Jackson Wild

The annual Jackson Wild summit brings together an uncommon community, bound by a shared sense of purpose: we believe in the transformative power of story to inspire awe at the wonders of our natural world and ignite critical changes required to restore and protect our planet's ecosystems and species through high-impact global collaborations. With the release of covid-19 travel restrictions, the 2022 summit was presented in burgenland, austriaas a hybrid event, with selected sessions live-streamed and/or presented in on-demand streamed sessoions. 450+ global participants attended the in-person summit with "live from the stage" sessions streamed interactive event additional international delegates. A dramatically expanded fellows program provided financial support and mentorship for filmmakers to accelerate diversity within our industry community with regard to race, gender, culture, socioeconomics, geography, and domain knowledge. These 50+ in-person fellowships provided professional development and mentorship opportunities for emerging science and nature media leaders in unique programs that directly connected them with the most influential content creators from around the globe. The Jackson Wild summit convenes nature, science and conservation media industry professionals motivated by deep reverence and urgent concern for the natural world, with a shared belief that through collaboration and commitment, purpose-driven media can accelerate the critical and collective challenges humanity is facing in the coming decades. Participants gather to challenge and inspire each other while nurturing the next generation of storytellers training and mentorship programs, professional development and networking and project pitching opportunities. The four-day conference culminated in the announcement of the winners of the annual Jackson Wild media awards recognizing 30 films from over 450 entered into annual competition.

For three months, finalists and featured films presented during the annual Jackson Wild summit were available for on demand screenings for delegates. Wild on tour aims to share the best wildlife, nature & science films from its film competitions to a global audience in free, educational screenings around the world. In partnership with the united nations, us state department, the american association for the advancement of science, with free educational screenings available to embassies, universities, schools, libraries, ngos and other partner film festivals in addition, jhwff partnered with un/cities and undp to create the un world wildlife day film showcase: recovering species. In a world confronting unprecedented environmental threats, is essential to empower locally-driven engagement that inspires action, with measurable impact. The world wildlife day film showcase is part of worldwide public engagement efforts to empower action and inspire a sense of personal responsibility/stewardship for Wild species conservation and in creating an equitable and sustainable future. Winners were announced at a high-level live-streamed event hosted in dc at national geographic, celebrating world wildlife day, on wednesday, march 3. Partner showcase events were presented at the Wild santiago film festival in august and the nature and wildlife filmmakers (newf) congress in march, both presented live as well as virtually.

The Jackson Wild media lab is an immersive, cross-disciplinary science film making workshop that brings scientists and media creators together to learn from leaders in the profession and work together to develop effective tools to communicate about science, nature and conservation with diverse audiences across the world's evolving media platforms. Sixteen fellows were selected from 350 global applicants to participate in this rigorous workshop one week prior to the annual summit, with projects presented live to international commissioners and streamed audiences. African conservation voices media labs (in both rwanda and kenya) field sessions were complete, engaging 40 early career filmmakers with 30+ mentors/instructors for several months of online trainings to develop six media projects that were produced in 2022 and premiered at the 2022 summit. The jw mentorship program paired 70+ mentees with skilled topic-specific mentors each quarter, creating one-on-one and group networking opportunities during online meetups. All frontiers programming and trainings are offered free of charge. All Jackson Wild trainings are offered free-of charge. Representatives from partner global organizations based in chile and india 'shadowed' our media labs, in preparation toward developing their own locally produced programming. Jackson Wild collective--online community forum and data base, resources, and opportunities forum beta-tested and launched, with more than 500 members by december, 2022. Free networking events and masterclasses/workshops targeting specific skills and topics were created throughout the year (editing, writing and contracts) and four online screening/networking events presented (all free of charge)

Jackson Wild is a catalyst for inspiring deeper connections to the natural world. Through our global community of passionate storytellers and change agents, Jackson Wild elevates diverse stories that illuminate our collective responsibility to the Wild. Through innovative and collaborative community gatherings, skill-building initiatives and mentorship programs, Jackson Wild creates an inclusive forum for diverse storytellers to more deeply illuminate connections to the natural world and our collective responsibility to sustainably restore and protect our planet in the face of the global climate crisis.