A&E, Big Fish, Brent Montgomery Among Winners At Inaugural NPACT Impact Awards
Brent Montgomery won NPACT’s first Inspiration Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction.
  • SANTA MONICA, Calif.
  • --

NPACT, the entertainment trade association dedicated to serving the producers of non-fiction entertainment content, held its first annual NPACT Impact Awards on Monday night (6/4) at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, with A&E scoring a pair of honors--Network of the Year and Network Development Executive of the Year. The latter went to A&E’s Elaine Frontain Bryant. Meanwhile, for the top Network award, A&E topped a field which also included Bravo, History, Investigation Discovery (ID), National Geographic, Netflix and Oxygen.

Created to celebrate the impact of nonfiction content and the people who make it, the NPACT Impact Awards also honored Big Fish Entertainment as Production Company of the Year, WME as Agency of the Year, and David O’Connell of Bravo/Oxygen as Network Production Exec of the Year.

Additionally, for his work championing the nonfiction industry and support of the production community, award-winning producer and entrepreneur Brent Montgomery received NPACT’s first Inspiration Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction.
 
Montgomery began his career as a producer, working on series like The Bachelor and Blind Date, before launching his own Leftfield Pictures. He sold his first series in 2008 and created the behemoth hit Pawn Stars for History the following year. Leveraging that success, he built super-indie production house Leftfield Entertainment, which was acquired by ITV in 2014; in 2015, Montgomery was named CEO of ITV America. Earlier this year, he stepped down from his post to return to his creative and entrepreneurial roots, founding new media and marketing venture Wheelhouse Entertainment, where he currently serves as CEO. Montgomery was a founding member of the Nonfiction Producers Association (NPA), which merged in 2017 with TV trade group PactUS to create NPACT.
 
Said NPACT general manager John Ford, “It’s been four years since eight maverick producers decided to put their money where their mouths are and launch the first-ever trade organization dedicated to growing and nurturing the nonfiction TV production industry (NPA, the Nonfiction Producers Association, which in 2017 merged with pactUS to form NPACT). Now--more than 100 member companies strong--we felt the time was right for the creative voice of the industry to thank and celebrate the people whose talent, hard work and commitment keep our business thriving. From documentary and reality to competition and talk, nonfiction is a major part of the entertainment landscape, and is only getting bigger.”

Comedian, actor and TV host Bob Saget emceed the NPACT Impact Award proceedings.

Here’s a rundown of the evening’s winners:

Network of the Year
A&E
 
Agency of the Year
WME
 
Production Company of the Year
Big Fish Entertainment

Network Development Executive of the Year
Elaine Frontain Bryant (A&E)
 
Network Production Executive of the Year
David O’Connell (Bravo/Oxygen)

Inspiration Award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction
Brent Montgomery

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