Festival

Montana Kaimin Chris Shields/ Contributor | April 14, 2022 The International Wildlife Film Festival is set to return in person after two years of virtual viewing for its 45th year showcasing environmental cinema in Missoula and Bozeman. The IWFF is much anticipated to be back in person, according to IWFF Artistic Coordinator Carrie Richer. “There’s nothing … Read more

Podcast: The International Wildlife Film Festival is here!

Justin Angle|4/14/2022 This week’s guests are all here to speak with us about an upcoming Montana event: the International Wildlife Film Festival. IWFF’s mission is to promote awareness, knowledge, and understanding of wildlife, habitat, people, and nature through excellence in film. To talk about the 45th edition of the festival, I’m joined today by Carrie … Read more

Roxy Theater to host 45th International Wildlife Film Festival

by NBC Montana Staff | Monday, March 28th 2022 MISSOULA, Mont. – The Roxy Theater in Missoula will host the 45th International Wildlife Film Festival, live and in-person. This year, 74 films will be featured, and screenings will take place over a week from April 23 to May 1. The theater released the following: Join the … Read more

The Velvet Queen’ transports you to Tibet, the domain of the snow leopard

Josh Moyar / Montana Kaimin | Feb 7, 2022 The Tibetan Plateau: a cold, barren landscape full of bizarre and beautiful creatures so foreign it might as well be another planet. Wild, hairy yaks are relics from the age of megafauna. Spindly kiangs, also known as the Tibetan wild ass, are one of the only … Read more

Film Reviews

Press Release April 8th, 2020

43rd International Wildlife Virtual Film Festival April 18–25, 2020

MISSOULA, MT— The International Wildlife Film Festival returns for a 43rd year, adapting to our changing world and offering a virtual festival to an online, international audience.

Due to the generosity and cooperation of many filmmakers, production teams, and sponsors, the International Wildlife Film Festival is excited to offer more than 60 films from the 2020 IWFF festival slate digitally! A majority of the film selections will be free to stream the week of the festival, and a virtual pass can be purchased to access featured events including seven special online events - one for every day of the fest. Featured events will be accompanied by live Q&A events, extra video resources, discussions, and more. Digital passes are available on a sliding scale starting at $5 and all sales support the IWFF and its home, The Roxy Theater.

As an online festival, all IWFF selections and passholder content will be available to students and classrooms. Educators are encouraged to visit the website and research films to use in their lesson plans. Many films are paired with educational activities, resources, articles and extras that will be available on the IWFF website beginning April 18. Specific recommendations for films appropriate for younger learners will be included. Educators with curriculum or accessibility questions may contact IWFF Education Coordinator Brit Garner at [email protected].

IWFF’s featured events for passholders offer greater depth into the featured films and subject matter as well as opportunities for collective viewing. On April 20th, take a look into all things mushrooms with viewings of Mushroom Hunters and The Kingdom and a visit from the Untamed Science team. There will be a selection of shorts celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22nd, as well as a live Q&A with director Tom Mustill whose film #NatureNow focuses on Greta Thunberg and her powerful vision for our future. The co-creator of Takaya: Lone Wolf, Cheryl Alexander will give updates and extras after the film about a lone wolf living on an island near Vancouver on April 23. On April 24th, the festival closes with a look into the national fascination with tiger conservation with a screening of Sundance selection Tigerland and a talk from PhD candidate and Wild Tiger Executive Director Sarika Khanwilkar on the state of captive tigers in the world today.

The free-to-everyone streaming shorts and films include a wide variety of topics that explore great heights: climb into a golden eagle nest with ecologist Caitlin Davis, learn how the Quinault Nation is protecting blueback salmon, and play matchmaker for two skywalker gibbons! Watch The Smithsonian’s America’s Prairie Reserve shorts tracking restoration efforts or National Geographic’s series of shorts depicting researchers demonstrating the scientific method in action. Max Lowe’s Bare Existence encourages viewers to track the fate of polar bears in the Arctic, and The Oregon Zoo’s Gajah Borneo follows the challenges of Borneo pygmy elephants in stop-motion. For the entire festival week, virtual filmgoers can enjoy films on wildfire’s impact on wildlife, the realities of pangolin trafficking, the endangered helmeted hornbill, wolverines and much, much more.

Founded in 1977 at the University of Montana, IWFF is the first and longest-running event of its kind. In these fast-changing times, the IWFF staff is thrilled to be able to offer the festival to audiences all over the world and hopes to spark joy and engagement with our natural world. The vision of the IWFF will always be to champion wildlife filmmakers, challenge conventional expectations about conserving wildlife and habitat, and to foster an engaged, enlightened community that finds itself through cinema, and helps the planet to heal. For full event listings and times visit wildlifefilms.org.

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