UKIMAX picture Bugs! has won the Panda Award for Best Large Format Film at theUK's Wildscreen Festival, the Oscars of the wildlife film world.

Theaward comes as Bugs! heads towards the $20m worldwide box office grossmark, having completed its run in only 34 of the 104 IMAX theatres that have sofar booked the film. Bugs! is currently playing in 53IMAX theatres around the world.

Bugs!, narratedby Judi Dench and directed by UK's Mike Slee, is the first large format 3D feature to have had significant UKfinancing in this case from The Film Consortium in association with UK FilmCouncil, and the UK Film and TV Production Company Plc.

The40-minute film, which features at least 40 insects, was shot on location in thejungles of Borneo and in the UK, where a microcosm of a tropical rainforest wasreplicated in the studio for extreme close-ups.

Bugs! is produced by Phil Streather,.CEO of Principal Large Format, and Alexandra Ferguson, with Jonathan Barker, president and CEO of distributor SK Films,Simon Relph, and UKFTV's PeterFudakowski serving as executive producers.