Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival Announces Film Competition Finalists

Jackson Hole, WY, July 21, 2003 – The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is pleased to announce the slate of Finalist films selected by the Preliminary Jury for the Festival’s 2003 film competition. Twenty Judges representing the Festival’s Board of Directors considered a field of some 550 entrants during a week of deliberation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Final judging will take place immediately prior to the September Festival and will be announced at its Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner, slated for Thursday, September 25th. Credits and synopses of the Finalist films can be accessed via the online Film Guide at the Festival website (www.jhfestival.org).

Best Animal Behavior Program
sponsored by World Wildlife Fund
Snake Killers of the Kalahari – National Geographic
Social Climbers/ Life of Mammals – BBC
Tale of the Hare and the Sun – ORF

Best Children's Program
sponsored by National Wildlife Foundation
China Bear Special: Really Wild Show – BBC
Giant Monsters – Animal Planet/National Wildlife Federation
One Child One Voice – Barbara Pyle Foundation

Best Earth Sciences Program
sponsored by American Geological Institute
Journey to the Center of the Earth – Green Umbrella, Limited and Discovery Channel
Mysterious Life of Caves – NOVA
Water's Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida – Karst Productions

Best Environmental Program
sponsored by Conservation International
Ape Hunters – BBC
A Mystery in Alaska – Nature
State of the Planet with David Attenborough – Discovery

Best Limited Series
sponsored by Quantel, Inc.
The Life of Mammals – BBC
Monsters We Met – BBC
Wild Africa – Discovery Channel and BBC

Marion Zunz Newcomer Award
sponsored by Granada Visual
Flip Flotsam – Etienne Oliff and Lucy Bateman (Kenya)
Pale Male – Frederic Lilien (Belgium)
Viva Vicuna – Christian Baumeister (Germany)

Best NonBroadcast Program
sponsored by Lobo Media Productions
Laboratory Rat: A Natural History – Oxford University
Mountain Gorilla: Pushing the Boundaries for Conservation – Bruce Davidson
Say No to Bushmeat – Conservation International

Best People & Animals Program
sponsored by National Geographic Channels International
Beetle Battles: Kwang Bang – Becker Entertainment
Cost of Freedom – 21st Paradigm
Pale Male – Frederic Lilien, FL Productions

Best Short Program
Deadly Sounds in the Silent World – The Whaleman Foundation
Journey of the Tiglax – Odyssey Productions
The Whooping Crane with Peter Matthiesen/Expedition Florida – Wild Tracks Productions

Best Theatrical Program
sponsored by Fletcher Chicago
Bugs! – SK Films
Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees – Science Museum of Minnesota
Winged Migration – Sony Pictures Classics

Best Web Presentation
Florida's Springs: Protecting Nature's Gems – Fusionspark Media, Inc.
GreenWorks.tv – EFP/Greenworks
Mercury Rising: Bearing Witness to Climate Change – Fusionspark Media

Craft Categories:
Best CGI/Animation Award
sponsored by Marco Polo Archive GmbH
Animals: The Inside Story – 4:2:2
Monsters We Met: Program 1 "The Eternal Frontier" – BBC and Animal Planet
When Dinosaurs Roamed America – Discovery

Best Cinematography Award
sponsored by Eastman Kodak Company
Iguanas – Living like Dinosaurs – BBC
Wild Africa: Mountains – Discovery Channel and BBC
My Halcyon River – BBC

Best Musical Score
Danger in Tiger Paradise – BBC, Animal Planet, and Mike Birkhead Associates
Hornets from Hell – National Geographic
Snake Hunter: North America – National Geographic

Best Achievement in Sound
sponsored by Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
Cosmic Africa – Presented by Cosmos Studios
Shark Battlefield – BBC and Discovery Channel
Ultimate Enemies: Elephants and Lions – HellionSBR

Best Editing
sponsored by LaserPacific Media Corporation
Iguanas: Living like Dinosaurs - BBC
Limits of Perception - ORF/Austrian Broadcasting Corp.
My Halcyon River - BBC

Best Writing
sponsored by Writers Guild of America, west
Bilby Brothers-The Men Who Killed The Easter Bunny - written by Pamela Rushby and produced by Gulliver Media Australia
Cheetahs: A Race to Survive - written by Carol and David Hughes and produced by National Geographic
Temple of the Tigers: India’s Bandhavgarh Wilderness - written by Harry Marshall and produced by Icon Films

In addition to the finalist lineup, the following films were recommended to the Film Festival's Final Jury for special consideration:

Cosmic Africa – Presented by Cosmos Studios
Cultured Ape – Scorer Associates
The Future is Wild – 4:2:2/Animal Planet
Hands and Claws – Ucucu Productions
Limits of Perception – ORF

The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is a non-profit organization whose primary mission is: "To encourage the production of natural history programming around the world by providing nonfiction filmmakers and broadcasters with an international film forum to conduct business, test new equipment, refine program production techniques and continue to seek new and more effective ways to promote awareness and sensitivity to wildlife and wildlife habitats." With some 700 industry professionals participating in the biennial, week-long festival and over 550 entrants in its film competition, the event hosted by the organization is considered the most prestigious event of the natural history film genre.

The Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival is sponsored by 22 global organizations. They range from major broadcasting corporations and production companies to post-production houses and conservation organizations. The Festival's Board of Directors includes: American Geological Institute, Animal Planet, BBC Natural History Unit, Crawford Communications, Discovery Channel, Dolby Laboratories, Eastman Kodak Company, ERWDA, Fujinon, Granada Wild, LaserPacific Media Corporation, Lobo Media Productions, National Geographic Television, National Wildlife Federation, Natural History New Zealand, Nature/WNET, NHK/Japanese Broadcasting, ORF/Austrian Television, Panasonic Broadcast and Television Systems, Sony Electronics, the Turner Foundation, and Writer’s Guild of America, west.