BRISTOL: The Wildscreen Panda awards, often referred to as the Green Oscars, were given away here in honour of wildlife films that celebrate the diversity of the natural world.These include two from India.

The BBC's Natural History Unit left its stamp on Wildscreen 2006 by bagging nearly half of the 21 awards. Its Life in the Undergrowth series, marked by the use of advanced filming techniques that magnify the many dimensions of insect life won the Golden Panda for best entry; Bonobo - Missing in Action got the best conservation film prize; the Pole to Pole episode of its Planet Earth series, featuring dramatic aerial filming sequences, brilliant colour and high-quality sound was adjudged best entry for the Kodak award for cinematography.

Sir David Attenborough, the familiar host of many of these films, producer Mike Salisbury and members of the BBC production teams, were present at the awards night on October 18 in Bristol.

From India

Two Panda awards went to projects from India: Cherub of the Mist, a 53-minute film on the endearing Red Pandas of the Himalayas made by Bedi Films, won the `Wildscreen Award to promote film-makers from developing countries.' Last Dance of the Sarus, a short news expose produced by Global Broadcast News on the threat to the Sarus from an airport project, took the top spot in the news category. Among the entries from India, four made it to the finals.

The Wildscreen festival, which is celebrating its 25th year amid fears for the future of a large number of plants, animals and habitats owing to climate change, is set to come to India. With a selection of nine award-winning films it will be in Chennai between January 23 and 25, 2007. It will also go to New Delhi, Pune and Kolkata. The British High Commission and the British Council are bringing Wildscreen to India. It will be held as an organised festival complete with technical discussions. There will be screenings and discussions with panellists, workshops, master classes and interaction with film-makers. Wildscreen chief executive Harriet Nimmo told Indian journalists that Indian film-makers have been actively participating in the Bristol festival: there were a record number of entries this year.

Range of subjects

In the finalist section, A Green Agony directed by Geeta Singh of iStylus turns the spotlight on the danger from climate change to the future of the tiger and other species in the fragile Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem; Village of Dust, City of Water by Sanjay Barnela of Moving Images is a documentary on the divisive water politics of dams and canals that affects rural India even as urban India wants to keep water flowing in its pipelines; Wild Dog Diaries made by Krupakar Senani Features tracks one of India's lesser-known predators, the `dhole'.

At Wildscreen 2006, delegates and visitors voted on whether global warming, which is affecting many species, is humanity's No. 1 problem. There were 255 votes in favour of this motion in the first vote but that number swelled to 272 after a debate on the subject featuring U.K. Sustainable Development Commission chairman Jonathan Porritt, writer Fred Pearce, Professor Philip Stott of the University of London, and Professor James Woudhuysen of De Monfort University, Leicester.

The festival (www.wildscreenfestival.org) included an exposition of filming technologies, post-production work and the emergence of the high definition format.