On the wild side 

Nature inFocus, a wildlife filmmaking community, announced the winners of Nature inFocus Film Awards at a live virtual event recently.
On the wild side 

BENGALURU : Nature inFocus, a wildlife filmmaking community, announced the winners of Nature inFocus Film Awards at a live virtual event recently. The second edition of the award ceremony received entries from several countries across the globe. The entries were strictly limited to wildlife movies shot on mobile phones.  A seven-member jury panel comprised founder-director of Dusty Foot Productions Rita Banerji, director at Riverbank Studios Gautam Pandey, natural history filmmaker Akanksha Sood Singh, conservation biologist Raghu Chundawat, wildlife filmmaker Joanna Van Gruisen and Drishyam Films founder Manish Mundra. 

The event was hosted by wildlife filmmaker Sara, jury curator and a member of the community’s advisory board. In the ‘Emerging Talent’ segment, Naman Govil and Mithun TM won an award in the ‘Conservation’ category for their film Guardians of Turtles, while Dipen Rangmang and Thejavikho’s Rearing Giants won an award in the ‘Natural History’ category.

Under the Professional segment, Nitye Sood and Malaika Vaz  were winners of the ‘Conservation Film’ category for their film Peng Yu Sai. Kadar and Pollachi Papyrus won a ‘Special Jury Award’. The Birds of Play by Upamanyu Das, Wings & Wetlands - A Story of Migration by Raghunath Belur and Sugandhi Gadadhar and Capuchin Culture by Luca Antonio Marino received a special mention. 

Winner in the special category, ‘Mobile Moments’, – Akash Dolas had shot a 1.5-minute-long documentary, Artisans in Nature, on a smartphone. The micro documentary showcases the intricate and dogged construction of a pot by a potter wasp. Potter wasps use mud pellets to mould an earthen receptacle, into which they lay eggs and stuff paralysed prey (fresh food for the newborns) before closing the pot.

The community organises a wildlife documentary film festival – ‘Nature inFocus Festival’, which had to be cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 situation.(The winning movies are available on Nature inFocus’ website.) 

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