Congrats to the 2015 Evolution Film Festival Winner and Runner-Up!

This year we received 52 fantastic entries, which far surpassed the record number of entries we received in 2014.  13 finalists were selected and screened at the “Fifth Annual NESCent/HHMI/SSE Evolution Film Festival”, which was held at the Evolution 2015 Conference in Guaruja, Brazil.

Attendees voted, and this year’s winner was “Escaping the Sex Trap: Can Female Resistance Promote the Loss of Sex?”, submitted by Nathan Burke, David Sindel (University of New South Wales).  Congratulations!  Nathan and his collaborators received a $1,000 prize and a “Chuckie” trophy.

This year’s runner-up was “Alice and the Enigmatic Tree of Rabbits”, submitted by Fanny Gascuel, Miraine Davila (Université Pierre et Marie Curie / Collège de France / Ecole Normale Supérieure).  They receive a $500 prize.

All 13 entries can be viewed on the 2015 Entries page.

Congrats to them, and thanks to all who submitted videos this year!

Start working on your submission for next year, and we’ll see you at the Sixth Annual Evolution Film Festival in Austin, Texas!

Congrats to the winners of the 2014 Evolution Film Festival!

The 4th annual Evolution Film Festival was held on Saturday, June 21 at the Evolution 2014 conference in Raleigh, NC.

This was a very competitive year.  We had over 30 submissions — the most we’ve ever had — and the voting for the final 12 was unusually close because there were so many great finalists.  But, the masses have spoken and here are the winners:

This year’s first place winner was “Drift” by Florida State University undergraduates Lauren Anderson, Monique Boileau, Zach Boudreau, Sarah Jezierny and Julia Kunberger, and graduate student Will Ryan.

This year’s runner-up was “Dinosaur,” a sweetly sung narrative about a girl who’s nostalgic for the dinosaurs by Lori and Joel Henriques.

Prizes for the first- and second place winners include a travel award for $1000 and $500 (respectively) to a future conference of their choice.

All of this year’s entries can be viewed by clicking on “2014 Entries” at the top of this screen.

Thanks to all who participated in this year’s event!

Call for entries: Fourth Annual NESCent Evolution Video Contest

Application deadline: Saturday, May 31, 2014

Submit your best evolution-themed video for screening at this year’s Evolution meeting!

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) once again invites scientists and science educators (students, postdocs, faculty, and full- or part-time science communicators) to enter our annual Evolution Video Competition. The finalists will be screened at the Evolution 2014 conference, which is being organized and hosted by NESCent, and held in Raleigh, NC from June 20-25, 2014.

For all the details, please click the “How to Submit” link at the top of this page.  To enter your video, please complete our online registration form.

The Evolution Film Festival is always one of the highlights of the Evolution conference.  We hope you will consider submitting your own video this year!  Even if you don’t, if you’re going to be at the Evolution 2014 conference in Raleigh, please plan to attend the Film Festival on Saturday, June 21st, view all the terrific submissions and vote on your favorite!

Congratulations to the winners of the 2013 NESCent Evolution Video Contest!

NESCent’s Third Annual Evolution Film Festival/Video Contest was held on Sunday, June 23rd at the Evolution 2013 conference in Snowbird, UT.  We once again received lots of terrific entries which were screened during the Film Festival and voted on by the audience.  This year’s winner was “Why Do Slave Ants Kill Slavemakers?” by Pleuni Pennings of Stanford University.  This year’s runner-up was “Darwin’s Theories“, submitted by Celia Secades of the Elesapiens website.  (All of this year’s entries can be viewed by clicking on “2013 Entries” at the top of this screen.)

The first place winner will receive a $1,000 travel award and the runner-up will receive a $500 travel award to a future conference of their choice.

It’s not too soon to start working on your entry to the 2014 NESCent Evolution Video Contest!  We hope to see you (and screen your submission) at the Evolution 2014 conference in Raleigh, NC!

Thanks to all who submitted videos to this year’s Film Festival!

Call for entries: NESCent announces Evolution Video Contest

Application deadline: Friday May 31, 2013video

Submit your best evolution-themed video for screening at this year’s Evolution meeting!

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) invites scientists and science educators of all stripes — students, postdocs, faculty, and full- or part-time science communicators — to enter the third annual Evolution Video Competition. To enter, please submit a video that explains a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or exciting area of evolution research in three minutes or less. Entries may be related or unrelated to your own research, and should be suitable for use in a classroom (K-12, undergraduate, graduate…your choice). Videos should be both informative and entertaining. (In other words, no taped lectures or narrated Powerpoint presentations!) Animations, music videos, and mini documentaries are all fair game. The finalists will be screened at the 2013 Evolution meeting in Snowbird, Utah. To enter your video, please complete our online registration form.

More information coming soon.

Congrats to the winners of the 2012 NESCent evolution film festival

The votes are in! Nearly 200 people viewed and voted on their favorite short videos in the 2012 evolution film festival in Ottawa on Saturday July 7. We screened 14 short evolution-themed films, each one three minutes or less. Each film got at least one first place vote. The winners are “The evolution of an alternative male mating strategy: socializing with less attractive rivals,” submitted by Cedric Tan and colleagues of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology (1st place), and “Lessons from Evolution: Dating with Darwin,” submitted by Megan Head and Amber Teacher of the University of Exeter (2nd place).

The first- and second-place winners will receive a travel allowance of up to $1,000 and $500, respectively, for travel expenses to attend the scientific meeting of their choice.

Thanks to our filmmakers for some fabulous films. Please consider submitting a film for next year’s evolution film festival in Snowbird, Utah!

Video Contest Information

Call for entries: NESCent announces Evolution Video Contest

Application deadline: Friday June 29, 2012video

Submit your best evolution-themed video for screening at this year’s Evolution meeting!

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) invites scientists and science educators of all stripes — students, postdocs, faculty, and full- or part-time science communicators — to enter the second annual Evolution Video Competition. To enter, please submit a video that explains a fun fact, key concept, compelling question, or exciting area of evolution research in three minutes or less. Entries may be related or unrelated to your own research, and should be suitable for use in a classroom (K-12, undergraduate, graduate…your choice). Videos should be both informative and entertaining. (In other words, no taped lectures or narrated Powerpoint presentations!) Animations, music videos, and mini documentaries are all fair game. To enter your video, please complete our online registration form.

More information coming soon.

Congrats to the winners of the NESCent evolution film festival!

Nearly 150 people viewed and voted on their favorite films in a standing-room-only event on Monday June 20th at the Evolution meetings in Norman, Oklahoma. The event was a huge success.  People were sitting on the floors and spilling out the doors, all the popcorn disappeared in a flash and we got tons of comments from people about how much they LOVED the films.

We announced and screened the winners at the conference’s closing banquet. First place went to “Cold-blooded cannibals,” a short film by Nate Dappen of the University of Miami – Florida and Joris van Alphen of the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity (Naturalis). Our runner up was “Why don’t you teach evolution?” a computer-animated video by Katie Lotterhos of Florida State University.

Both the winner and runner-up were made by graduate students, and every submission got at least one first place vote. Thanks to our filmmakers for some fabulous films.

We hope to make this an annual event, so please consider submitting a film for next year’s evolution film festival in Ottowa!