Ivory trade exposé and Chris Packham earn top wildscreen gongs

A documentary exposing the brutality and corruption of the global ivory trade, made with backing from Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, was named as the 2016 winner of the WWF Golden Panda Award, the international wildlife film and TV’s industry highest accolade.

The Ivory Game (2016, DP Richard Ladkani), a Netflix Original, produced by Terra Mater Film Studios (Austria) and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Productions (USA), with DiCaprio as executive producer, beat 43 other titles from 11 countries to lift both the best in festival trophy and the Panda Award for best theatrical entry at Wildscreen, which is now the world’s biggest festival of screen-based nature storytelling.

At the same ceremony, held at Bristol’s Colston Hall, British TV presenter, author and photographer, Chris Packham, received the festival’s Panda Award for Outstanding Achievement.

Lucie Muir, CEO of the charity behind the biennial festival, said, “A major talking point at this year’s Wildscreen Festival has been the growing success of independents, not only at finding fresh ways to tell wildlife stories, but also new ways to share them. Our Golden Panda winner, The Ivory Game, is one example of this – as gripping as a thriller drama in style, and soon to be shown by an on-demand channel with the unique ability to put an urgent conservation story in front of a huge global audience very speedily.”

Muir added, “Another example is the festival’s recognition of Chris Packham, who embodies what Wildscreen stands for – an extremely talented storyteller who shares his personal passion for the natural world via film, television, photography and online networks and, so, ignites the same care and enthusiasm in very many others, especially younger people.”

The Wildscreen Panda Awards ceremony 2016 was hosted by television presenters Steve Backshall and Liz Bonnin, and attended by a capacity audience of industry representatives, celebrity guests, media and the public.