Acclaimed festival titles such as Sundance and Cannes winner All That Breathes (pictured), The Territory and Werner Herzog’s The Fire Within were among the nominees for the 2022 Jackson Wild Media Awards, which recognize excellence and innovation in nature, science and conservation storytelling.
Taking place at the annual Jackson Wild Summit, which runs from September 26 to 30 in Burgenland, Austria (the first time the event has ever been held outside the U.S.), the awards will be given out to both longform and short-form productions across 24 categories covering content and program types, craft, and special jury recognitions for impact campaigns, innovation in green production methods, and use of social media and other platforms for nature and science programming. The organization’s highest honor, the Grand Teton Award, will be accorded to the film judged the best overall production in the competition.
The finalists were selected from a pool of more than 600 entries from 26 countries, as chosen by more than 150 international judges with expertise in natural history filmmaking. The winners in all categories will be selected by the four-person competition jury, which this year is comprised of science communicator, filmmaker and VFX artist Hashem Al-Ghaili; neuroscientist, documentary filmmaker and Emmy-winning cinematographer Christi Cooper; veteran film and television development manager and commissioning editor Yolanda Ncokotwana; and Akanksha Sood Singh, producer of some of the most prestigious natural history films ever made in India.
The longform finalists in the content and program categories are listed below; for the full list of the 2022 Media Awards nominees, visit the Jackson Wild website.
Jackson Wild also announced the honorees for its 2022 Legacy and Rising Star Awards last week, which included The Fire Within producer Brian Leith.
CONTENT CATEGORIES
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story — Fin and Fur Films Productions
My Garden of a Thousand Bees — Passion Planet, The WNET Group, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios in association with Ammonite Films
The Mating Game — a Silverback Films production for BBC, Discovery, and NHK, coproduced with Bilibili and France Télévisions
Titans of the Sea: A Family Affair — Les Films en Vrac, Label Bleu Production, in association with France Télévisions
ECOSYSTEM
Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story — Fin and Fur Films Productions
Path of the Panther — Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath, Common Pictures
Wings Over Water — Dorsey Pictures in association with Archipelago Films, SK Films; presented by the Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, and Audubon
CONSERVATION
Earthbound — Ritual Arts, Amazing Owl, Hummingbirds Global
Eyes of the Orangutan — Terra Mater Factual Studios GmbH, Chris Scarffe Film and Photography
The Territory — National Geographic Documentary Films, Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava, Documist and Associação Jupaú in association with Time Studios and XTR Doc Society Climate Story Fund
CHANGING PLANET
Arctic Drift — a ‘Nova’ production by Wild Blue Media, UFA Show & Factual, and Fremantle International for GBH
Carbon: The Unauthorised Biography — Genepool Productions, Handful of Films
Into the Ice — Hansen Og Pedersen, Kloos & Co. Nort
Path of the Panther —Grizzly Creek Films, Wildpath, Common Pictures
HUMAN PLANET
Patrick and the Whale — Terra Mater Studios GmbH
The Green Planet: “Human Worlds” — a BBC Studios production for BBC, PBS, Bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Télévisions & The Open University
TIGER 24 — W Films LLC, The Tiger Fund LLC, Elevation Pictures
PROGRAM CATEGORIES
FEATURE FILM
All That Breathes — a Kiterabbit Films and Rise Films production in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios
Patrick and the Whale — Terra Mater Studios GmbH
The Fire Within: Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft — Brian Leith Productions, Bonne Pioche, Titan Films Production
The Territory — National Geographic Documentary Films, Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava, Documist and Associação Jupaú in association with Time Studios and XTR Doc Society Climate Story Fund
BREAKTHROUGH FILM
Exposure —PowderKeg Studios and Blumhouse in association with The Redford Center and Fieldhouse Productions
Finite: The Climate of Change — Rich Felgate in association with Scout Films
The Territory — National Geographic Documentary Films, Protozoa Pictures, Passion Pictures, Real Lava, Documist and Associação Jupaú in association with Time Studios and XTR Doc Society Climate Story Fund
Valley of the Bears — Rob Murray Films
LIMITED SERIES
Dynasties II — BBC Studios Natural History Unit, BBC America, Bilibili
The Green Planet — a BBC Studios production for BBC, PBS, Bilibili, ZDF, China Media Group CCTV9, France Télévisions & The Open University
Welcome to Earth — Protozoa Pictures, Westbrook Studios, and Nutopia for Disney+ and National Geographic
Wild Babies — a Humble Bee Films production for Netflix