Climate Film Festival NYC Announces a special screening of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot

SEPTEMBER 13, 2024 – The Climate Film Festival (CFF), New York City’s premier festival for climate-related films and media, in partnership with the Guardian US, announces a special screening of DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot in collaboration with Universal Pictures and NRDC’s Rewrite the Future. The advanced screening and behind-the-scenes talkback with the film’s producer will take place on Sunday, September 22.

The Wild Robot is an epic adventure following the journey of a robot that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

The film is a powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature, and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Climate Film Festival and NRDC on this exciting screening, and are glad to support the festival’s mission to highlight environmental stories both big and small,” says Kimberly Burnick, Director, Sustainable Content & Partnerships at NBCUniversal. “Through our GreenerLight Program, we partner with our filmmakers on ways to engage audiences around environmental topics, and The Wild Robot is a perfect example of inspiring community action and the protection of nature and wildlife while telling an incredible story.”

The GreenerLight team at Universal Filmed Entertainment Group (which includes DreamWorks) paired The Wild Robot filmmakers with NRDC’s Rewrite the Future, which supports creators in telling entertaining stories about our climate-altered world and the path toward a better future. Rewrite provided feedback on translating the book’s environmental themes to the screen.

“The filmmakers brilliantly captured the essence of the books, particularly the capacity we have to rewrite our programming and embrace cooperation as a survival skill,” said Meredith Milton, Rewrite’s creative director. “We applaud Universal and Dreamworks’ commitment to representing climate solutions on screen.”

Co-Founded by Alec Turnbull and J. English Cook, CFF aims to showcase films and media that challenge the boundaries and expectations of climate cinema. Over the festival weekend, attendees can enjoy more than twenty screenings, along with thought-provoking panels, expert workshops, and vibrant social events that foster dialogue and community engagement.

“The Climate Film Festival is thrilled to present The Wild Robot,” says Alec Turnbull. “By exploring themes of adaptation, resilience, and the delicate balance of ecosystems, the film offers an innovative and compelling reflection on our relationship with the environment and the creatures we co-inhabit it with. The Wild Robot pairs beautiful animation and epic storytelling with the urgent environmental challenges of our time, showcasing the power of climate cinema.”

The special screening of The Wild Robot will take place at 2pm on Sunday, September 22, 2024, at SVA Theatre. Tickets are available for purchase at the link.

DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot will be released in theaters on September 27, 2024.

The Climate Film Festival is fiscally sponsored by Ecologistics, a 501(c)(3) organization. Founded in 2023 by a multidisciplinary team of passionate climate professionals, artists, and curators, it aims to rewrite the narrative on climate change by harnessing the power of motion pictures. Our mission is to bring together a diverse community of filmmakers, artists, students, experts, and general audiences through screenings, education, and workshops that platform traditional and experimental storytelling, empowering action toward a more sustainable future. Visit climatefilmfest.com and follow the Climate Film Festival on Instagram, Substack, and LinkedIn.

Guardian Media Group (GMG) is the publisher of theguardian.com, one of the largest English-speaking news websites in the world. Since launching its US and Australian digital editions in 2011 and 2013, respectively, traffic from outside the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. The Guardian US has more than 100 members of editorial staff across bureaus in New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles. The Guardian now has more than 260,000 recurring supporters in the US plus roughly 170,000 annual one-time supporters, and draws an audience of more than 40 million US readers every month, making it one of the top 10 news sites in the US. The Guardian US is renowned for its Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into widespread secret surveillance by the National Security Agency and for other award-winning work, including The Paradise Papers. Today, the Guardian US is known for its urgent coverage of the climate crisis, politics, race and immigration, guns, gender, the arts, sports, and more.

From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot.

The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.

The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, this summer’s The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island.

The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction).

A powerful story about the discovery of self, a thrilling examination of the bridge between technology and nature and a moving exploration of what it means to be alive and connected to all living things, The Wild Robot is written and directed by three-time Oscar® nominee Chris Sanders—the writer-director of DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods, and Disney’s Lilo & Stitch—and is produced by Jeff Hermann (DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby 2: Family Business; co-producer, Kung Fu Panda franchise).

Peter Brown’s The Wild Robot, an illustrated middle-grade novel first published in 2016, became a phenomenon, rocketing to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The book has since inspired a trilogy that now includes The Wild Robot Escapes and The Wild Robot Protects. Brown’s work on the Wild Robot series and his other bestselling books have earned him a Caldecott Honor, a Horn Book Award, two E.B. White Awards, two E.B. White Honors, a Children’s Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year, two Irma Black Honors, a Golden Kite Award and a New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award.

DreamWorks Animation (DWA), a division of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, within NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, is a global family entertainment company with feature film and television brands. The company’s deep portfolio of intellectual property is supported by a robust, worldwide consumer products practice, which includes licensing, and location-based entertainment venues around the world. DWA’s feature film heritage includes many of the world’s most beloved characters and franchises, including Shrek, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, How to Train Your Dragon, Spirit, Trolls, The Boss Baby and 2022’s The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish have amassed more than $16 billion in global box office receipts. DreamWorks Animation’s television studio is one of the world’s leading producers of high-quality, animated family programming, reaching consumers in more than 190 countries with a diverse array of award-winning original content through streaming and linear broadcasters.

Universal Pictures is a division of Universal Studios (www.universalstudios.com). Universal Studios is part of NBCUniversal. NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience.  NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group and world-renowned theme parks.  NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

Rewrite the Future leverages NRDC’s environmental expertise to help creators tell entertaining stories about our climate-altered world and the path toward a better future. They consult on film and television projects; advise entertainment companies on integrating climate content into their sustainability strategies; host educational workshops and trainings for entertainment professionals; and encourage new voices through NRDC’s Climate Storytelling Fellowship, in collaboration with the Black List, NBCUniversal, the Redford Center, and CAA Foundation.