Wildscreen Festival 2026 full programme announced

• Wildscreen Festival to be held in Bath for the first time in its 44-year history
• 90 events featuring 100+ speakers, with 800+ attendees from 47+ countries
• Companies attending include BBC, National Geographic, YouTube, PBS, BBC Studios, Banijay Group, NHK, ARTE, Doclights, ORF, Terra Mater Studios and Wildstar Films.
• WildPitch pitching competition features prize pot of £15k

Taking place in Bath and virtually from 19-22 October 2026, Wildscreen Festival is the biggest global gathering of the wildlife film, TV and content genre, bringing together leading commissioners, buyers, producers and distributors from around the world.

Key programme themes for 2026 will explore the future economics of the genre, red lines for audience trust and content authenticity, building an equitable and collaborative global workforce and the growth and opportunities for the genre in a digital-first world.

The world’s biggest natural history commissioners Janet Han Vissering, SVP Development & Production National Geographic Partners; Jack Bootle, BBC head of Specialist Factual; Diana El-Osta, Senior Director of Multiplatform Programming & Development at PBS; and Alexandre Soullier, Partner/Producer at Bonne Pioche will open the Festival with “Pulse Check – What’s Next”. These leading industry voices will take stock of the current landscape, what’s changing and where the opportunities lie for broadcasters, platforms, production companies and the international workforce.

The Wild Frontiers strand will explore the future and role of creators and digital first platforms within the natural history ecosystem, with speakers including Jennifer Clark, YouTube Partnerships and Kyle Thomas the UK’s most followed TikTok creator.

As Headline Sponsor, BBC Studios Natural History Unit will host a fireside chat “What Has the BBC Studios Natural History Unit Ever Done for Us?” where Head of the NHU, Jonny Keeling, reflects on landmark programmes and innovations that broke new ground and what comes next for the unit with audiences, platforms and the planet changing fast.

AI, truth and trust will be discussed across the Festival, with sessions exploring what audiences will and won’t accept and how AI is fundamentally revolutionising the business of production featuring Mateo Willis, Director of Wise Media, and Walter Koehler, CEO Terra Mater Studios and Mike Dziera, Head of AI Strategy and Banijay/All3Media.

The festival will also host ‘WildPitch’ which will see 7 filmmakers pitch live in front of global commissioners and decision makers to be in with a chance of winning a share of a £15k prize pot.

Film Programme & Premieres

Wildscreen Festival’s 2026 Official Selection Screening Programme includes 30 films (12 features and 18 shorts) originating from 20 countries, including 1 world, 4 European and 11 UK premieres. Each film will be screened at cinemas across Bath and Bristol between the 17 – 21 October and are open to delegates and the public. Titles include ‘Derek vs Derek’, ‘Nuisance Bear’, ‘A Day on Earth’ and ‘Whispers in the Woods’. Tickets are available for Bath screenings here and for Bristol screenings here.

The Festival will also host the premiere of ‘Nature Ain’t a Luxury, directed by Louis VI.  Created in partnership with The Wildlife Trust, with support from the Doc Society Climate Story Fund, the film follows the journey of Louis VI, a Musician & Zoologist, taking two friends to see if they can reconnect to nature through wild encounters in the UK. The film explores why so many people, particularly young people from black, brown & lower economic communities, have been historically, and continually made to feel excluded from nature.

Wildscreen Panda Awards 2026

The winners of the Wildscreen Panda Awards, the most prestigious awards in the international wildlife film, TV and content genre will be announced at the ceremony on Thursday 22 October. This year’s hosts are Lizzie Daly and Hannah Stitfall and for the first time in the awards history, the ceremony will be live-streamed via YouTube to extend the global reach of the awards.

This year’s 70 nominees comprises productions where 60% of Directors identify as those currently underrepresented within the genre including individuals that identify as Global Majority, BIPOC, women, part of the LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiverse, or living with a disability – a record for the awards.

“We’re excited to welcome the biggest global gathering of the wildlife film, TV and content industry to our new home in Bath for the Wildscreen Festival 2026,” says Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen. “We’ve got a packed programme and an amazing international line-up of speakers and thought-leaders set to steer our community through the challenges and towards the evolving opportunities of an ever-changing media landscape. In an attention economy our focus is on how we as an international community of world-class storytellers drive attention to the world’s most important story of all, the protection and restoration of the natural world.”

Headline Sponsor of Wildscreen Festival 2026 is BBC Studios Natural History Unit, with Save our Seas Foundation and National Geographic as Principal Sponsors.

The Full Programme is available here.

To find out more visit: www.wildscreen.org