Sisbro Studios Wins KIDS FIRST! Best of the Year Award
SISBRO STUDIOS WINS KIDS FIRST! BEST OF THE YEAR AWARD
Best Educational Short, Ages 5 to 12
Santa Fe, New Mexico - December 5, 2009 - In an award ceremony at the Santa Fe Film Festival, KIDS FIRST! announced its prestigious Best of the Year Awards, giving Sisbro Studios' wildlife film The Riddle in a Bottle, which teaches children how the world is connected by water, the award for Best Educational Film, Ages 5 to 12.
KIDS FIRST! is the world’s largest film festival, run by the Coalition for
Quality Children's Media, a national, nonprofit organization that evaluates,
rates and endorses children's feature films, DVDs, videos, CDs, TV shows and
interactive media.
“KIDS FIRST! is one of the
most respected organizations dedicated to encouraging high-quality,
developmentally appropriate programming for children, so I am absolutely
honored to win one of their Best of the Year Awards,” said co-director Laura
Sams.
Now in its tenth year, the KIDS FIRST!
Film Festival showcases new and classic children's films. To meet
the KIDS FIRST! criteria, a film must feature no gratuitous violence, no racial
or cultural bias, no inappropriate sexual behavior, no replicable unsafe
behavior and no condescension towards children. The Festival reaches an audience
of more than one million people each year.
More than 800 titles were
submitted to the KIDS FIRST! Film festival, only 300 were accepted into the
festival, and finally five nominees were chosen in each category. KIDS FIRST!
Best Awards are very competitive, voted on by attendees at more than 100
different venues throughout the year, with the final selection made by senior
jurors.
Other 2009 Best of the Year first place winners include Elmo’s
Christmas Countdown from Sesame Workshop, Ish from Weston Woods
and Goosebumps: The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight from Twentieth Century
Fox Home Entertainment.
“We
received a generous grant from the Save Our Seas
Foundation (SOSF) to purchase underwater camera equipment to make
the movie. We spent two years capturing footage of underwater animals, from
Florida to Hawaii to Michigan,” said co-director
Robert Sams. “Because of the success of The
Riddle in a Bottle, which was a pilot for a series called The Riddle Solvers, we are partnering
again with SOSF to make a new episode about sharks.”
The Riddle in a Bottle, filmed and directed by award-winning wildlife
filmmakers Laura and Robert Sams of Sisbro Studios, tells the story of two
siblings who must solve a mysterious riddle from the ocean. The story features vivid footage of
loggerhead sea turtles, dolphins, tide pool fish, frogs and a singing
pirate. The movie helps children learn
how life on earth is connected through currents, tides, weather and ultimately,
moving water.
The Riddle in a Bottle also inspired an award-winning children’s book called
A Pirate’s Quest, winner of the
Midwest Book Award for Best Children’s Picture Book.
About Sisbro Studios
Founded in 2001, Sisbro
Studios creates award-winning high-quality movies, books, music and educational
media that entertain and inspire children to learn about and explore the
natural world. Sisbro Studios has been presented with over 50 international
awards for its smart and entertaining product offering. Product families
include: The Riddle in a Bottle, Lost
in the Woods: The Movie, Stranger in
the Woods: The Movie and Bearly Alike
for films, A Pirate’s Quest for
books, and Lost in the Woods: The
Soundtrack, and Stranger in the
Woods: The Soundtrack for music. For more information about Sisbro Studios,
visit www.sisbro.com.
For information about KIDS
FIRST!, visit www.kidsfirst.org.
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