Wildscreen Panda Awards Nominations Unveiled

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Wildscreen has revealed the nominees for the 2022 Panda Awards, with My Garden of a Thousand Bees and The Green Planet leading the pack.

From Passion Planet, My Garden of a Thousand Bees is in the running for five awards: behavior, editing, producer/director, scripted narrative and sound awards. The film follows as wildlife filmmaker Martin Dohrn turns his lens on his own urban garden.

Tied with five nominations is BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s The Green Planet, narrated by David Attenborough. The series, highlighting the dramatic lives of plants, is up for the behavior, cinematography, music, producer/director and series awards.

Austrian-based Terra Mater Studios leads the way as the most nominated production company outside of the U.K., with seven category nominations. Its feature film Patrick and the Whale is nominated for three awards: editing, producer/director and sound.

In addition to My Garden of a Thousand Bees and The Green Planet: Desert Worlds, Tiny World—Island from Plimsoll Productions is also up for the behavior award.

Projects up for cinematography are Dynasties II: Puma from BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Polar from Silverback Films and The Green Planet: Tropical Worlds.

The editing award nominees are My Garden of a Thousand Bees; Patrick and the Whale; and Penguin Town: Learning to Fly, from Netflix and Red Rock Films.

Nominations for the emerging talent award went to Mattia Cialoni for My Neighbour is a Bear, Conor Ferris for Seabird and Lior Kestenberg for Snakes & Ladders.

Bears About the House from BBC Studios Natural History Unit; Path of the Panther from Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath and Common Pictures; and Tiger 24 from W Films and The Tiger Fund are up for the Save Our Seas Foundation impact award.

In the music category, nominees are Nature’s Networks from Terra Mater Factual Studios; The Bastard King from Terra Mater Studios, Bonne Pioche and Shibumi Films; and The Green Planet: Water Worlds from BBC Studios, PBS, bilibili, ZDF, CCTV9, France Télévisions and The Open University.

On-screen talent award nominees are Aaron Gekoski for Eyes of the Orangutan, Jack Harries for Seat at the Table: How the Climate Crisis Affects Us All and Warren Pereira for Tiger 24.

Fighting the Heat and Doug Gimesy, Historical Rescue of Caimans in Pantanal and Fernando Jara Faciole, and Planktonium and Jan van Ijken are up for the photo story award.

The producer/director award nominations include David Allen, Martin Dohrn and Gaby Bastyra for My Garden of a Thousand Bees; Mark Fletcher, Walter Köhler and Wolfgang Knöpfler for Patrick and the Whale; and Elisabeth Oakham for The Green Planet: Human Worlds.

Nominated for the production team award are the teams behind Patagonia—Life on the Edge of the World from Plimsoll Productions; Path of the Panther from Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath and Common Pictures; and Springwatch 2020 from BBC Studios Natural History Unit.

In addition to My Garden of a Thousand Bees, scripted narrative award nominees are Penguin Town: Hot and Bothered from Netflix and Red Rock Films and Pumas: Legens of the Ice Mountains episode 2 from Terra Mater Factual Studios.

Series award nominees are Mediterranean: Life Under Siege from Boreales, Patagonia—Life on the Edge of the World, Penguin Town and The Green Planet.

My Garden of a Thousand Bees, Patrick and the Whale and Welcome to Earth: The Silent Roar from Nutopia are nominated in the sound category.

Lastly, the sustainability award nominees are Springwatch 2021 from BBC Studios Natural History Unit; Surviving Paradise: A Family Tale from Netflix, Wild Space Productions, Natural History Film Unit Botswana and Freeborne Media; and SURVIVORS: Rediscovering the Short-Tailed Rain Crayfish from Bookend Trust.

Ruth Berry, chair of the nomination jury, said, “The 2022 Panda Awards competition attracted over 700 entries from 38 countries. Although coronavirus has had a large impact on production and creativity over the past two years, it lured filmmakers closer to their own backyards to produce inspiring and intimate stories.

“This year’s nominations show a strong trend away from the classic interpretation of natural history,” she noted. “We are no longer ‘observers’ of the natural world, we are a part of it.”

The Wildscreen Festival will take place in-person from October 10 to 14. The awards ceremony occur on the 13th.