As unlikely as it might sound the International Oil Spill Conference (IOSC) in Savannah, US, featured a film festival, which was to turn out to be a lucky event for ITOPF with a clean sweep of the top three prizes.
The film festival was coordinated by Mark Howard from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and was expanded to include a photography competition which was won by ITOPFs Annabelle Nicolas-Kopec. ITOPFs three winning films are part of a series of seven.
“It was fantastic to see the way in which Mark worked to raise the bar in the Film Festival. It really did feel like you were going into a cinema when you stepped in to the room with full screen, excellent sound, comfy chairs and even the smell of freshly popped popcorn,” said Alex Hunt, project manager for the film series.
The three films are Introduction to Oil Spills, Aerial Surveillance andAt-Sea Response all of which are available on the ITOPF’s website, although you will have to make your own popcorn.
Tim Lunel, support & development director at ITOPF commented that, “ with some excellent submissions from around the world we didn’t imagine that we would make a clean sweep. It was excellent that some of the key partners who helped to bring a truly international perspective to the film series were able to be there at the IOSC to share in our collective success.”
According to EPA’s Howard the films were judged by an independent panel that combined “some with a focus and experience on the cinematography, and some with a technical experience on oil spill response”.
ITOPF's Annabelle Nicolas-Kopecwon the photography contest with "Response"