4 more awards for our crabs and squirrels!
Two wildlife films I worked on are being very well received at various wildlife filmfestivals. Not only do they get multiple nominations, they also win awards!
With 3 awards the Darßer Naturfilm Festival 2019 has been extremely kind to us:
'Going Nuts, Tales from the Squirrel World'
(Altayfilm) won the BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD and the AUDIENCE AWARD. These are of course very special recognitions for a camera operator. Not only does the camera work of our team stand out and got noticed by the jury and considered as (one of) 'the best'; it's also clear that spectators enjoyed our film very much and that's probably the highest recognition you can get as a filmmaker.
For this documentary I filmed the sequences on prairiedogs and Californian ground squirrels stealing from acorn woodpeckers so I have to congratulate my fellow camera operators on this project too for their tremendous job! Of course a big thank you and congratulations to the entire team and everyone involved for making this wonderful squirrel docu!
'Realm of the Robber - Christmas Island' (Atara Film) also won an awards: BEST SOUND DESIGN.
No great images without great sound and music! And that's exactly what the 'sound & music team' created. Composer Oliver Heuss wrote fantastic scores that capture the tropical and lazy atmosphere on Christmas Island and matched perfectly with the crazy crab behavior we filmed. Sven-Michael Bluhm has succeeded in bringing all of these crabs (and other creatures) alive and closer to you than you could ever imagine!
Mixed together, the sound design created an amazing ambience and great suspense and also added an awful lot of humor to our sequences (e.g. the robber crabs hunting and the red crab spawning). Unbelievable what these two gentleman pulled off in post production and extremely grateful this has been awarded by the jury.
Last but not least:
'Going Nuts, Tales from the Squirrel World' (Altayfilm) also won the GRAND PRIX / BEST OF FESTIVAL at the Festival International du Film Ornithologique Ménigoute 2019 (France). A grand merci to the jury and all the squirrel-loving people of this charming festival!
NOMINATIONS
Both films also got nominated for GRAND PRIX / BEST OF FESTIVAL at this years Festival International Nature Namur. The Christmas Island film also got a nomination ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR at the Wildlife Film Festival Rotterdam 2019.
