‘We know what to do, we just have to do it’

THE ANNUAL MIP SDG Award this year goes to Silverback. The Award will be collected by Jonnie Hughes, co-founder and director of Studio Silverback, a production company specialising in natural-history specials and series, notably Sir David Attenborough’s phenomenally successful film A Life On Our Planet, which was produced and directed by Hughes. Silverback Films’ co-founder Alastair Fothergill launched sister company Studio Silverback in 2020, its aim to focus solely on films that tackle the world’s pressing environmental challenges.

The MIP SDG Award was launched in the same year to highlight media companies’ action and contribution towards delivering the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by all United Nations member states back in 2015. This year’s Award is dedicated to SDG 13, Climate Action; SDG 14, Life Below Water; and SDG 15, Life on Land.

“In A Life On Our Planet, Sir David Attenborough didn’t hold back

— he told everyone how precarious our situation is. However, the last 20 minutes of the film is a very hopeful breakdown of the solutions we have within reach,” Hughes told the MIPTV Magazine. “We know what to do, we just have to do it, and hope is critical to this. If we become defeatist, we will never make the changes we need. Christiana Figueres [Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] talks of our duty to be stubborn optimists. A Life On Our Planet and some of our other productions, like The Earthshot Prize series with Prince William, support that idea.”

Hughes stressed the importance of communication in the battle against climate change. “Creating content that makes a difference is at the heart of everything we do at Silverback. Alastair, Keith [co-founder Keith Scholey] Colin [Colin Butfield] and I identified a few years ago that saving the planet is not just a technological challenge, it’s also a communications challenge,” he said. “We all need to hear the truth about our species’ impact on the planet and, importantly, a new story in which a sustainable future is an aspirational, achievable future.”

The MIPTV SDG Award and Keynote in partnership with the United Nations and featuring Studio Silverback’s Jonnie Hughes … Tuesday, April 18, in the Marguerite, Riviera 8 from 16.15 to 16.45

Melissa Fleming

Of the Award itself, Hughes added: “We have spent recent years coming up with creative ways to take this narrative to a mass audience, through mainstream wildlife series and features as well as our purpose-driven films. This Award feels like recognition that our efforts have not been in vain.” Hughes’ point of view is in line with the SDGs. “Broadcasters, producers, programmers, and journalists across the world play an essential role in drawing the world’s attention to conflicts, threats to peace and security, climate change, and economic and social issues,” UN Under-Secretary General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, said. “The United Nations has long-recognised how important they are in keeping audiences informed on the key issues of the day. In 2018, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres launched the SDG Media Compact to inspire media and entertainment companies to use their resources and creative talent to advance the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. What began with 31 founding media and en- tertainment companies has since grown into a powerful alliance of over 200 members around the world, spanning 160 countries on five continents with a combined audience of around two billion people worldwide.”

Fleming added: “Through its rich storytelling, Studio Silverback inspires audiences to better understand our planet and the challenges it faces. Around the world, nature is in dangerous decline. One million species of plants and animals face extinction while approximately 12 million hectares of forest are destroyed each year. Today, 60% of the world’s coral reefs are under threat. Alarmingly, human activity is at the root cause of all this destruction and it has to be reversed. It’s as the United Nations Secretary General tells us: there really is no Planet B.”