Impact Days 2024: it’s a wrap!
The unique event which unites filmmakers, NGOs, international organisations and philanthropists, is thrilled to announce its 2024 prizewinners!
FIFDH Impact Days has just wrapped up its most successful year yet! The FIFDH’s Industry program, dedicated to forging impactful connections between filmmakers and influential figures from organizations, policymakers, and financiers, within Geneva’s global network and beyond, has concluded its sixth edition. This year’s edition:
- Welcomed over 200 impact participants from 24 countries for a series of global case studies, talks, training sessions and curated networking opportunities.
- Facilitated one hundred twenty one-to-one meetings, matching potential partners on common social justice and environmental issues
- Ran the pitching session, giving 16 selected impact projects increased public exposure.
- Presented the Impact Africa: Community Screening Grant, a new partnership between The StoryBoard Collective, Sunshine Cinema and the FIFDH, to grant 10,000 CHF, a solar-powered mobile projector plus a training programme to use it. It was presented to the film Between the Rains, by Andrew H. Brown and Moses Thuranira, selected in the festival competition. Producer Samuel Ekomol received the grant.
- Brought to Geneva professionals from organisations such as OXFAM International (Belgium); the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The Netherlands; or ILO Brazil, – a unique opportunity to hear from those organisations which are producing short and feature films for their advocacy actions.
- Received increased and new support from national and international partners including the City of Geneva, Fondation Leenaards, Haas Foundation, Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, The StoryBoard Collective, Philanthropia Fondation, the Federal Office for Culture via Media Desk Suisse, and the US-based Ford Foundation and the International Resource for Impact & Storytelling, IRIS.
And the winners of the Impact Days are…
Following our October 2023 open call we received 170 documentary impact projects from all around the world. Sixteen of these were selected to participate in our annual Impact Lab by a committee based in Colombia, Denmark, Jordan and Switzerland. The sixteen teams then worked online for several weeks with tutors from Colombia, Kenya, the UK and France, to produce an impact strategy and pitch for presentation to potential partners and funders in Geneva. Of these sixteen projects, three received special awards. Through the stories they have chosen to tell and the impact campaigns developed around these, our 2024 prizewinning teams are fighting for cultural preservation of the Quechua language, exploring new models of masculinities through sharing feelings in a football pitch, and climate-driven conflict in Kenya.
The StoryBoard Collective works to build capacity in media impact production via strategic partnerships and direct grants. The StoryBoard Impact Award of 10,000 CHF was presented to:
Hakuchu Munayta by Augusto Zegarra Pineda-Arce (Peru)
A young indigenous man is trying to save his language from extinction. His dream: to dub The Lion King into Quechua, the language of the Incas. His journey will make him re-examine his role as a father to Dylan, his 8-year-old sidekick.
The Sublimages Award provides free translation and subtitling for greater reach to strategic audiences, for an average value in kind of € 2’000. It was awarded to:
Brotherhood of Weeping Men by Helena de Castro (Brazil)
For 30 years, on the isolated island of Fernando de Noronha, a group of men have been meeting every week to play football, eat and drink, and cry together. A ritual of letting out the tears that has become an essential part of their lives.
The StoryBoard Collective decided to give support to a 3rd project after following the pitching session. Similar to what they had done the day before (see above), Impact Africa: Community Screening Grant. In partnership with Sunshine Cinema, they will grant 5,000 CHF + a solar-powered mobile projector + training to use it. It was presented to:
The Battle for Laikipia by Peter Murimi (Kenya) and Daphne Matziaraki (Greece)
In some parts of Kenya, when it rains things are calm, and when it doesn’t, there is violence. Climate change and an unresolved history raise the stakes in a generations-old conflict between indigenous pastoralists and landowners in a wildlife conservation haven.
Producer Toni Kamau and impact producer Elsie Kariuki were present in Geneva to pitch the impact campaign and receive the grant.
The Impact Days team would like to warmly thank those who came from all corners of the world to share their powerful stories. We wish you all the best on your future impact journeys!
Our next call for projects will be in September!