Winner of International Nature and Environment Film Festival Announced

“Without the vision, questions, concerns, and knowledge of the filmmakers, we would see the world differently, we would not notice all its beauty,” said János Áder, former President of the Republic, founder and chairman of the board of trustees of the Blue Planet Foundation, at the awards gala of the IX International Nature and Environment Film Festival in Gödöllő on Saturday, reported Magyar Nemzet.

“All around us, the world is full of living creatures doing a Sisyphean task, their work is almost hopeless on a human scale, often barely visible, yet they diligently do their job, because there is an essential difference between them and the tragic hero rolling a stone: they reach their goal,” said János Áder on the occasion of World Bee Day.

In 2015, the festival started as an ambitious thematic review, where only films could be presented whose theme, protagonist, inspiration was nature, coexistence with our environment, beauty and problems, harmony and struggle, he recalled, adding that such a film can only be made by someone who loves his subject, for whom the work is also a mission.

The works presented at this year’s Youth Photo Competition are as varied as nature itself, he continued, but they all have one thing in common: the subjects chosen are almost always those that are close to them, not only in spirit but also in reality.

The IX International Nature and Environment Film Festival, initiated by the Blue Planet Climate Foundation, began on Friday and runs until Sunday. Some 1,260 films from around the world were entered for the festival, with 50 productions competing for awards following the pre-selection process. First prizes were awarded in three categories in two sections.

In the international nature and environment section, Yann Sochaczewski’s Cactus Hotel won first prize in the feature-length nature film category; in the short film category, Jitse de Graaf and Martijn Kramer’s Bloody Tradition – We Agree to Disagree was awarded the prize; and in the animation and cartoon category, Keila Cepeda’s Chimborazo was the winner.

Balázs Szendőfi’s Once upon a time there was a wild water country won first place in the feature film category of the Carpathian Basin Natural Values section; Szilárd Drexler’s Balaton Invaders – Invasive Species in the Lake’s Water System was first in the short film category, while E. Kemal Mert’s The Witness of Humanity was the best in the Third Eye amateur film category.

A Kaktusz Hoteltől a Vadvízországig: kiosztották a 9. Nemzetközi Természet és Környezetvédelmi Filmfesztivál díjait – https://t.co/9cby8egHnr pic.twitter.com/WQ8pHOxPar

— Filmtett (@filmtett) May 22, 2023

A number of special prizes were also awarded at the ceremony, including the Blue Planet Award and the Water Sounds Special Prize, also offered by the Blue Planet Climate Foundation, presented to the winners by Áder. The first prize was awarded to the domestic production Hidden World: the Story of Wild Waters, directed by Zoltán Fehér, and the second to Dejan Andonov’s The Shadow Side of Tourism.

As is traditional, the Rockenbauer Pál Memorial Prize was awarded to Balázs Szendőfi, and the prizes for the Student Photography Competition were also awarded.

The International Nature and Environment Film Festival, held since 2015, is one of the largest thematic events in the country and the region related to environmental protection and nature films. The theme of this year’s festival is “Water Sounds”, and the focus of this year’s series of events is on water and wetlands.

Via Magyar Nemzet, Ungarn Heute; Featured photos: official Facebook page International Film Festival for Nature and Environment, official Twitter page Filmtett.