Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We are excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs.
SIMA Awards:
Congratulations to SIMA 2023 Finalists! Stories from 31 countries have advanced as finalists in the 11th Annual Social Impact Media Awards. From decolonization to destigmatization; from witchcraft to war torn; from Russia to Myanmar, this year’s SIMA finalists are unparalleled in their ability to delicately dance between light and dark and expertly expose the seductive forces at play coercing society to turn a blind eye. Winners will be announced on February 9, 2023.
SIMA Academy:
The second edition of The SDG Challenge: Advancing Media Information Literacy and Global Citizenship Education Through the Power of Film has ended, and we are so proud of the winning educators from Canada, Japan, India, The Philippines, and Bhutan who unlocked the power of film to take their students beyond school walls, inspiring them to be media and information literate global citizens and active contributors to a more equitable and sustainable world.
We are happy to announce that every month we curate one stunning playlist of impact storytelling to share with our global audience. Our latest Spotlights featured handpicked films to create awareness around Homeless Youth, Tolerance, and Indigenous Wisdom.
Also, we inaugurated an Impact Stories section on SIMA Academy's website to put a face to educators, students, and changemakers using films to catalyze social transformation in their communities. Through articles, testimonies, case studies, and interviews, everybody can get closer to our real impact.
SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema:
International organizations at the forefront of 21st Century Education, such as UNESCO-APCEIU, have integrated SIMA film screenings into their programming to celebrate and discuss current issues, including International Day of Elimination of Violence Against Women and International Day of Persons With Disabilities. Additionally, professional development organizations started using SIMA films to make their training more relevant and engaging. More than 190 educators and changemakers have joined these events.
Presented in partnership with USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, students produced the USC GLOBAL STORY FEST 2022, featuring a lineup of SIMA films to create awareness about the issues of Secondhand Fashion + Sustainability, Reproductive Rights, Domestic Violence, and Mental Health.
SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:
Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact, we have added four new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community. GEN Center for Arts and Sciences is a Uruguayan institution designed to produce interdisciplinary projects in order to build bridges between Art, Science, and Technology. Luna Impact is a video production company and creative consultancy based in Los Angeles, CA, serving brands working in the nonprofit and advocacy space with high impact marketing and diverse storytelling. Through an exhibition, Sympoeisis explores how one of humanity’s oldest crafts and industrial forms–the making of clothing–has shaped our relationships to the land, our bodies, and each other. Finally, Ashish's Journey is a feature documentary that sheds light on how an international event like the World Cup is truly experienced from the point of view of the people who are making it happen.
Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs!
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA
Links:
Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We are excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA Awards:
It’s official! The 11th Annual Social Impact Media Awards (#SIMA2023) is now open for submissions! We are seeking original, wise, brave, eye-opening and creative productions that capture and illuminate the pulse, people and movements behind today’s global issues, including production companies whose body of work demonstrates excellence in creating responsible impact through diverse formats of visual storytelling.
Finalists and winners are eligible for entry into SIMA’s global impact distribution programs, SIMAx/SIMA RAMA and SIMA Academy, which bring stories to audiences, communities and classrooms around the globe, democratizing access to social issue filmmaking.
SIMA Academy:
The second edition of The SDG Challenge: Advancing Media Information Literacy and Global Citizenship Education Through the Power of Film is on! In partnership with UNESCO-APCEIU, 160 educators from across the globe are participating in this online course.
We celebrate the expansion of our collaboration with Inspire Citizens, extraordinary partners spreading the love for SIMA ACADEMY at conferences in Europe and Asia, as well as integrating the platform as a resource to enhance their own work with school partners in areas of humane technology, eco-media, and civic literacy.
SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema:
International organizations at the forefront of 21st Century Education, such as UNESCO-APCEIU, have integrated SIMA film screenings into their programming to celebrate and discuss the current issues of Oceans, Youth, Indigeneous Rights, Democracy and Education. Additionally, professional development organizations started using SIMA films to make their training more relevant and engaging. More than 160 educators and changemakers have joined these events.
Purpose-driven organizations, such as the LightHouse Studios and Formidable Joy have hosted screenings as a fundraising strategy for their impact projects.
SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:
Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact, we have added six new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community (two narrative films and four documentary films). Blurring The Color Line follows director Crystal Kwok as she unpacks the history behind her grandmother’s family, who were neighborhood grocery store owners in the Black community of August, Georgia during the Jim Crow era. Floating Away is a heartfelt story about a loss of childhood innocence and love letter to the deep affection and commitment rooted in sibling bonds. The Uraon Culture is a documentary film about the Uraon tribal culture in Bhutan that is losing its identity with urbanization. ICONIC explores how the issues of mental health and homelessness are both intrinsically linked and stigmatized in mainstream media. The film examines how easy it is to crumble from the top tier of our society into oblivion, following the story of Rose, an iconic and offbeat beauty industry “celebrity.” Futurism: Comparative Genomics is a four-part animated documentary series about scientists working to solve one of the greatest challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century: how we age well in the future. Distilled is a documentary following Asmir Hadzibeganovic, a Bosnian war refugee, who is now an entrepreneur living in Berlin.
Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA
Links:
Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We are excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA Awards:
The Winners of The 10th Annual Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA 2022) have been announced! The art of storytelling is alive, and it cracked wide open in this year’s lineup.
From the tales of journalists shifting paradigms in the sociopolitical landscape of their countries in Best Feature Documentary Winner, SOFTIE, and Best Director & Best Cinematography Feature Documentary Winner, WRITING WITH FIRE, to the examination of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s escalating attacks on the media told through the story of his prime target, journalist Maria Ressa, in Best Editing Winner, A THOUSAND CUTS, and the citizen-journalistic viral confrontation of a powerful senator on an airplane in Lens to Action Jury Prize Winner, NOT GOING QUIETLY, it is for certain that, from activists to artists and to audiences, the power of storytelling unites every movement across the globe.
Congratulations to these inspiring and courageous filmmakers who have dedicated their lives and talents to moving, enlightening, and transforming our world. They have set a new gold standard for impact filmmaking, and we are in awe of their work!
SIMA Academy:
More powerful and beautiful than ever before, SIMA Classroom is now SIMA Academy with all films streaming in optimum speed and quality via our new OTT platform. Now accessible across all devices and including a new recommendation algorithm, instant queue features, and thematic search functions for keywords, subject areas, locations, and more, SIMA Academy is here to serve 21st century literacy, global citizenship education, and cross-cultural teaching with dynamic and engaging 1st class storytelling resources.
SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema:
Purpose-driven organizations, such as the Indigenized Energy Initiative, have integrated SIMA impact film screenings into their programming to activate their communities around issues that matter. Indigenized Energy Initiative is a first-of-its-kind effort to build the capacity of Native American tribes to replace their extractive energy systems with clean regenerative solar energy, restoring their economies, sovereignty, self-determination, and hope.
SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:
Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact, we have added four new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: Cannabis Media Council uses the power of media to uplift compelling campaigns that show positive experiences with cannabis and normalize consumption across generations. Third Wheel Material is a short film series that tells an engaging story about black masculinity, mental health, and human connection within the Black community. New Me is a series of three-minute social media episodes following an inexperienced college freshman that struggles to find herself in a world where social media controls and pressures the narrative of young women. Loud & Queer is a music and visual art event centering the voices of our BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ community.
Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA
Links:
Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA Awards:
Congratulations to the SIMA 2022 Finalists! 40 stories from 25 countries have advanced as finalists in the 10th Annual Social Impact Media Awards. With rich storytelling, unparalleled access, and innovative new mediums, this year’s SIMA 2022 Finalists journey deep into the heart of our world for audiences to bear witness to the uncertainty, volatility and hope kindling the flames and heeding the call of revolution and rebirth. Winners will be announced in February.
SIMA Classroom:
The 2022 SIMA Teacher Award is now accepting applications! In partnership with Qatar Foundation International, our annual global award is a recognition for outstanding accomplishments and dedication to using media resources to foster global competencies. Award winners get access to a professional development scholarship up to $1,000 Value & lifetime access to SIMA Classroom.
We greatly appreciate the invitation of Thomas Starr King Middle School Film Arts Magnet in Hollywood, Los Angeles to participate in the Facing the Future Together Conference to introduce SIMA Classroom to the school’s educators. Together we explored the power of films to advance Global Citizenship Education and take students' engagement to the next level.
Congratulations to the winners, finalists and special mentions of The SDG Challenge hosted in partnership with Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO. We celebrate the courage and changemaking spirit of 10 educators from 6 different countries who unlocked the power of film to take their students beyond school walls, inspiring them to be media and information literate global citizens and active contributors to a more equitable and sustainable world.
SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema
Purpose-driven organizations have integrated SIMA impact films screenings to their programming to activate their communities around issues that matter. The 49 Percent, a female-led media company using women’s storytelling to advocate for sustainable change based in Israel, hosts a monthly Feminist Film Clubwith a powerful and unique line-up. These past months a global audience has enjoyed the films A Thousand Girls Like Me, A First Farewell and Equal Playing Field.
Air Amber, a social enterprise based in Singapore that works to positively impact communities through impact education, screened SIMA Collection film, The Judge, to explore topics of resilience and human connection.
Human Rights Watch’s Film Club in Los Angeles offers digital film screenings + live discussion to its audience. This month is featuring The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel, a cry for social justice, democracy, and transformative solutions.
SIMA Staff Pick
Through our Staff Pick we pick stunning work of impact storytelling to share with a global audience free of charge, for the love of impact cinema. During the past months, we virtually screened Nobody Dies Here, a short documentary about the Perma gold mine in Benin; Beyond the Pipeline, a film showing the struggle of indigenous peoples for their land and the world’s biodiversity; and Goodwill Dumping, a film showcasing the journey that discarded pieces of clothing make and what kind of impact this has on local industries. More than 450 people enjoy these eye-opening stories.
SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:
Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added 5 new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: Bonus Babies is a podcast shining a light through the cracks in the child dependency system. It depicts the daunting complexity of the foster care maze by broadcasting the true stories of the kids who’ve been forced to navigate through it and the people who care for them. Executive Producer is a benefit concert to raise funds for Musicians on a Mission in Ventura County. They offer free instruments and lessons to children in their community. Ibach a documentary film about the Frank family who escaped the Holocaust to Philadelphia and has resored his story through music. Texas, USA -is a narrative film about progressive politics in the state of Texas. Early Worlds is a narrative film using a multiverse lens to demonstrate the transformatory role of education in marginalized communities.
Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.
Thank you once again for your continued support of SIMA! We’re excited to share our most recent updates from each of our programs with you.
SIMA Awards:
Our 9th Annual Awards is officially open for submissions! We are calling for original, wise, brave, eye-opening, and creative stories that capture the massive paradigm shifts taking place across the world. Films, production companies, and funders who raise important questions about the state of our past, present and future, and inspire viewers to reflect on the meaning and potential of social activism and transformation are invited to submit their work.
Finalists and Winners are eligible for entry into SIMA’s global impact distribution programs, SIMAx/SIMARAMA and SIMA Classroom, that bring stories to audiences, communities and classrooms around the globe, democratizing access to social issue filmmaking.
SIMA Classroom:
In partnership with Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO, we launched the first two collaborative courses: The SDG Challengedesigned to train educators in using the power of film to advance Global Citizenship Education and the course Film as a Tool for Advocacyfor young leaders who want to gain practical skills and hands-on experience on how to use authentic visual storytelling to advance their own advocacy work in their communities.
In June, the Student Film Club together featured the winner of The First Annual SIMA Student Award introducing Iffany Zou and her Food Waste podcast along with the SIMA film that inspired her work: A Thousand Suns. The annual global SIMA Student Award celebrates the impact storytellers of the future awarding students who have utilized SIMA’s social impact films as a springboard for their own creative impact projects.
In August, the Student Film Club was presented by GlobalLighthouse Studios featuring Stories from the Field and Green Gold followed by a virtual exchange around Food Waste. The first story explores the challenges and innovations for grassroots development programs and under-resourced farmers in Bangladesh, while the second one witnesses the desperate water shortage faced by local communities in Chile due to our global appetite for avocados.
SIMAx & SIMA RAMA Virtual Cinema
Local leaders around the globe keep screening SIMA impact films on our newly launched Virtual Cinema platform SIMA RAMA to activate their communities around issues that matter. Organizations and change-makers use the virtual cinema for special events and as part of their programmatic activities. For instance, The 49 Percent, host a monthly Feminist Film Club with a powerful and unique line-up. These past months a global audience has enjoyed the films Ahead of the Curve, Peace is a Woman Issue, and A Girl From Mogadishu. UNESCO-APCEIU is hosting monthly screening + post screenings discussion panels and workshops to commemorate international days such as World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development ( Film: Undivided ), World Refugee Day ( Film: LifeBoat) Day of Indigenous People ( Films: Cheran: A Burning Hope and Beyond the Pipeline) and Youth Day ( Films: How Far is Home and What about our future). Collectively over 2,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual screenings.
SIMA Staff Pick
Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In June we virtually screened One Leg In, One Leg Out, a portrait of a woman wondering whether ambition, tenacity and a life long dream are enough to overcome a challenging situation. In July we virtually screened The Gender Line, a documentary film about a trasgender rockstar reflecting on his personal and professional life, having lived on both sides of the gender line. Finally, in August we offer a global screening of Cast in India, a glimpse into the working lives of the men behind iconic and ubiquitous manhole covers in New York City. Collectively over 1,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual screenings.
SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:
Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added 2 new projects to our growing Fiscal Sponsorship Community: Untitled: An Abolitionist Game - a Digital Game and a Card Game rooted in the principles of abolitionism and transformative justice- Dividing Line a narrative film presenting the real-time journey of a young doctor, Lily, who breaks down under the psychological pressure of an accident case.
Also, KUSUNDA, a SIMA Fiscal Sponsorship Project won the Grand Jury Storyscapes Award at the Tribeca Film Festival this year. Congratulations!
Thank you so much for giving us wings and for enabling us to maximize the impact of our programs.
With warmth and gratitude from all of us at SIMA.
Links:
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