"72 Hours" primé au FIFDH Impact Day

The 2021 FIFDH Impact Day Award was presented to the project 72 Hours, directed by Anna Savchenko and produced by Isabel de la Serna. After the execution of her son, a grieving mother turns into an icon of resilience against the capital punishment.
 
The prize consists of an EUR 15 000 impact strategic package provided by Think-Film Impact Production, a market-leading impact company with specialist expertise at the cutting-edge intersection of film and policy.

For it’s 3rd edition, the Impact Day took place for the first time entirely online. Whilst this format presented new challenges, it also extended the reach of the event, resulting in over 850 people tuning in to its webinars from more than 70 countries worldwide!

“It’s been amazing to see so many filmmakers around the world with a growing ambition of using their films as tools for change. We’re so glad we’ve been able to expand more than ever this space of exchange and learning, so much needed in these difficult times!”, said Laura Longobardi, Head of the Impact Day.

Over the course of its six-week long programme, the Impact Day initiative featured five days of online activities, of which two public webinars featuring 12 speakers, a 3-part Impact Lab and almost one hundred pre-arranged 1-to-1 meetings.

As the Industry programme of the FIFDH, the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, the Impact Day is aimed at bringing together filmmakers and changemakers, to build synergies and develop common strategies to strengthen human rights movements through the use of cinematic storytelling.

> Discover the full programme

16 documentary projects from around the world, addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time, were selected for this edition of the programme. With the help of 5 experimented tutors, they were guided through the Impact Lab, a series of training modules which enabled the filmmakers to refine their ambitions and goals for their films, and identify the organizations they could partner with.

At the end of this training, the projects’ teams met with changemakers in meetings strategically curated by the Impact Day team. In total, 94 « 1-to-1 » meetings took place between 65 participants from 36 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oak Foundation, Perspective Fund, and the 16 projects teams, spread across 24 cities in 20 countries and in 10 different time zones!

The possibility to raise funding for their impact campaigns through these meetings has been further enhanced thanks to a partnership with the StoryBoard Collective, a recently-launched initiative of a Geneva-based Foundation, which will be offering matching grants for funding raised through collaborations initiated at the Impact Day, given certain conditions.

Following each meeting, the changemakers voted on the level of potential of each project to produce a positive impact. Each year these votes determine the winner of the Impact Award. For this year’s award, the FIFDH has partnered with Think-Film Impact Production (“TFIP”) to provide an impact prize to the most promising documentary in the programme selection. TFIP will work with the winning project to develop a comprehensive impact roadmap that harnesses the film’s impact vision and delivers measurable impact outcomes.

A wide range of other new strategic partnerships have enabled us to strengthen the outreach and content of this year’s programme. Through our international industry and media partners we were able to review projects coming from over 70 countries and reach filmmakers from five Continents who followed our live online events.

We extend our immense gratitude to all the partners and collaborators of the Impact Day, our webinar speakers and panelists, and our dedicated team of tutors.

See you all, hopefully in person, at Impact Day 2022!