The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival (JHWFF) is pleased to announce the best wildlife films of the year, from the recent 2005 Festival, are traveling around the country and overseas as part of their Best of Festival tour. Films from this most-prestigious wildlife film festival will be featured at screening events in Colorado, Washington D.C., and Alaska over the next few months.

“We are thrilled to be launching the Festival tour this year,” notes Laura Johnson, Festival Director. “Our goal is to share these remarkable films with people throughout North America and across the globe, increasing peoples’ appreciation of the natural world and inspiring environmental responsibility.”

The 2005 tour began with a featured screening of Earthling, winner of Best Achievement in Sound and Best Children’s Program, during the third Aranyak Wildlife Film Festival in Calcutta, India. The special screening, on January 28th, was presented by the American Center in Calcutta as one of the many public diplomacy activities of the U.S. Consulate General in that area.

This weekend the 35th Annual Conference on Environmental Law is offering a special screening of Strange Days on Planet Earth: Troubled Waters (finalist in the Best Environmental Program category) in Keystone, Colorado. Producer Jonathan Halperin will be on hand following the screening, to discuss the making of this challenging project.

A number of Festival winners and finalists will also be screened at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. during the 14th annual Environmental Film Festival, March 16-26. “To celebrate the field craft, scientific rigor and consummate artistry of these filmmakers in this National Museum, with its own rich history and future, is a real privilege,” remarks Deborah Rothberg, Public Programs Coordinator for the Museum. In collaboration with over 50 local, national and international organizations, including JHWFF and the Museum of Natural History, the Environmental Film Festival presents 100 outstanding films from around the world. Films screen at venues all throughout Washington, D.C., and most screenings are free.

Screenings are March 25 and 26th at the National Museum of Natural History, and include the following Jackson Hole films: Ants—Nature’s Secret Power; Capuchins: the Monkey Puzzle; Deep Jungle: New Frontiers; Europe, A Natural History: Genesis; The Good, the Bad and the Grizzly; Miracle Planet II: The Violent Past; and Strange Days on Planet Earth: Predators. All of these screenings are free.

The tour will continue on to beautiful Homer, Alaska, where a series of the Best of JHWFF will be showcased at the Inaugural Kachemak Nature Film Festival, May 4-7. The Kachemak Nature Festival is a community event and local fundraiser for the Kachemak Heritage Land Trust.

Since its beginnings in 1991, JHWFF has remained an unparalleled industry gathering of over 600 television and film professionals from around the world. The Festival’s film competition is extremely competitive, with nearly 400 films entered into competition each Festival. From hundreds of entries, only 3 films are selected as finalists in each of the Festival’s 17 competition categories. The next Festival and Film Competition will be held in 2007.