Silverback to Receive SDG Award at MIPTV

Natural history producer Silverback (Silverback Films and Studio Silverback) has been selected to receive the MIPTV SDG Award, in support of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The session on April 18 in the Palais des Festivals will include an on-stage interview with Jonnie Hughes, director at Studio Silverback, covering the craft behind and the purpose driving the company’s globally impactful work.

The award will be presented by Caroline Petit of the United Nations.

Established in association with the United Nations in support of their Decade of Action campaign, the MIPTV SDG Award recognizes media companies for their action and contribution to delivering against the UN’s 17 SDGs. All3Media’s Silverback Films is being recognized alongside Studio Silverback in particular for work supporting goals directed at climate action and the conservation of life below water and life on land.

The U.K.-based Silverback Films is renowned for global wildlife landmark series and features. Its programs include Our Planet (Netflix), David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet (Netflix), The Hunt and The Mating Game (BBC One), six Disneynature features (Disney+) and the recently launched Wild Isles, again collaborating with Sir David Attenborough.

Petit, deputy director of the United Nations Regional Information Centre, said: “This annual award recognizes the creative programming of Silverback that reaches millions of viewers worldwide. It also demonstrates the television & media industry’s increasing commitment to generate innovative content on the topic of sustainability. This award is timely as 2023 must be a year of game-changing climate action.”

Hughes said: “We’re proud to receive this award for our work in supporting the SDGs. At Silverback, our mission is to combine powerful storytelling with world-class cinematography to reveal the urgent truth of our changing planet to a global audience as well as the opportunity we have for a sustainable future. We see that to drive real change, we must tackle the communications challenge. Through our wildlife series and features, our purpose-driven films, and our multi-media projects, we have been working to tell the story of sustainability in a new way and to achieve more through collaboration. It’s a huge task, but we’ve already made progress, and we’re grateful to MIPTV and the United Nations for recognizing our contribution so far.”

“This astonishing body of work and sense of purpose is crucial to recognize,” said RX France’s entertainment division director and director of MIPTV, Lucy Smith. “Silverback’s work has consistently conveyed not only the diversity and richness of the natural world in astonishing detail, but their storytelling engages audiences globally about the urgent environmental challenges faced and encourages sustainable choices.”