And the winner is…. Toad People! My heart almost stopped at that moment. I could not believe this was happening. It was almost the end of the Panda Awards Ceremony, and we were literally at the edge of our seats.
The Panda Awards Ceremony, hosted at The Passenger Shed concluded the 2018 Wildscreen Festival, the world’s biggest global gathering of natural world storytellers. Held in Bristol, UK in October 2018, the biennial event convened more than 900 filmmakers, photographers, broadcasters and content creators from all over the world.
Our film Toad People was nominated for an Impact Award, a great honour for our small-budget film produced by the Wilderness Committee to be among the 37 nominees from 12 countries that the Wildscreen Festival had selected from nearly 800 film submissions.
The festival week was intense. Our film screening was hosted by award-winning television producer and presenter Lucy Cooke, who has been described as the new David Attenborough and has a passion for amphibians. We had a lively Q&A, and I was very happy to see children at the screening. They asked great questions. Later in the week, I was a speaker on a panel on conservation stories closer to home moderated by conservation photographer Neil Aldridge, with wildlife and conservation photographers Doug Gimesy and Luke Massey.
The highlight was of course the Panda Awards Ceremony. When I took the stage with co-director Mike McKinlay for us to receive the Impact Award from Walter Köhler, CEO of Terra Mater Factual Studios who have produced high-impact documentaries such as The Ivory Game, I thought what a journey it has been for our film! I could not quite believe that our little western toads had made it so far, from British Columbia to Bristol.
I am very proud the Panda Impact Award acknowledges the power of local communities that take action to save species at risk right in their own backyards, and this award is for all the people who work hard for endangered species.
It is big win, and I truly hope other people will be inspired by Toad People and realize that anyone can make a difference and help create impact for the natural world.
For more details, view some of the media coverage in English and French as well as my TV interview with CBC host Gloria Macarenko.
Photo credit: Jon Craig, Wildscreen