2023-03-14 17:15:44

Overview of Entries for Magnolia Awards丨Reflections from Nature-themed Films: To Care for the Planet, Our Only Habitat

 

From snow-capped glaciers to deep blue oceans, and from rare birds on plateaus to wild wonders, in this year, the Magnolia Awards of the Shanghai TV Festival have attracted an array of sophisticatedly made documentaries themed on nature and environmental protection. While unveiling the inherent beauty of natural landscapes and all living creatures, they’re also intended to provoke our thought about how to protect the earth - the shared home of all mankind.

 

FROZEN PLANET II

(UK/US/China/Germany/France)

 

FROZEN PLANET II, the annual hit of the BBC's Planet Earth series, returns 11 years after its first series. Taking the audience to the coldest places on Earth, be it in the ice fields, in the polar regions, or in the snow-capped mountains, it truthfully records the extreme environment and global climate change challenges faced both by human beings and wildlife, as a witness of the fragility and perseverance of life.

 

Such places as the poles, the snow-covered forests, the plains and the remote ranges of the north have managed to preserve their wonderful and diverse ecosystems that seemingly have not been directly affected by human activities. Isolated from the rest of the world, they are the territories of mysterious top hunters: wolves hunt huge bison on the vast snow field, killer whales pass on the secret of hunting preys from generation to generation, and the secretive Siberian tiger travels stealthily on the white snow ...

 

THE CALL OF THE PLATEAU

(China)

 

THE CALL OF THE PLATEAU tells the story of a 40-year-old Tibetan woman, Gadangcuo, and a 29-year-old Tibetan boy, Qujia, who take care of the black-necked cranes that come to breed in their summer pasture for years in the Nianbao Yuze area of Jiuzhi County, Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. Located at the eastern end of the source of the Three Rivers, this area is the home of nearly a hundred black-necked cranes, a national first-class protected animal. In recent years, the wetland area in Nianbao Yuze has shrunk due to climate change and increased human activities, posing more challenges to the survival of black-necked cranes. Since 2011, 16 local herdsmen, 15 of whom are women, have spontaneously established a non-governmental black-necked crane protection team. Herdsmen have shared a piece of land with black-necked cranes for generations, treat them as family members, and empathize with their misfortunes and blessings. In the plateau area where the ecological environment is so fragile, these herdsmen live and coexist with the rare black-necked cranes with age-old wisdoms.

 

A YEAR ON PLANET EARTH

(UK/China/US/Germany)

 

A YEAR ON PLANET EARTH has adopted unprecedentedly in filming a satellite perspective. Satellites, born with the ability to respond more quickly to wildlife wonders, extreme events and planetary phenomena, will be the ideal telescope for the magic, majesty and fragility of nature on the planet throughout the year. Traveled to more than 60 shooting locations, the crew recorded a myriad of charismatic animals, including African elephants, polar bears, blacktip sharks, chipmunks, brown bears, cheetahs, leatherback turtles, pandas, zebras, etc., to witness and experience the exclusive life journey of these animals across the four seasons.

 

THE POWER OF NATURE·THE CREATURES ON THE EARTH

(China)

 

It took five years for the creators to travel across China to film this work, almost equivalent to a round trip to the moon. The vast land is immensely varied in geological forms and climates. We have here elephants in the south and reindeer in the north, the largest ocean on Earth and the highest plateau ever seen in the world, and also great rivers rushing into the sea and lofty mountains and high ranges guarding the land.

 

In the past ten years, with effective policies, the habitats of wild animals in China have been restored with the populations of such animals growing rapidly as well. Rare and endangered species such as wild snow leopards and pandas have been "downgraded" in terms of protection level, and mysterious Bryde's whales frequently appear in the waters of Weizhou Island. THE POWER OF NATURE·THE CREATURES ON THE EARTH is a trip for the audience to witness the changes of ecological environment in China.

 

TITANS OF THE SEA: A FAMILY AFFAIR

(France)

 

Off the coast of Mauritius lives a family of veritable giants: sperm whales. Numbering more than two dozen, this family has 15 females and 11 offspring, as well as males returning from months of hunting in southern African waters. And this film faithfully mirrors the daily life of these ocean giants through the family.

 

It all started with the birth of baby Lana. Through her, we get to know the shy Arthur, the adventurer Elliot, the abused Romeo, the nanny Germaine and finally the prodigal Konas, around whom relatives gathered to celebrate his return. But this rapidly growing family will soon have to separate and regroup, to form new relationships and new families for their new life in the ocean.

 

 

These works, zooming in on the superior natural scenery and the ecological changes on earth through documentary lenses, celebrate the miracles of all living creatures, and thus touch a string among the audience, to convey the visions of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, protection of biodiversity and also a community of shared future on earth.

 

Please stay tuned to find which works will stand out for this year's Magnolia Awards!

Host Units: State Administration of Radio and Television   China Media Group   Shanghai Municipal People's Government

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