Wildscreen has announced the winners of their 2022 Panda Awards, which took place on 13 October at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, showcasing the best in natural world storytelling craft from across the world. Of the 13 winners across 17 categories, 5 of the leading shorts, features and series were from Bristol-based teams.
‘My Garden of a Thousand Bees’, a charming lockdown documentary filmed in Bristol following wildlife Filmmaker Martin Dohrn, received the most prestigious prize in the natural world film and television industry - the Plimsoll Golden Panda Award. The feature film, which explores the secret lives of over 60 species of bees, swept the nominations with Bristol’s BBC Studio’s ‘The Green Planet’ for the number of categories back in July. This comes at a time when Karine Aigner won the Grand Title award at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year ceremony earlier this week, for an outstanding picture capturing male cactus bees enveloping a single female.
Further local winners included, ‘Polar Bear’ for the Films at 59 Cinematography award, ‘Snakes and Ladders’ for the Tangled Bank Studios Emerging Talent Award and ‘Welcome to Earth’ for the Films at the 59 Sound Award.
The first-ever winner of the Sustainability Award, ‘Springwatch 2021’, was recognised for the continued work and innovative measures to reduce their production’s carbon footprint. The jury awarded The Watches team this prize to help set the bar for blue chip productions. Although it was joint first with the Plimsoll Golden Panda winner for nominations, ‘The Green Planet’ walked away with the coveted Terra Mater Studios Series Award.
Other major successes on the night included Terra Mater Studios and Bonne Pioche’s ‘The Bastard King’ which received a special jury award - the Panda in the Pocket, to recognise outstanding storytelling, alongside the category in which it was nominated - the Music Award. Shining a light on the threats to the elusive Florida Panther, Eric Bendick’s ‘Path of the Panther’, received awards for both categories it was nominated for, taking home the Save Our Seas Foundation Impact Award, and the Off the Fence Production Team Award.
Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen Festival said: “As a key part of Wildscreen Festival for 40 years, the Panda Awards has continued to celebrate the best in natural world storytelling among the globe’s leading innovators and creators, as well as fresh talent entering the sector. This year’s inspiring selection of shorts, features and series uncovered some of nature’s most fascinating and enduring stories, bringing them to a worldwide audience. Congratulations to everyone who was recognised and we look forward to seeing the evolution of natural world storytelling over the next few years.”
The Wildscreen Panda Awards ceremony 2022 was hosted by wildlife television presenters Lizzie Daly and Dan O’Neill. The ceremony concludes the 2022 Wildscreen Festival–the world’s biggest global gathering of natural world storytellers. Held in Bristol, the 40th anniversary edition convenes more than 900 filmmakers, photographers, broadcasters and content creators, from over 40 countries, for an unrivaled programme of 130 events, featuring 180 industry thought-leaders. The headline sponsor of Wildscreen Festival 2022 is BBC Studios NHU and principal sponsors are National Geographic, Save Our Seas Foundation and Terra Mater Studios.
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