2025 Editorial
Laura Longobardi, Laila Alonso Huarte, and Guillaume Noyé
Editorial co-directors and Operational and administrative director
Between Anger and Tenderness: Cinema to Rethink the World
A rollback of women’s and minority rights, Trump’s re-election, open conflicts, alliances between far-right movements and Big Tech giants, climate-sceptic policies… Barely begun, 2025 is already looking like the script of a dystopia.
Unable to steer the course of events, we find ourselves feeling powerless in the face of the climate emergency, disinformation, and the renewed surge of authoritarianism. How, then, can we make sense of a world whose markers evade us? How do we face shock and dread, and how can we decode the news without losing heart?
In a political space rife with rhetoric that stirs up hatred and fear—fuelled and sustained online—anger and indignation can be a powerful force for mobilisation. Yet it seems equally necessary to reshape our societies by placing care and solidarity back at the heart of our relationships.
This is the essence of this new edition of the FIFDH: an invitation to come together, to reflect on the values that bind us, and to explore the means by which we can defend them. Once again, the Festival harnesses the power of cinema to awaken, celebrate, and rally collective strength.
To observe, reflect, and re-engage – together: that’s the plan for these 10 days of the Festival.
Official Messages
Tim Enderlin
Ambassador, Head of the Peace and Human Rights Division, FDFA
Geopolitical and economic challenges are extraordinarily complex and fuel social and political tensions. In this climate, human rights must remain the international community’s guiding principle. They are universal, neither time-bound nor geographically limited, and they are non-negotiable. By placing respect for these rights at the heart of current affairs, the FIFDH sheds light on the many violations committed across different contexts today.
Switzerland pursues a variety of priority themes, including the abolition of the death penalty, the prevention of torture, the protection of freedom of expression, women’s rights, and the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights. Through films, discussions, and exhibitions, the Festival fosters dialogue, the exchange of ideas, and the confrontation of perspectives across these areas—while also building bridges. Such exchanges are essential in an increasingly polarised world. The Festival thus helps bring diverse audiences together. It aligns with Switzerland’s approach to always promote dialogue, including in its work within the Human Rights Council.
The FDFA proudly supports the Festival, which reminds us that International Geneva continues to play a major cultural and political role on the global stage. I am convinced that, by inspiring constructive reflections and a spark of optimism, the Festival can counterbalance the pessimism so readily provoked by the turbulence and uncertainties of today’s world.
Thierry Apothéloz
State Councillor
This 23rd edition of the FIFDH regrettably resonates as a genuine wake-up call. Since the Festival’s inception, never have international law, fundamental rights, and respect for minorities faced such brutal, overt assaults—even within democratic societies. No one can deny the urgent need for action if we wish to safeguard social justice and protect the freedoms of our civil societies.
In such troubling circumstances, the FIFDH provides an essential platform for reflection, debate, and action. It dissects and clarifies the mechanisms that culminate in authoritarian excesses and the swift erosion of rights so hard won. Confronted by the rise of extremism and the proliferation of fear or hate speech, the Festival encourages collective approaches that champion solidarity-based futures.
While the humanitarian aid system and multilateralism are likewise under attack—putting entire populations at risk alongside International Geneva—the FIFDH also helps us grasp the ramifications of such disengagement. In this time of crisis, cinema can and must serve more than ever as a beacon amidst the storm. We owe our gratitude to the FIFDH for giving it that vital role so effectively.
Alfonso Gomez
Administrative Councillor for the City of Geneva
In many ways, the current context is staggering. With the worsening climate crisis, the rise of populism and extremism, interminable deadly conflicts, and thunderous statements coming in particular from the United States, we are living through a complicated—and, let’s admit it, deeply troubling—moment in our history. Confronted by threats to fundamental freedoms, attacks on minority rights, disinformation, polarisation, and retreat, it is vital to stand up for the values of equality, justice, and sustainability—our only hope for the survival of humanity.
Over the course of ten days, the FIFDH will champion this cause in the finest of ways, amplifying the voices of women and men who have chosen to take a stand, sometimes at the risk of their own lives. Now more than ever, the Festival will serve as a space for reflection, but also for sharing and discussion, reminding us that despite the headwinds, the progressive movement is under way. And that it is our duty to uphold its values—with all our might—on screen, of course, but also through our everyday actions and struggles.
Sami Kanaan
Administrative Councillor for the Department of Culture and Digital Transition
The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) was born in a city that, for decades, has been home to major international organisations, proudly championed multilateralism, and staunchly defended human rights. Yet, as 2025 begins, Geneva finds these core elements of its DNA under attack from all sides.
At the time of writing, the United States—the largest funder of multilateral organisations—is announcing plans to cut most of its funding, endangering countries, regions, and populations already in a state of acute vulnerability. Closer to home, far-right extremism and its hateful ideology are gaining ground, threatening the rights of the weakest and most disadvantaged in our societies.
Confronted with this deeply concerning—and indeed terrifying—reality for both the world and Geneva, creating a space that places human rights at its centre, harnessing the power of images and storytelling, is absolutely crucial. The FIFDH, a showcase and mouthpiece for struggles and the defence of minorities and those under pressure, is once again meeting its mission thanks to a programme that is both incisive and wide-ranging—uncompromising, yet offering a measure of hope.
Enjoy the Festival!
Eléonore Sulser
Culture Journalist at “Le Temps”
Care, endurance, and beauty
Those pictured on the posters for this 23rd edition of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights are figures enhanced by flowers, branches, and leaves. Their clothing suggests a lack of wealth, yet not of beauty. Their skin and hair bespeak a great age. Their faces vanish behind lavish bouquets.
They are Zapotec people from Oaxaca, Mexico, the homeland of photographer Luvia Lazo. By documenting this once-flourishing Indigenous world that is gradually fading, she shares her culture and memory—and that of the elders. Yet in her images, colour bursts forth, flowers sing and soothe our gaze, making these grandparents seem youthful.
Uncovering abuse, exclusion, and hatred; documenting injustice; reporting on wars and their attendant atrocities; bearing witness to everyone’s stories; fostering dignity—this remains at the heart of the FIFDH.
The work of Luvia Lazo, a jury member this year, shows pathways of resistance, care, and endurance. It sets the strength of imagery, along with the cultures of nature and beauty, against erasure, poverty, and exclusion. And that, too, is the FIFDH.
Susanne Wille et Pascal Crittin
Directrice générale de la SSR et Directeur de la RTS
La SSR et la RTS sont fières d’accompagner la 23e édition du FIFDH, qui s’impose cette année encore comme un rendez-vous essentiel pour comprendre et questionner les enjeux de notre monde.
Face à une actualité internationale marquée par les bouleversements géopolitiques et les crises humanitaires, le Festival offre des clés de compréhension des perspectives différentes, documente les transformations de notre époque et donne la parole à celles et ceux qui façonnent le monde de demain, des éléments chers à notre mission de service public.
C’est donc tout naturellement que nous nous joignons à sa démarche et que nous renouvelons notre engagement auprès du FIFDH, que ce soit à travers la présentation de documentaires, la participation aux discussions ou la programmation sur nos antennes de moments forts du Festival.
Nous nous réjouissons de partager avec vous ces moments d’émotion et de partage qui font la richesse du FIFDH, et vous souhaitons un excellent Festival.
Karine Bruchez et Leila Bernasconi
Respectively President and Senior Adviser – Communications, of the Association of Geneva Municipalities (ACG)
The complete withdrawal of the United States from the Human Rights Council in February 2025 was a true wake-up call for the spirit that once united the signatories of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Decisions made by certain governments, increasingly focused on their own interests, augur poorly for an international institution committed to “peace, dignity, and equality on a healthy planet.” Added to this politically alarming context is the recent decision by social media giants to end fact-checking partnerships, threatening access to high-quality, verified information, which is essential to understanding today’s realities.
Fortunately, there is a major civil society event: the FIFDH. This Festival celebrates the dedication of all those who document and champion the voices of people whose fundamental freedoms are continually under threat. As a platform upholding these rights, the FIFDH amplifies the values of peace, dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity, protection, and security ; inalienable rights to which everyone is entitled.
Geneva’s local municipalities faithfully support this international gathering because they uphold these same values. They recognise themselves in this Festival, which promotes a spirit of solidarity and encourages closeness, tolerance, and an openness to diversity.
A huge thank you to everyone who organises and brings this event to life, carrying a message of hope for a better world!