Start of the European wildlife film competition
The awards will be presented for the second time in 2026.
The submitted films have now been nominated and will be evaluated by an independent jury. The award ceremony will take place in February 2026 at the Hamburg Wildlife Theatre in HafenCity. All selected films will be screened there over the course until February 2027.
The venue for the European Wildlife Film Awards is the cinema in the Wildlife Embassy.
You can find a review of the past competition year in our archive.
Award Categories
The European Wildlife Film Awards present the highest prize money for a nature film competition in Europe. The prizes are awarded in six categories. Five of the winners are selected by an independent jury. The winner of the Audience Award is chosen by the audience and will be awarded the following year.
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Best European Film: Wildlife
This prize is awarded to the film that entails the most fascinating and impressive animal footage. The animals must be wild animals that are found in Europe.
Endowed with 15,000 Euros
Sponsor: German Wildlife Foundation
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Best European Film: Biodiversity
The prize is awarded to the film that shows the diversity of European flora and fauna in a special way, presents wildlife habitats, natural areas, landscapes or ecosystems and, if applicable, addresses their endangerment.
Endowed with 10,000 Euros
Sponsor: VILSA-BRUNNEN Otto Rodekohr GmbH
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Best European Film: Nature Conservation
The prize is awarded to an outstanding film that focuses on measures or people who are committed to the protection of nature and species. In addition to the problems of species extinction and the destruction of nature, solutions should also be shown.
Endowed with 10,000 Euros
Sponsor: German Wildlife Foundation
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Audience Award
The viewers of the competition award marks to the films shown. The film with the best overall rating wins the Audience Favorite Award. Every film shown as part of the competition program has the chance to win the Audience Award.The prize will be awarded for the first time in February 2026.
Endowed with 5,000 Euros
Award sponsor: NDR
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Best Story
This award recognizes the best story in a film.
Endowed with 5,000 Euros
Sponsor: POPULAR GmbH
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Best Short Film
The prize is awarded to a short film that manages to present a topic in a special way in 1 to 15 minutes. Decisive factors can be originality, cinematic quality, a good story or special aesthetics.
Endowed with 2,500 Euros
Sponsor: Frankonia Handels GmbH & Co. KG
CALL FOR ENTRY
Call for entry is closed
Films can no longer be submitted for the 2026 competition. The next call for entry will be in spring 2026. Follow the European Wildlife Film Awards on Instagram and Filmfreeway!
This is the new jury for the second European Wildlife Film Awards
Film producer Arnd Greve, biologist and journalist Dagny Lüdemann, Heiko G. Rödel from Sorbonne Paris Nord University, biologist and editor Claudia Sewig, and film producer and managing director of Längengrad Filmproduktion Thomas Weidenbach have selected the nominees from 44 films.
Who are the winners? We will reveal this in February 2026 in Hamburg, at the gala in the Embassy of Wildlife.
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Arnd Greve
CEO POPULAR GmbH
Arnd Greve is a media scientist and has worked as an editor, director and creative director for international entertainment companies and his own company network, POPULAR GROUP GmbH. Since 2012, he has been involved in nature conservation projects, including collaborations with the German Wildlife Foundation. Since then, he has also been advising his clients in the fields of sustainable growth and sustainable supply chain in order to put companies on a forward-looking course as quickly as possible.
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Dagny Lüdemann
Biologist and chief science reporter, DIE ZEIT
Discovering undiscovered life on earth – that is the job of Dagny Lüdemann, who is out and about in nature as chief science reporter for DIE ZEIT. The biologist, science journalist and passionate diver reports on wild animals and endangered species and uncovers how and why humans are destroying their environment. And more importantly: how they could stop. She has accompanied a number of wildlife filmmakers on adventurous filming trips, and as a jury member for various festivals, she has seen hundreds of nature films. Her personal goal: to make her own wildlife film.
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Prof. Dr. Heiko G. Rödel
University Sorbonne Paris Nord
Heiko G. Rödel is a full professor at the University Sorbonne Paris Nord, where he has been teaching animal behaviour and biostatistics since 2011. His research focuses on animal ecology and behaviour, mainly in mammals, in both field and laboratory settings. He earned a biology degree with a major in animal ecology in 1997, completed his doctorate in 2002, and obtained his habilitation in zoology in 2010. Since 2022, he has been serving as the editor-in-chief of the international journal Mammalian Biology.
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Claudia Sewig
Biologist and editor, University of Hamburg
A day without observing animals is not a good day for Claudia Sewig. Paying close attention was just as important to her during her biology studies as it was later in various editorial offices: among other things, as head of the science department at the Hamburger Abendblatt and deputy editor-in-chief of WELT Hamburg. In 2020, the Grzimek biographer moved to the University of Hamburg, where she now works in science communication. Claudia Sewig has been a member of various nature film juries and is on the board of trustees of the German Wildlife Foundation.
Photo: UHH/Esfandiari
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Thomas Weidenbach
Film producer, managing director of Längengrad Filmproduktion
Thomas Weidenbach has been exploring the world through film since 1984, initially as a journalist and filmmaker, and now as a film producer. From the outset, his interest has focused primarily on topics related to the environment, nature, and sustainability. As an author and producer, he is responsible for more than 250 TV documentaries. He has won more than 70 film awards, including the Grimme Prize, the Bavarian Television Prize, and the German Nature Film Prize. At the first EWFA, a film he produced won the award in the nature conservation category.
You will find the „Official Selection 2026“ here soon.
165 films have been entered to the first European Wildlife Film Competition.
All films selected for the competition will be shown in the Wildlife Embassy.
Our selection committee has chosen 44 feature-length films and 10 short films for the “Official Selection 2026”.
The jury nominated 12 feature-length films to select the winners in the categories of wildlife, biodiversity, nature conservation and storytelling.
The 10 short films will be shown in January. The winner in the short film category will be chosen by the audience via a voting card at the Wildlife Embassy shortly before the award weekend.
Nature film fans can vote for the Audience Award for 2026 throughout the year. From the weekend of the awards ceremony until the end of 2026, Kino der Wildtiere will show the 50 feature-length films on Nature Film Wednesdays. Moviegoers have the opportunity to rate the films on site. The best-rated film will win the Audience Award, which will then be presented in 2027.
You can find the film program here:
Website Wildlife Embassy