Awards

Programs produced, directed and/or written by Geoff Haines-Stiles and Erna Akuginow, either individually or through PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE/GHSPi have been honored with America's most prestigious awards, including three national Emmys, the George Foster Peabody Award, the Ohio State award for Television Excellence, the AAAS award for Broadcast Journalism, and many more. In 2013, Haines-Stiles and Akuginow were recipients of AGU's Robert C. Cowen Award for "Sustained Contributions to Science Journalism."  The citation read, in part:

Akuginow and Haines-Stiles were honored for more than 30 years of pioneering documentary films and television series that explore Earth and space sciences with remarkable breadth and depth and astute perception of what's new, important, and fascinating in science... The award also recognizes Akuginow and Haines-Stiles for contributing to excellence in science communication through extraordinary opportunities they created for scientists and general audiences to share knowledge and excitement about science in events the filmmakers organized in museums or other venues and on social media.

Earlier awards include:


  • American Film Institute Video Festival
  • American Women in Radio & Television, Crystal Award
  • Association of Trial Lawyers of America TV Award
  • Chicago Film Festival Award
  • National CLARION Award
  • National Headliners' Award
  • National Press Association Best Documentary Award
  • National Press Photographers' Association
  • New York Film Festival, Gold Medal
  • Pennsylvania Bar Association, Schnader Memorial Award
  • Philadelphia Press Association, Best Writing/Reporting Award
  • Rotterdam Film Festival Award
  • San Francisco Film Festival, Gold Medal
  • SECA Award
  • The CHRISTOPHER Award
  • Virgin Islands Film Festival, Gold Medal
  • Women in Communications, Sara Award
  • Writers' Guild Award

Selected Filmography

Consensus Sense & We Brake 4 Climate (AAAS)

The Real PlutoPhiles (NASA, APL)

ETOM (PBS)

Kili 2012 (NSF, The GLOBE Program)

  • "It Takes A Village to Climb a Mountain"
  • "The Vanishing Snows of Kilimanjaro"

Passport to Pluto and Beyond (Science Channel, NASA-TV)

Looking for Life

To Mars With MER

The PASSPORT TO KNOWLEDGE Series (Public TV and NASA-TV)

Lily Tomlin's "Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life in the Universe" (Creative Consultant to the feature film)

CHILDHOOD (WNET, PBS)

American Patchwork with Alan Lomax (PBS)

  • "Cajun Country"
  • "The Land Where The Blues Began"
  • "Appalachian Journey"
  • "Jazz Parades: Feet Don't Fail Me Now"
  • "Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old"

Together to Mars? (KCET/PBS)

Life on Ice: Antarctica and Mars (PBS)

Overdrawn At The Memory Bank (American Playhouse, PBS)

NOVA (PBS)

  • Is Anybody Out there?
  • The Rocky Road to Jupiter
  • Can The Next President Win The Space Race?
  • Confessions of a Weaponeer

Creation Of The Universe (PBS)

Cousteau Odyssey (Production Executive, KCET, PBS)

Music in Time (PBS)

COSMOS (PBS)

EYE ON... (CBS)

  • A Question of Brutality
  • A Slice of Night
  • Camden: A Suitable Case for Treatment
  • Philadelphia: Art Past, Art Prolog
  • 1776 And All That
  • The Holocaust
  • Warnings From Inside
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