BLUE Ocean Film Festival is a one-of-a-kind industry and community event bringing together films, filmmakers, and leaders in ocean research and conservation. The festival took place August 24-29 in Monterey, California, at venues overlooking Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

The NMSF is proud to be a sponsor of the five-day festival, which like the Foundation, strives to increase ocean awareness and increase ocean stewardship among the public. More than 80 ocean-related films were screened during BLUE, including a number of films featuring footage from national marine sanctuaries.

The winner for Best Ocean Exploration and Adventure Film was “Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures: America’s Underwater Treasures,” a feature produced by Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. During the BLUE Carpet Awards Ceremony, Cousteau, a trustee emeritus of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, and his family, including son Fabien and daughter Céline, were honored with a “Making Waves Award” for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental stewardship. A special tribute was made to family patriarch and pioneering ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society also announced the release of a new, four-book series, “Explore the National Marine Sanctuaries with Jean-Michel Cousteau,” which focuses on the four different regions of the National Marine Sanctuary System. The series is based on the Ocean Future Society’s award-winning, limited edition book “America’s Underwater Treasures” and the PBS film series “Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures.” The first book, available in stores January 2011, will highlight the sanctuaries of the Southeastern United States.

“We applaud the great work of our trustee emeritus, Jean-Michel Cousteau, in helping increase public awareness about national marine sanctuaries and encourage ocean stewardship,” said Jason Patlis, president and CEO of the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, a sponsor for the BLUE Ocean Film Festival. “Continuing in his father’s tradition, Jean-Michel has made it his life’s work to celebrate our most treasured ocean places; he is a true ocean hero.”

Another film, “In the Wake of Giants,” is a documentary about humpback whale rescues in Hawaii featuring NOAA’s Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s rescue experts, who are some of the few trained to free large whales of entangling gear. The film, which won the award for "Best Sanctuary Short," was produced by NMSF Capital Campaign Director Mark DiOrio and his wife Mara Kerr, and directed by Lou Douros, a highly regarded filmmaker and a collaborator with Mark on the fundraising campaign for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Exploration Center in Santa Cruz.

Foundation Trustee Bob Talbot, an award-winning cinematographer himself, presented a film on extreme diving called “Ocean Men,” and Sylvia Earle and Jean-Michel Cousteau, NMSF Trustees Emeriti, were featured speakers at the event. Monterey Bay Aquarium Executive Director Julie Packard, honored by the Foundation earlier this year with a Lifetime Achievement Award, also spoke.