Rights now!

The FIFDH is one of the most important events dedicated to cinema and human rights. For 20 years, it has been held every year in the heart of Geneva, the international capital of human rights, in parallel with the main session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Let's open the debate!

For 10 days, the FIFDH proposes films followed by debates that address and denounce human rights violations wherever they occur. Activists, NGOs, professors, diplomats, artists, activists, journalists and the general public are invited to gather and confront their points of view in this unique place. The debates are broadcasted live on fifdh.org.
 

The debates have featured Nobel Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Joseph Stiglitz, Tawakkol Karman and Dr Denis Mukwege. High Commissioners Michelle Bachelet and Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein. Activists Angela Davis and Nathan Law. Whistleblowerse Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Authors Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Arundathi Roy, Roberto Saviano, Alice Zeniter, Leïla Slimani and Philippe Sands. Artists Ai Weiwei and JR. Diplomats and politicians Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa and Leïla Shahid, but also Edgar Morin and Stéphane Hessel, along with many activists and field workers.
 

An international Festival of cinema

Two feature film competitions -fiction and documentary- offer a selection of swiss and international films presented in the presence of the filmmakers and protagonists.

The biggest names in international cinema have come to the Festival, including Angelina Jolie, Forest Whitaker, Gael García Bernal, Rithy Panh, Raoul Peck, Juliette Binoche, Reda Kateb, Hanna Polak, Aïssa Maïga, Abderrahmane Sissako and Nabil Ayouch.
 

The FIFDH is an unmissable event that attracts nearly 40’000 festival-goers each year in 80 locations in the Greater Geneva area: in the city’s centre, but also at the UN, in museums, theatres, migrant shelters, hospitals and detention centres. Our guests also participate in these sessions to offer everyone an inclusive Festival.
 

The Festival organises the HUMAN RIGHTS FILM TOUR in partnership with the DFAE; Swiss films and debates are brought to the world, with the support of Swiss Embassies and local NGOs. The tour has travelled through 60 countries since 2018, including Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Sudan, Belarus, Guatemala, Algeria, Bhutan and Madagascar.
 

The Impact Days bring together filmmakers, producers, NGOs and foundations to develop collaborative synergies and conduct Impact campaigns around films. A genuine link between filmmakers and International Geneva, the program attracts over 900 people from 70 countries each year.

The Impact Days also offer Swiss and international documentary projects - dealing with urgent and current issues - the opportunity to benefit from a training and support program over several weeks: the Impact Lab. Know more about > the Impact Days.
 

The Festival offers a vast program of films and debates for schoolchildren and students of the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute and film schools, including workshops and masterclasses. Throughout the year, the FIFDH offers a catalogue of themes and films on human rights, adapted to public and private secondary schools in the canton of Geneva. These educational sequences are produced by the Festival and are available online: “The FIFDH in your classroom”.

To know more about the school programme.
 

The FIFDH is supported by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the City of Geneva. The Festival works closely with 170 international partners, including Amnesty International, OMCT, HRW, MSF and the Swiss Film Library. Its professional program is supported by Doc Society, the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), Media Desk Switzerland and Suisseimage. The FIFDH is a founding member of the Human Rights Film Network, a network of 45 international festivals. Know more about >  the partners.

Its media partners are Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), SSR-SRG, Le Temps, ARTE, Euronews, TV5Monde, Courrier International and France Culture. Know more about the > media coverage of the FIFDH.

The Festival is supported by singer Barbara Hendricks, former Swiss President Ruth Dreifuss, filmmaker Rithy Panh, actor, filmmaker and activist Gael García Bernal and producer Abigail Disney. Sergio Vieira de Mello, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights tragically killed in Baghdad in 2003, was the Festival’s first patron.
 

Grand Geneva Award
10’000 CHF - Offered by the City and Canton of Geneva
Awarded by the International Documentary Jury

Gilda Vieira De Mello Award, as a tribute to her son Sergio Vieira De Mello
5’000 CHF - Offered by the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation
Awarded by the International Documentary Jury

Youth Jury Award
1000 CHF - Offered by the Peace Brigades International (PBI)

Fiction Grand Award
10’000 CHF - Offered by the Hélène et Victor Barbour Foundation
Awarded by the International Fiction Jury

Youth Jury Award
1'000 CHF - Offered by the Eduki Foundation

The World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) Award
5’000 CHF - Offered by the world Organization against Torture (OMCT) to a director whose film demonstrates his or her commitment to the human rights’ cause to help in the writing of his or her next film project
Awarded by the OMCT Jury

Special jury
Awarded by a jury composed of patients of HUG's Hôpital de jour.

Learn more about the FIFDH Cultural Actions

FIFDH Code of conduct

The FIFDH is a space for open and frank discussions, for sharing ideas, reports and analysis concerning human rights around the world. Featured films and debates address some of the most sensitive topics in the world today. By the simple fact of their participation, all those attending any part of the Festival and Forum commit to do so in a spirit of open-mindedness, respect and tolerance. Any form of discrimination, harassment, racism, sexism, homophobia, hate, political or social insult, or other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated in the scope of the FIFDH.
 

• Annual report 2022 (in French)
• Annual report 2021 (in French)
• Annual report 2020 (in French)

• Programmes and activity reports of the previous editions of the FIFDH