Laguna Beach filmmaker and longtime ocean conservationist Greg MacGillivray received the International Wildlife Film Festival’s lifetime achievement award last week in Missoula, Mont., where he was honored for his life’s work producing and directing 36 award-winning IMAX theatre films that promote understanding and awareness of science, wildlife and the natural world.
In a double win for MacGillivray, the IWFF Wildlife Hero of the Year Award went to Chris Palmer, president of MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation and founder and director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University in Washington, D.C.
“Greg MacGillivray and his team at MacGillivray Freeman Films have reached and inspired tens of millions of viewers with their award-winning IMAX films and have set the gold standard for giant-screen educational films that promote conservation,” said Janet Rose, the festival’s executive director.
“The significance of this and the programming that MacGillivray Freeman Films produces is enormous because those programs can in many ways change the way we as humans view the world and the way we respond to critical conservation issues.”
MacGillivray’s 1998 blockbuster “Everest” is currently the highest grossing IMAX Theatre film in history.
