The XIV International Wildlife Festival "Golden Turtle" Has Opened

The XIV International Wildlife Festival "Golden Turtle" has opened in Moscow. This year, the Festival, for the first time, takes place online from November 20 to December 13. The Festival is organized under the patronage of the Moscow government. The Russian Geographical Society is a key partner of the project.

The Golden Turtle Festival is a famous international cultural and environmental educational project, one of the largest in the world. It has been held since 2006. Its key event is the international photography, painting and design competition The Golden Turtle – a creative competition between authors from around the world. But this is not only a parade of the world's best wildlife photographers - interesting lectures, meetings with scientists, travelers, master classes, video installations are held at the Golden Turtle. The Festival has many faces, and almost everyone can find something interesting and informative in its program.

President of the Golden Turtle Festival Andrei Sukhinin: "We are opening the XIV International Golden Turtle Festival - a project with a rich history, with rich traditions. Now we have witnessed great changes literally on a planetary scale that have affected all parts of our life. The world will unlikely ever be the same, and it is unlikely that we will be the same. And I would very much like our basic values, our spirituality, our kindness, humane attitude to each other, to the world around us to remain unchanged. And the wilderness is for us an ideal example of amazing harmony, balance and delicate equilibrium. I would like everyone to find all that we lack so much in our project. "

2020 has put the Golden Turtle International Wildlife Festival in a whole new environment. For the first time in its history, the project faced the need to transition both its exposition and educational program to an online format. The opening ceremony of the festival – which was conducted by the ambassadors of the project Valdis Pelsh and Elena Hanga – was held in the same format. At the opening ceremony, the winners of the Golden Turtle International Creative Competition 2020 were announced. The first place in various categories was taken by 17 participants of the competition, famous photographers and artists, frequent participants and winners of international competitions and festivals.

For the first time, Italian photographer Francesco Vizinthin with the work "Plonge" / "Dive" became the Photographer of the Year in the "Underwater World" category. The photograph by Francesco shows the silhouette of a young seal framed by an arch formed by the walls of an underwater canyon off the island of Los Islotes. Francesco also took third place in the "Underwater World" category with the photograph "Swirl", in which a baby sea lion frolics in an underwater cave.

At the opening of the online exhibition, Petr Pavlovich Biryukov, Deputy Mayor of Moscow in the Moscow Government for Housing and Communal Services and Improvement, addressed all the participants and winners of the photography competition with a welcoming speech. Also, the ecological and educational exhibition was greeted by Anton Olegovich Kulbachevsky, Head of the Department of Nature Management and Environmental Protection of the city of Moscow. The Golden Turtle Festival was congratulated on the opening of the 14th season by the Ambassador of the Italian Republic to the Russian Federation Pasquale Terracciano; Director of the World Wildlife Fund in Russia Dmitry Gorshkov; Evgenia Timonova, naturalist, popularizer of science, author and host of the program "Всё как у зверей" (eng. "Just Like Animals"); Nina Shatskaya, singer, Honored Artist of Russia; Evgeny Sazonov, deputy editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, member of the Russian Geographical Society; editor-in-chief of the TV channel "Живая Планета"  (eng. "Living Planet") Maria Morgun.

Until December 13, everyone has the opportunity to see the environmental educational exhibition online and take part in lectures and master classes, meetings with world famous photographers, travelers, environmental specialists, popular bloggers on the festival website. The meetings will be held online on a separate page of the festival website and on the YouTube channel.