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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TAKES HOME THE HIGHEST HONORS AT 2001 JACKSON HOLE WILDLIFE FILM FESTIVAL
Nationalgeographic.com Wins the Only Web Award of the Festival—First Award of Its Kind
WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 4, 2001)—National Geographic won four awards at this year’s Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, one of the world’s top competitions for wildlife and environmental film and television production. Included is the best of festival award, the Grand Teton, presented by the jury of judges to the film “that most effectively uses the medium of the moving image to advance an appreciation of the natural world.” This year, the Grand Teton was won by NGT’s Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse (to premiere on National Geographic EXPLORER as Haunt of the Hippo next month on MSNBC), a co-production with Survival Anglia Ltd. Additionally, nationalgeographic.com won the only Jackson Hole Wildlife Festival website award for Best Web Presentation for its highly acclaimed Congo Trek site (nationalgeographic.com/congotrek).
Held once every two years, the festival’s mission is to encourage the production of natural history programming around the world by providing non-fiction filmmakers and broadcasters with an international forum to conduct business, test new equipment, and refine program production techniques. Over 650 films were entered in the overall competition, competing in the 14 categories. The awards were announced at a ceremony and gala dinner on Saturday, September 29, in Jackson, Wyoming. National Geographic was nominated in seven of 14 categories.
“Animal behavior is an area that National Geographic has traditionally covered to great acclaim. We are delighted to have won this year’s highest honor for Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse, which documents rarely seen hippo behavior. Production of the film required two years of extremely difficult fieldwork and filmmaking challenges beyond the imagination. Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble produced a magnificent film,” said Keenan Smart, Head of NGT’s Natural History Unit, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
“This is a tremendous achievement by National Geographic EXPLORER’s team of wildlife filmmakers. I’m particularly delighted that we will be broadcasting these shows in our new season when we launch on MSNBC this month. At a time when there’s a real need for good family shows, we’ll be presenting some of the most visually stunning and exciting wildlife and adventure programming on television today. We’ll be offering our viewers an experience that simply can’t be gotten elsewhere—and these award-winning shows are the best of the best,” said David Royle, Senior Vice President for Production, NGT and Executive Producer of EXPLORER.
“We are honored to be the first to win the Best Web Presentation at this festival for wildlife and environmental films,” said Mitchell Praver, President of nationalgeographic.com. “Nationalgeographic.com is the epicenter of adventure and exploration. We designed Congo Trek to extend the viewing experience of EXPLORER and to place the viewer in the middle of this incredible expedition in the Congo. It’s great to be recognized for our achievement and the synergies of the world of film and the Internet.”
2001 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival winners for National Geographic:
Grand Teton Award
Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse (aka Haunt of the Hippo) National Geographic EXPLORER/MSNBC (co-production with Survival Anglia Ltd.)
Producers: Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble
Best Animal Behavior Program
Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse (aka Haunt of the Hippo) National Geographic EXPLORER/MSNBC (co-production with Survival Anglia Ltd.)
Producers: Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble
Best Short Program
Living with Hippos/National Geographic EXPLORER/MSNBC
Producer: Stella Crane
Best Web Presentation
Congo Trek/nationalgeographic.com
Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse (aka Haunt of the Hippo) and Living with Hippos will premiere on National Geographic EXPLORER on Sunday, November 11, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT as part of the award-winning series’ new season on MSNBC. The upcoming November issue of National Geographic magazine will also include a feature article photographed and written by producers Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. Mzima: Haunt of the Riverhorse (aka Haunt of the Hippo) recently won the Grand Award at the 5th Japan Wildlife Festival in Toyama, Japan last August.
Three other independent documentary winners from Jackson Hole, The Great Dance (Best People and Animals, Best Editing, and Best Achievement in Sound), The Curse of the Methuselah Tree (Best Environmental) and Secrets of the Turtle Tomb (Marion Zunz Newcomer) will also premiere in the upcoming months on National Geographic Channel internationally.
Nationalgeographic.com has received every major industry award including most recently the 5th annual Webby Award for the best education Web site.
Building on its reputation for remarkable visual and compelling stories, NGT augments its award-winning documentary production (winner of a total of 109 Emmys and more than 800 other industry awards) with feature films, large-format, and long-form television drama programming, as well as international broadcast and video distribution. At present, NGT’s programming can be seen in the U.S. on the National Geographic Channel, MSNBC, and PBS as well as on home video & DVD, and internationally through video distribution and broadcast syndication in more than 100 different outlets in some 90 territories. The National Geographic Channel in the U.S. is a business enterprise of National Geographic Television (NGT) and Fox Cable Networks Group. Abroad, those partners are joined by NBC, and the Channel reaches 129 countries and over 100 million households in 18 languages. More information about NGT is available on www.nationalgeographic.com.
Contact:
Terry Lynn Smith
National Geographic Television
202 775 6146
tsmith@ngs.org
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