February 7, 2012
Hollywood Feature Films Lead the Nominee Pack for Genesis Awards
War Horse, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Rio and Dolphin Tale are Cited by Nation’s Largest Animal Protection Organization for their Animal-Friendly Themes
DreamWorks’ Academy Award-nominated War Horse, Twentieth Century Fox’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Rio, and Alcon Entertainment’s Dolphin Tale lead the diverse field of 58 nominees for The Humane Society of the United States’ 26th Genesis Awards. Honoring the news and entertainment media for their outstanding reporting and creative portrayals of animal protection issues in 19 categories, The HSUS’s 26th Genesis Awards, hosted by Dancing with the Stars’ Carrie Ann Inaba, will be presented at a gala ceremony on Saturday, March 24, 2012, at The Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, Calif. The event will air as a one-hour special on Animal Planet in May.
“It was an outstanding year for major feature films with strong animal protection content and, most significantly, a combined domestic box office gross of $468 million - $1.17 billion worldwide. Animal welfare concerns, such as chimpanzees being used in research which is addressed in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, are reaching huge audiences, thanks to the quality and engaging storylines of these films,” says Beverly Kaskey, senior director of HSUS Hollywood Outreach and executive producer of the annual Genesis Awards.
In other major categories, the IMAX film Born to be Wild 3D, Buck and One Lucky Elephant are nominated for the Feature Documentary award, while Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait (BBC America), Madonna of the Mills (HBO) and Nature’s Broken Tail: A Tiger’s Last Journey (PBS) are in contention for the TV Documentary honors. Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, Fox’s The Cleveland Show and ABC Family’s Melissa & Joey are up for the Sid Caesar Comedy Award, and A&E’s The Glades and CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 are in line for the Dramatic Series award. Contesting the Talk Show category are the doyennes of television, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Martha Stewart Show.
The world of television, print and online journalism continues to be a constant and groundbreaking source of animal protection coverage, with many notable contenders in this year’s various news media categories, including: ABC’s 20/20 and World News with Diane Sawyer, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, NBC’s TODAY and NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, HLN’s Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, Vanity Fair, O, The Oprah Magazine, National Geographic magazine, NY Times.com, The Atlantic.com, and McClatchy Newspapers.
Tickets are available at humanesociety.org/genesis.
The 26th Genesis Awards is sponsored in part by Misix, Market Development Group, The InterGroup Corporation, Hilton San Francisco Financial District, Prai Beauty Group, Tenet, Euro RSCG Edge, Honda, One Car One Difference and Modern Dog.
26th Genesis Awards Nominations
FEATURE FILM
DOLPHIN TALE Alcon
Entertainment
RIO Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Studios
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Twentieth Century Fox/Chernin Entertainment
WAR HORSE DreamWorks SKG
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
BORN TO BE WILD 3D Warner Bros. Pictures, IMAX
Corporation
BUCK Sundance Selects, Cedar Creek Productions
ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT Crossover Productions, Sandbar Pictures
SID CAESAR COMEDY AWARD
THE CLEVELAND SHOW Ain’t Nothin’ But Mutton Bustin’ FOX
THE COLBERT REPORT multiple issues Comedy Central
MELISSA & JOEY Toledo’s Next Top Model ABC Family
DRAMATIC SERIES
THE GLADES Swamp Thing A&E
HAWAII FIVE-0 Lapa’au CBS
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMMING
NICK NEWS WITH LINDA ELLERBEE Dangerous Crossroads: Human Animal vs. Wild Animal Nickelodeon
SID THE SCIENCE KID Save the Stump! PBS Kids
TV NEWSMAGAZINE
20/20 egg farm cruelty ABC
ANDERSON COOPER 360 multiple issues CNN
E:60 cockfighting ESPN
ISSUES WITH JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL multiple issues HLN
NATIONAL NEWS
ABC WORLD NEWS WITH DIANE SAWYER egg farm cruelty
CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC multiple issues
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS multiple issues
LOCAL NEWS FEATURE
KHOU-TV (Houston) multiple issues
KPHO-TV (Phoenix) CBS 5 Investigates Canned Hunts
KTLA NEWS AT 10 (Los Angeles) multiple issues
WPMI-TV (Mobile) Alabama’s Blood Sport and Training to Fight
LOCAL NEWS SERIES
KTNV-TV (Las Vegas) LOLAA Kennel
WOIO-TV 19 ACTION NEWS (Cleveland) Torture at the E6 Cattle Ranch
MORNING NEWS SHOW
SUNDAY MORNING BATS! from Barry Petersen CBS
TODAY multiple issues from Jill Rappaport NBC
TODAY Online Puppy Sales from Lisa Myers NBC
TALK SHOW
THE ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW multiple issues
THE MARTHA STEWART SHOW vegan cooking
THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW vegan challenge
TV DOCUMENTARY/SPECIALS
GORDON RAMSAY: SHARK BAIT BBC America
MADONNA OF THE MILLS HBO2
NATURE Broken Tail: A Tiger’s Last Journey PBS
REALITY SERIES
ANIMAL PLANET INVESTIGATES: CAPTIVE HUNTING EXPOSED
CRIMES AGAINST NATURE Blood Ivory and Making a Killing Nat Geo Wild
IT’S ME OR THE DOG Bone Of Contention Animal Planet
VANGUARD Tiger Farms Current TV
BRIGITTE BARDOT INTERNATIONAL
KOPI LUWAK / ETHICAL CONSUMERISM Carte Blanche M-Net South Africa
THE MEDAN CONNECTION Carte Blanche M-Net South Africa
OUTSTANDING WRITTEN WORD
MAGAZINE
MOTHER JONES The Cruelest Show on Earth by Deborah
Nelson
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
multiple articles Editor in Chief, Chris Johns
O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE multiple articles Editor in Chief, Susan
Casey
VANITY FAIR Agony and Ivory by Alex Shoumatoff
SERIES OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER Janet Patton
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS Chris Adams
THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT Philip Walzer
ONLINE AWARD
THE ATLANTIC.COM multiple articles on wild horses by Andrew Cohen
LA TIMES.COM multiple issues by Dean Kuipers
NY TIMES.COM multiple issues by Mark
Bittman
TIME.COM multiple issues by Krista Mahr, Alexandra Silver, and Bryan
Walsh
BRIGITTE BARDOT INTERNATIONAL
THE INDEPENDENT (UK) multiple articles by Martin Hickman
SOUTH ASIA magazine (Pakistan) Importance of Animals in Islam by Nilofar Ahmed, Social Justice And Ethics by Anees Jillani, and a commentary by Syed Rizvi
THE SUNDAY TIMES (UK) multiple articles by Daniel Foggo, Simon Parry,
and Hannah Ashwell
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE AWARD
PRISM A Call to Compassion from Our Brothers the Animals by
Kendra Langdon Juskus
ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER Finding Faith in God’s Creatures by B.G. Kelley
Media Contact: Sue Blackmore, HSUS Hollywood office: 310 440 0600; sue@hsushollywood.org.