New competition launched for films about Britain’s natural world

Horizons open for natural world filmmakers at Borderlines Film Festival

September 2010. Fascinated by nature? Do you record the landscape and the changing seasons on film or video? Submit your entries now to Under Open Skies, Borderlines Film Festival's new awards for documentaries on Britain¹s natural world and take advantage of our Early Bird discounted rates.

The awards celebrate the output of Harry Williamson, a dedicated amateur film-maker who painstakingly recorded the flora and fauna of Herefordshire while raising funds for the Herefordshire Nature Trust.

£1000 prize
Shortlisted films, amateur as well as professional, will be showcased at the Festival in front of a jury panel of industry experts. Cash prizes of £1,000 will be awarded in each of the two categories at a ceremony to follow.
Guidelines and an entry form can be downloaded from www.borderlinesfilmfestival.org/under-open-skies.shtml.
Early Bird submissions close on Friday 26 November with a final entry deadline of Friday 7 January 2011.

Wyevale
To celebrate his father's dedication to amateur wildlife filmmaking, Peter Williamson of Wyevale Nurseries has instigated the Borderlines Harry Williamson Award at a time when public interest in the landscape and our wild places has never been greater.

With nearly half of Britain's native land mammals, from hedgehogs to water voles, red squirrels to bats, now considered a priority for conservation, farmland birds like skylarks becoming a rarity and one in five wild plants facing extinction, the competition offers a timely opportunity for amateur and professional wildlife filmmakers to showcase their work.

Under Open Skies offers the prospect of capturing on film some of the wonderful singularities of the British countryside like the rare orchids on the South Downs, the survival of Large Blue butterflies in Wiltshire and sea eagles back on the east coast of Scotland as well as helping to highlight the efforts of Nature Trusts, Wildlife Reserves, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the CPRE and the Woodland Trust in preserving our environment for the future.

This major new award complements Bristol's prestigious Wildscreen Festival that runs biennially in alternate years from Under Open Skies.

Shortlisted films in both amateur and professional categories will be screened over a single day at the 2011 Borderlines Film Festival with the winners selected by a jury of experts in the field.

Harry Williamson, founder of Wyevale Garden Centres, had a remarkable passion for the Herefordshire countryside in which he lived, making over eleven films, including The River Wye and The Fair County, in the course of twenty years.

One of his daughters recalls his close attention for detail, "he was tied into a helicopter doorway, legs dangling, in order to film the course of a river from the air."

Williamson was one of the pioneering amateur filmmakers of the type recently featured on BBC2's The Home Movie Roadshow and his movies that portray the landscape at a particular moment in time have been seen by thousands of people around the county in the film shows he set up to support Herefordshire Nature Trust.

Submissions for Under Open Skies are now open with £1,000 cash prizes for the winning entries in professional and amateur categories. Guidelines and an entry form can be downloaded from www.borderlinesfilmfestival.org/under-open-skies.shtml.

The ninth Borderlines Film Festival, featuring Under Open Skies and the Harry Williamson Award, will take place from Friday 25 March to Sunday 10 April 2011.