Jackson Wild Unveils 2025 Media Awards Finalists

The finalists for the 2025 edition of the Jackson Wild Media Awards have been unveiled, selected from a record-breaking number of submissions representing 48 countries across the world.

“This year marks a historic milestone for Jackson Wild, with more films entered than ever before—an inspiring testament to the global power and urgency of storytelling for the planet,” said Christie Quinn, interim executive director of Jackson Wild. “In a time when the natural world faces unprecedented challenges, these films are beacons of hope, truth and creativity. We are honored to celebrate such bold, visionary voices from around the globe.”

In the animal behavior category, the finalists are National Geographic and Plimsoll Productions’ A Real Bug’s Life: Love in the Forest, Disneynature’s Sea Lions of the Galapagos, Talesmith and National Geographic’s Secrets of the Penguins: Heart of Emperors and Wildstar and National Geographic’s Underdogs: Total Grossout.

Nominees in the ecosystem section are Our New World, from Boréales, Terra Mater Studios, Federation Studios and Lionfish film and distributed by Autentic; Secrets of the Forest, a NOVA production by Windfall Films for GBH in association with France Télévisions, ABC Television and ZDFinfo; The Birds, a Passion Planet and HHMI Tangled Bank Studios production in association with Ammonite Films; and The American Southwest, from Fin and Fur Films, Natives Outdoors, American Rivers, Northern Jaguar Project, Peregrine Fund, Glen Canyon Institute, Freshwater Illustrated, Salmonfly Project, ProNatura Noreste, Walton Foundation, Lyda Hill Philanthropies and Horizon Foundation.

BBC Studios Natural History Unit, BBC America, ZDF and France Télévisions’ Asia: Saving Asia; The Gaia People and The Habitats Trust’s Denmo; Dog Star Film, Anonymous Content, Water Creature and Netflix’s Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey; and Dustoff Films and Kaleidoscope Film Distribution’s Rhino are finalists in the long-form conservation category, sponsored by ORF Universum.

In the short-form conservation category, also sponsored by ORF Universum, the nominees are America’s Wolf, from the National Geographic Society Impact Story Lab; Reindalen, from Neon Raven Story Labs and University Centre in Svalbard; Wild Hope: Pangolin Protectors from HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and NEWF; and Wild Hope: Stork Sisters from HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Red Rock Films.

The planet in crisis long-form finalists are Ocean with David Attenborough, from Silverback Films, Open Planet Studios Productions, All3Media and National Geographic; The White House Effect, from Actual Films, Department of Motion Pictures, Impact Partners, Far Star, Cinereach, Cinephil and Bird Street Productions; Wild Hope: Mission Impossible, from HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Red Rock Films and Camera One Productions; and YANUNI, from Malaika Pictures, Appian Way, Nia Tero, Age of Union, Tellux and ÖFI+. The short-form nominees are H5N1: Conservation in Crisis, from Valentin Blüml and Liam Strong; Qotzuñi: People of the Lake, from Michael Salama and Gastón Zilberman; and Snow Bear, from Aaron Blaise.

The people and nature categories are sponsored by PBS. The long-form nominees are Cecil, from Arrow Pictures, Film 4, Channel 4, Vice News Films and Altitude; Love Birds, from NBC News Studios and Perfect Four Productions; Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey; and YANUNI. The short-form finalists are Chameleon Corridors, from Myworld Film Grant, Schoolyard Films, Amberjack Films and AFRISOS; Our Ocean Table, from Sonya Lee, Jon Chiang, Priyanka Desai and Joanna Wong; The Book of George, from Danny Schmidt, Pure Gold Pictures, SLOMotion Films, STIO, Alex Wallace, Julie Wallace, Mallory Lykes Dimmitt and Hayley Nenadal; and Tides of Life, from Tatiana McCabe.

Sponsored by Terra Mater Studios, the long-form finalists for the science and nature category are Expedition Amazon (Yellow Border Productions Services and National Geographic), Human Footprint: The Enemy of my Enemy (Day’s Edge Productions and PBS), Out of Plain Sight (L.A. Times Studios and Sypher Studios) and Spider Vision: Decoding Color (Day’s Edge Productions, Veritasium and CuriosityStream). The short-form finalists are Energy to Spare (Day’s Edge Productions for The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation), Life Invisible (Grain Media, Nobel Prize Outreach and The Guardian) and Tipping Point (A Type Productions).

Limited series finalists are Day’s Edge Productions’ Human Footprint; Wild Space, Freeborn Media and Higher Ground’s Our Oceans; and Underdogs.

The investigative category, sponsored by National Geographic Society, has three finalists: Out of Plain Sight, Trade Secret and Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller: Shark Hunters.

Finalists for other categories—global voices, student, social media, branded content and more—can be found on the Jackson Wild Media Awards website. The winners will be announced at the Jackson Wild Summit, taking place September 29 to October 3 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.