A BRISTOL-based independent film company is hoping to secure a second series of its children's wildlife television show after winning two international awards.

Ammonite, a film production company based in Cotham, picked up two gongs at the 2008 Panda Awards held in the city earlier this month.

The organisation, which has five staff, saw off competition from Sir David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood and the BBC's Earth: The Power of the Planet to win the best series award for Smalltalk Diaries.

It also took the honours in the Parthenon Award for Innovation for its work with Clifton-based firm Big Squid.

Ammonite was the only company to win two top prizes at the ceremony, which was hosted by actress Joanna Lumley and held as part of the Wildscreen Festival.

Now the company is hoping to win a contract for a second series of Smalltalk Diaries. Episodes of the 10-part first series were screened on CBBC, BBC1 and BBC2.

The shows, aimed at six to 10-year-olds, use advanced filming techniques and computer-generated imagery to explore the lives of insects in a humorous way.

Hilary Prosser, a director at Ammonite, said: "The awards were a massive achievement and we ended up doing much better than the BBC.

"We are now hoping to get another series of Smalltalk Diaries commissioned and we've got all sorts of other projects in the pipeline which we can't talk about yet.

"There were so many great natural history shows, but none addressed the younger audience, which is why we came up with Smalltalk Diaries. We thought children were getting a bit short-changed.

"We knew Smalltalk Diaries was brilliant and had been working on it for two years in production and on development for two years before that."

The Panda Awards, which have been running for 26 years, are the most prestigious in the natural history film-making calendar.

More than 420 entries were received this year, and 22 prizes were awarded at the ceremony at Temple Meads' Passenger Shed.