Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival looking forward to 10th biennial

The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is coming back in 2009 better than ever - not to be confused with the unrelated Jackson Hole Film Festival that recently announced it's closing down. Lisa Samford, the executive director of JHWFF sets the record straight.

"We're still doing well and happy and everything's fine," says Samford, adding that for five years, there was confusion among potential sponsors and others over the similarly named festivals.

JHWFF's 10th biennial event consists of the industry conference from September 28 to October 2, and is flanked by the public film festival, which has not only benefited the community but also broadens the fest's revenue stream.

Samford isn't worried about an economy-related delegate drop off for JHWFF's 2009 event since many of the delegates are from the US so they don't have to pony up for expensive international flights. Festival registration remained consistent through other tough financial times, she says.

Likewise, festival sponsorship has not been affected. No sponsors have dropped off and three new ones are signing on, which Samford is keeping under wraps for now.

In celebration of the 10th biennial event, Samford says that they will also recognize a lot of natural history milestones for 2009. It's Natural History New Zealand's 30th anniversary, the 500th year for Galileo, 50th year for NASA and the 200th year for Darwin. "In addition to looking at the future, we're drawing on a strong retrospective approach as well," she says. The retrospective will cover the last 20 years of natural history filmmaking.

The call for entries is March 1, 2009. See jhfestival.org/festival for all the deadlines.