The Crow's Nest

The annual Blue Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Summit will light up St. Petersburg for the first time, from Nov. 3-9.

Blue Ocean is a collaboration of scientists, explorers, filmmakers, photographers, entertainment executives and ocean leaders, who want to bring the story of our oceans to the masses. It will showcase the pinnacle of ocean filmmaking, while aiming to inform the public of the strain our everyday actions place on the oceans and what we can do to turn the tides.

Film blocks will take place Nov. 4-9 and will showcase more than 150 films. There will also be various workshops, seminars, featured evening events and other entertainment located at various spots around downtown St. Petersburg.

Virgin-brand founder Richard Branson, Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons and Callum Roberts, a professor of marine conservation at the University of York in the U.K., are a few of the names on the guest list. Director James Cameron will not accompany his diving sphere and opening night film Deep Sea Challenge 3D.

This is the first year that the seven-day event has taken place outside of California.

“(Blue Ocean) had decided that they had sort of outgrown the venues in Monterey and they were beginning to look for a new host city and one of the leaders of Blue Ocean … lived in the area and had some contacts,” said Jacqueline Dixon, USF’s dean of the College of Marine Science.

USF Tampa and the USF College of Marine Science are Blue Ocean donors at the $5,000 level and USF St. Petersburg will host several events during the Festival, including a ticketed marine biodiversity discussion with professor Roberts in the STG building from 9:30-11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 3.

Dixon said that Peter Betzer, USFSP’s former dean of the College of Marine Science, helped bring Blue Ocean to St. Petersburg.

“When (Blue Ocean) came and visited and saw how beautiful downtown St. Pete is now, and the strength of the marine science complex here in St. Pete, they decided it was the perfect place to do it.”

Over the next four years, Blue Ocean will alternate between St. Petersburg and Monaco. But university and city officials hope to keep the event here beyond that.

“We hope to be able to keep it here permanently,” Dixon said.

If you go:

Individual tickets and day and week passes are available. Prices range from $12.50 for a single-day film block ticket to $1,250 for a Blue Whale pass, which gives attendees access to all films, events and the after party. Discounts are available to students with a valid student ID.

To purchase tickets and see a full listing and schedule of the events go to http://www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org/