EMMY Awards Close to Home

South Africa’s own Wild Images walked away with two coveted Emmy’s last night (September 26, 2011) at the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The ceremony was attended by more than 900 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists, held at the Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in the Time Warner Center in New York. Emmy® Awards were presented in 42 categories, such as Outstanding Nature Programming, Best Documentary, and Best Historical Programming. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Larry King.

South Africa’s Wild Images was nominated for the esteemed EMMY as a part of National Geographic’s series Great Migrations. Wild Images won Best Cinematography, and Great Migrations took home Best Music and Sound.

Cinematographer, and Director of Wild Images, Richard Matthews commented on the achievement. “It’s a great honour, and brilliant news. But I was only one of a number of cameramen on the series so I feel rather like a remora carried along by a large fish in the ocean. Well done to all my fellow cameramen – but also to all the production team and the series producer David Hamlin who made the images look a million dollars in the final programmes. The shoot was memorable not only because of the fantastic team, but because I had a close encounter with an elephant seal in the Falklands which nearly took my arm off but instead vented its anger on my camera. So – a broken camera, a great yarn and an award – I’d do it all again like a shot!”

This is Matthews fifth EMMY win. For more of the winners, and highlights of the night go to www.emmyonline.tv. For more information on Wild Images go to www.wildimages.tv.