Produced by Silverback for National Geographic UK, directed by Charlie Hamilton James and with Jeff Wilson taking producer credits, “Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story,” won Wildscreen Festival’s Golden Panda for best production, as well as Panda Awards for producer/director and scripted narrative.
David Attenborough's BBC Series 'Asia' Sells to China as Shanghai London Forum Eyes British Content Quota Boost
Other Panda Award winners included BBC Studios’ ‘Wild Isles: Ocean’ (cinematography), Nat Geo-Wildstar’s ‘Queens’ (best series and production management team), Juli-Perpetuo’s ‘Patrol’ (impact), BBC Studios’ ‘The Watches 2023 (sustainability) and Netflix’s Chimp Empire (editing and music).
“Billy & Molly” had its world premiere at Match’s South by Southwest and recently secured six nominations in the 9th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Producer Jeff Wilson said he originally pitched the doc to Nat Geo as a Mary Poppins-style story in which an otter sheds light into a man’s world and makes the world a better place.
Taking place in Bristol, the U.K., Wildscreen is a nature doc-focused bi-annual event that includes master classes, technical presentations and industry talks. This year’s edition welcomed 1,400 participants from 61 countries. Industry execs discussed the current outlook of the nature documentary scene – which is adjusting to tighter budgets after the content spending boom peaked in 2021.
Key trends identified during the fest include greater focus on adventure expedition shows, genre-blending series and shows that can develop into long-running brands.
Nat Geo’s senior VP for development and production Janet Han Vissering explained that the company’s main priority is series, with fewer, bigger and better shows, including upcoming projects such as Wildstar’s 10-part series “Underdogs,” narrated by Ryan Reynolds, Silverback’s feature film, “Ocean” presented by David Attenborough, and two landmark bluechip nature documentary series co-produced with the BBC’s Natural History Unit – the four-year project, “Lion” and the 10-year project, “Home.”
Nile Media Boards Documentary on World Record Hurdler Tobi Amusan (EXCLUSIVE) - Mipcom Bulletin
James Smith, head of adventure at Plimsoll has just completed feature film “The Devil’s Climb” for Nat Geo, and says that streamers and broadcasters are more interested in stories about people in adverse natural settings.
Jack Bootle, head of specialist factual commissioning stated that the BBC aims to spend around £44 million ($57.2 million) over the next four years on nature documentaries with 26 projects in production, representing 110 hours in programming. New BBC series include “Spy in the Troop,” “An Hour on Earth,” “Matriarch” and “Asia.” Sreya Biswas, head of natural history, aims to commission shows with interlinked episodes and thereby encourage binge watching on BBC iPlayer, using cross-episode story arcs, returning characters and cliffhangers.
Walter Koehler, CEO of Vienna-based Terra Mater Studios, one of the world’s biggest producers of nature documentaries, says that the market remains stable for natural history projects, although he has faced difficulties with his recent feature film, “Orca: Black and White Gold,” because of its political dimension, involving Russia and China.
Independent producer Greg Boustead, who previously directed Sandbox Films, is focusing on auteur-driven documentaries, such as Sara Dosa’s 2022 Oscar-nominated “Fire of Love,” and Sundance-player “Nocturnes,” by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan. “On ‘Fire of Love’ nobody wanted to touch the project and we ended up financing it ourselves,” he explained to Variety .
“When it went to Sundance there was a bidding war. I don’t mean that the industry is broken, it’s just that I want to take risks on projects that are quieter, softer, weirder, and when they do go on to bidding wars and multi-million dollar deals I hope it motivates other people to take those risks as well.”
Paramount Commits to Multi-Platform Deal for Men's and Women's Australian National Soccer - Global Bulletin
Local News
Comments / 0