The Austrian Cultural Forum hosted the Benefit Reception for this year’s Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF) on February 7, 2019, at the Embassy of Austria. The night’s honoree was Washington Post’s senior national affairs correspondent Juliet Eilperin. She received DCEFF’s first ever Award for Excellence in Journalism (in the form of a shark painting) for her work on environmental issues.
From left: Susan Vitka (DCEFF Board Chair), Chris Head (DCEFF Executive Director), Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post), Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner and Dr. Enric Sala (National Geographic)
Ambassador Wolfgang Waldner stated in his welcoming remarks that the Embassy of Austria was predestinated to host such an event given our nations’s strong commitment to environmental protection and sustainable energy. Even Austrian-Americans are environmental trailblazers, from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his R20 Regions of Climate Action initiative to D.C.’s very own food pioneer, Chef Nora Pouillon. Her eponymous restaurant was the first U.S. restaurant to be certified organic, inspiring a generation of chefs to shop locally for high-quality ingredients. Learn more about Austria’s Climate and Energy Strategy #mission2030.
Since 1993, the DCEFF has been enthralling and educating people in the Washington, D.C. with hundreds of movies addressing environmental issues. This year’s film festival will run from March 14 to 24. It will feature the documentary “The Green Lie” (2018) by the Austrian filmmaker Werner Boote. The documentary about the organic food industry will have its D.C. premiere on March 19, 2019 at the Carnegie Institution for Science and will also be screened at the Austrian Embassy, followed by a panel discussion with the filmmaker and other experts, on March 20, 2019. Get your free tickets.
For a full list of films, visit dceff.org.
All photos form the DCEFF Reception by Blake Belcher