🎬 Announcing Partnership for Expanded Awards | Media Awards now open for entry!
For 35 years, the Jackson Wild Media Awards have celebrated the most compelling storytelling about our planet — honoring filmmakers, journalists, creators, and storytellers whose work deepens our understanding of the natural world and inspires action.
This year marks an exciting new chapter.
For 2026, Jackson Wild is proud to introduce an expanded awards program in collaboration with Hollywood Climate Summit, featuring new categories and shared recognitions that highlight the growing power of climate and environmental storytelling across media and culture.
Hollywood Climate Summit is best known for its annual gathering of leaders and storytellers working to mobilize the film and television industry to tell stories that help shape a more sustainable future. Through this partnership, the legacy of the Jackson Wild Media Awards and the evolution represented by the Hollywood Climate Summit Awards come together to bridge documentary and fiction storytelling across mediums and formats—long and short—in service of a shared mission.
Submissions for both awards are made through a single shared entry portal, making it easy for creators and filmmakers to submit their work and be considered for the most relevant program.
Each organization maintains its own categories, judging process, and final selections.
The joint awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles in November 2026, as the closing to a special industry event — stay tuned for more information!
This pilot initiative creates a new opportunity to connect with storytellers across documentary and fiction, while building on the work we’ll continue in Jackson in 2027.
If you've created a project that explores the beauty, urgency, and complexity of our natural world, we invite you to submit your work and join a global community of storytellers shaping the future of environmental media.
Submit early to save on entry fees.
Early Bird Deadline: April 1, 2026 — 11:59 PM MT
✨ NEW & Shared Categories!
Jackson Wild is introducing three new Media Awards categories this year as we continue honing in on giving a stronger platform to shorts.
Alongside expanded recognition for Digital Short and Documentary Short, we’re excited to introduce a category celebrating the powerful voices elevating our visual stories: Narration.
We’re also excited to introduce the categories of the Hollywood Climate Summit Awards, which celebrate storytelling across even more formats and platforms:
- Narrative Feature [Fiction]
- Narrative Short [Fiction]
- Television Series – Scripted Drama [Fiction]
- Television Series – Scripted Comedy
- Television Series – Unscripted
- Video Game
- Comedy Special
- Digital Series
- Podcast
In addition to new categories, several Jackson Wild crowd-favorite categories will be judged and reviewed jointly with the Hollywood Climate Summit Awards this year, celebrating impactful media across emerging and collaborative digital spaces:
- Content Creator Award
- Social Media
- Branded Content
- Impact Campaign
We’re excited to see the incredible work storytellers have brought to life this year. From bold new voices to powerful stories from across the globe, this awards season promises to be one to remember. Storytellers from this year’s awards will be celebrated and recognized at a joint Jackson Wild + Hollywood Climate Summit awards event this November - more details to come soon.
