Natural history festival, Wildscreen has named the winners of this year’s Panda Awards with the Golden Panda Award going to Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story, made by Silverback Films for National Geographic.
A unanimous decision by the jury, Billy & Molly was considered the best production for its “level of emotion, ability to touch hearts, and how it illustrated the capabilities of the future of the wildlife genre.”
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story also won the Producer / Director Award and Scripted Narrative Award. Silverback Films, producers of Billy & Molly, also took home the Cinematography Award for Wild Isles: Ocean as well as being nominated in several categories.
Queens, from Wildstar Films, took home two wins: the Series Award and Production Management Team Award. The jury noted that the production team “set up an innovative working practice and production model with an ethos of mentoring and being parents and job sharing.” The programme took home the Series Award for its innovation in moving the genre forward whilst inviting a younger audience with its structure and use of modern/pop music, and the theme of motherhood as a unifying thread between the episodes.
Cinematographer and Director, Alastair MacEwen, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award. With a career spanning more than 25 years, MacEwen has made significant contributions to the wildlife film and TV industry, with credits including Our Planet, Planet Earth II, Earth’s Tropical Islands, Perfect Planet and Wild Isles.
The Impact Award went to PATROL (Juli Films and Perpetuo Films – Nicaragua / USA), a powerful film examining the role of cattle ranching in deforestation; whilst the Sustainability Award was given to The Watches 2023 (BBC Studios Natural History Unit – UK) in recognition of the production’s innovative sustainability efforts.
Other winners include Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers (Behaviour Award), Erica Rugabandana for the film Living with Lions (Kuishi Na Simba) (Emerging Talent Award), and Chimp Empire (Editing Award and Music Award).
Full list of winners and nominees
Special awards
- Warner Chappell Production Music Golden Panda Award: Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK)
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Alastair MacEwen
- Christopher Parsons Outstanding Achievement Award: Jo Sarsby
Behaviour Award – sponsored by Off the Fence
- Winner: Raptors: A Fistful of Daggers – EP1: Meet the Raptors (Terra Mater Studios and Dandy Lion Films – Austria)
- Lions of the Skeleton Coat (Into Nature Productions – Austria / Netherlands)
- Wild Secrets – Between Water and Woods (Doclights – Germany)
- Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough – Episode 2: Love and Rivals (Humble Bee Films and Infield Fly Productions – UK / Canada)
Children’s Award – sponsored by Wildscreen ARK
- Winner: A Real Bug’s Life, Ep. The Big City (Plimsoll Productions – UK)
- Dr Mark’s Animal Show (Wild Africa – Nigeria / South Africa)
- Save Our Wildlife (Fresh Start Media – UK)
- Cinematography Award – sponsored by Films at 59
- Winner: Wild Isles: Ocean (Silverback Films – UK)
- Unwavering (Chris Schmid Studio – Switzerland)
- Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK)
Editing Award – sponsored by National Geographic
- Winner: Chimp Empire EP1 (Key editor: Sam Rogers – Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK)
- Earthsounds (Key editor: Alex Boyle – Offspring Films – UK / US)
- Tiger (Key editor: Nigel Buck BFE – Wildstar Films – UK / India)
Emerging Talent Award – sponsored by BBC Studios Natural History Unit
- Winner: Erica Francis Rugabandana for the film Living with Lions (Kuishi Na Simba) (Curiosity Stream, Ouragan Films and Siima Media – Tanzania)
- Hugh Allen for the film The Thin Green Line (National Film and Television School – UK / Cyprus)
- Dan Short for the film Intercellular (UWE – UK)
Field Craft Special Recognition Award – sponsored by Terra Mater Studios
- Winner: Sammy Munene, Specialist Filming Driver Impact Award – sponsored by Save Our Seas Foundation
- Winner: PATROL (Juli Films and Perpetuo Films – Nicaragua / USA)
- We Are Guardians (Appian Way, Random Hood, Highly Flammable, Mídía Índigena, One Forest – US)
- RHINO MAN (The Global Conservation Corps – US / South Africa)
Music Award
- Winner: Chimp Empire EP1 (Composer: Willian Goodchild – Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK)
- Mammals – Forest (Composer: Thomas Farnon – BBC Natural History Unit, BBC America, ZDF, Youku, France Télévisions for BBC – UK)
- Living With Leopards (Composer: Paul Leonard-Morgan – A Wild Space Production In Association with Natural History Film Unit & Freeborne Media – UK / Botswana)
On-Screen Talent Award – sponsored by University of the West of England
- Winner: Malaika Vaz in Sacrifice Zone (Untamed Planet in association with the National Geographic Society – US)
- Eoin Warner in Ireland’s Wild Islands – Episode 3: Echoes of the Past (Crossing The Line Productions – Ireland)
- Hamza Yassin in Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey (Silverback Films – UK)
- Bertie Gregory in Animals Up Close with Bertie Gregory – Episode: Antarctic Killer Waves (Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK)
Producer / Director Award – sponsored by Passion Pictures
– Winner: Charlie Hamilton-James and Jeff Wilson for Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK)
– Thomas Winston for Mollie’s Pack (Grizzly Creek Films and IMAX Original Documentaries – US)
– James Reed and Callum Webster for Chimp Empire EP4 (Underdog Films and Keo Films – UK / US)
Production Management Team Award – sponsored by Humble Bee Films
– Winner: Queens (Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK)
– Frozen Planet II (BBC Studios – UK)
– The Earthshot Prize 2023 (Studio Silverback – UK)
Scripted Narrative Award
– Winner: Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (Key scriptwriter: Charlie Hamilton-James – A Silverback Films Production for National Geographic – UK)
– WILDING (Key scriptwriter: David Allen – HHMI Tangled Bank Studios and Passion Planet – UK / US)
– Tiger (Key scriptwriter: Mark Linfield – Wildstar Films – UK / India)
Series Award – sponsored by Doclights / NDR Naturfilm
– Winner: Queens (Wildstar Films and National Geographic – UK)
– Planet Earth III (BBC Studios Natural History Unit, co-produced by BBC America, ZDF, FTV and The Open University – UK)
– The Great Rhino Robbery (BBC Studios Documentary Unit – UK)
– Australia’s Wild Odyssey (Wild Pacific Media – Australia)
Sound Award – sponsored by Films at 59
– Winner: Secrets From a Forest (Sound Design: Joe Siddons, Simon Weir & Sound Team – Ravenwood Studios – UK)
– Tiger (Sound Design: Kate Hopkins RDI, AMPS, Tim Owens, Ben Pearce, David E. Fluhr CAST- Wildstar Films – UK / India)
– A Call from the Wild (Sound Design: Anders Tveten, Erik Watland and Re-recording mixer: Bent Holm, Anders Tveten – Artic Light co-produced by Doclights, in association with: NDR, Terra Mater Studios, SVT – Norway)
Sustainability Award – sponsored by Aurum Kaleidoscope Foundation
– Winner: The Watches 2023 (BBC Studios Natural History Unit – UK)
– Pirarucu, The Breath of the Amazon (Banksia Films – Brazil)
– Common Ground (Big Picture Ranch – US)
– Wild Isles: Saving Our Wild Isles (Silverback Films – UK)
Jon Creamer
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