WFFR is delighted to announce the winners of the WFFR 2020 Flamingo Awards. All winners were announced during the online Flamingo Award Ceremony on Saturday the 31st of October 2020.
The Flamingo Award Ceremony was recorded at WFFR 2020. The ceremony was in the hands of Jannah Boerakker. Due to the corona rules, the prizes were not awarded in the auditorium but in a very special way; Live from the Rotterdam Zoo! Watch it here:
The Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam (WFFR) is the only film festival for nature documentaries in the Netherlands and shows the most recent films from home and abroad. Since its first edition in 2015, WFFR has been taking place in the Rotterdam film theatre Cinerama, which was also the vibrant heart of the festival this year. The programme consists of beautiful documentaries showing the beauty of nature, as well as films showing the relationship between man and nature. This year, due to COVID-19, the festival was held virtually. See all the winners below:
On Thin Ice
Henry M. Mix & Boas Schwarz
(Altayfilm GmbH)
Germany
Northern Russia is in trouble. Enormous layers of permafrost are thawing out and revealing remains of the ancient Siberian megafauna. Hundreds of scary looking holes are blasting off from the deep exhaling methane, which has 80 times stronger greenhouse effects than carbon dioxide.The life of arctic reindeer herders, barely changed for thousands of years, is under pressure. Their livelihoods are virtually melting away. In the Russian Arctic, climate change is not a question anymore. Scientists say that the tipping point was reached already years ago. Now, Pandora’s box has been opened. The fate of people and wildlife is at stake as is the entire Arctic.
Pangolins are believed to be the most trafficked mammals in the world. As the four Asian species of pangolins have dwindled, poachers are increasingly turning to the African species to supply the trade. In this short film, meet the bold Nigerians who are fighting to protect this gentle and vulnerable creature.
How do we create a future in which both people and nature can thrive? This is the biggest question of our times. In the next few decades, we need to do something unprecedented: achieve a sustainable existence on Earth. But how do we do it? We can start by understanding how we got to this point… In this film, Sir David Attenborough explains how we humans can take charge of our future and save our planet, in only 8.5 minutes!
My Octopus Teacher
Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed & Craig Foster
South Africa
After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean of South-Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity. Visiting her and tracking her movements for months he eventually wins the animal’s trust and they develop a never-before-seen bond between human and wild animal. As the little octopus shares the secrets of her world, Craig also undertakes an incredible transformation: his body becomes immune to the cold and every breath can last minutes. The octopus shows him things that have never been recorded on film and ultimately redefines Craig’s understanding of the creatures we share our world with.
On Thin Ice
Henry M. Mix & Boas Schwarz
(Altayfilm GmbH)
Germany
Sockeye Salmon Red Fish
Dmitriy Shpilenok, Vladislav Grishin,
Petr Shpilenok & Anna Sukhova
Russia
The sockeye, a species of wild salmon, is born in Kamchatkan waters and spends its entire life in the Pacific Ocean. Only once does it return to fresh waters – to give offspring, start the circle of life, and die. These salmons form an inexhaustible resource that feeds billions of people on the planet, a resource that is restored every single year. But soon, we may find ourselves facing the unimaginable: humans will exhaust the inexhaustible…
An elusive species of gorilla roams the deep forests of Gabon, West Africa. Their leader is a silverback called “Musiru”, distinguished by his rusty red forehead. These aren’t the famous mountain gorillas of East Africa made famous by Dian Fossey – they’re the western lowland variety seldom seen by humans. Gabon’s gorillas have survived logging, poaching and even the Ebola virus, and now the future of the region’s wildlife conservation could be resting on their shoulders. This film reveals the work of Smithsonian scientists as they attempt to habituate these rarely seen primates and increase ecotourism in Moukalaba-Doudou National Park.
Inspired by real events, the story of a Borneo pygmy elephant calf in a land ruled by palm oil comes to life in a stop motion world made out of recycled paper. We see an elephant family fleeing time and again from palm oil farmers. During one of their escape attempts, the elephant calf is separated from its parents. He is left sad and alone until help suddenly appears …
Wild Karnataka is a factual entertainment film, made to showcase the fabulous flora and fauna of Indian southern state Karnataka. The film is India’s first blue-chip natural history movie and is narrated by David Attenborough. Karnataka is the state with the highest number of tigers and elephants in India. The film covers every single habitat across four years to document and celebrate the spectacular diversity of a single Indian state. Using not just aerial, but also hidden cameras, Wild Karnataka reveals some of the most intimate moments of natural history.
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