Ignite Lasting Change with Community Film Events

 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.

Selected productions with potential to inspire change will be invited into SIMA’s sought after year-round distribution programs that bring stories to audiences, communities and classrooms around the globe, democratizing access to social issue filmmaking with an emphasis on what happens after the credits roll: i.e. impact through community engagement, coalition building and education.

SIMA Classroom: 

SIMA Classroom is a global, ever-current and expansive streaming platform presenting the gold standard of social-issue cinematic storytelling.

In these unprecedented times, some things have become evident: there are urgent issues we need to tackle without delay and we need to collaborate and unite to find long term solutions.  In order to contribute to this common endeavor, we have launched the RACIAL JUSTICE PLAYLIST, with a carefully curated selection of films confronting viewers with our history and our present reality of racial injustice, and the UNPLASTIFY PLAYLIST and lesson plan to invite students to connect emotionally with the topic of plastic pollution and get inspired to take action.

Also, in partnership with Qatar Foundation International we co-created the ARAB WORLD VISION playlist and challenge highlighting the importance of cross-cultural understanding, respect, and tolerance to overcome global challenges as a community. Additionally, the ARABIC HONOR SOCIETY  has joined the Student Film Club enabling hundreds of students to watch monthly film picks on pressing global issues and to attend a virtual exchange with experts and changemakers.

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. Our virtual screening partners included the U.S Embassy in Singapore, U.N. Woman Los Angeles, Human Rights Watch LA, Downbeat Entertainment, PeaceBoat U.S and UNDP. By attending single screenings + discussion panel events or entire film festivals with community engagement opportunities our virtual audiences rallied in support of the climate, racial justice, and the empowerment of children on the autism spectrum, reaching over 2500 viewers per month. 

Together with Cinépolis Foundation, U.N Mexico and SDSN Youth we inaugurated the 2020 edition of the Mira Film Fest, an online impact film festival + online webinars series aimed to bring the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to life. Over 2,850 people across Mexico were inspired and actively engaged in the festival. 

SIMA Staff Pick

Through our Staff Pick we make one award-winning SIMA film available for free online each month. In July we virtually screened Pay2Playwhere we shined a spotlight on the injustices of the U.S election process using Monopoly as a metaphor. In August we virtually screened Goodwill Dumping where audiences witnessed the journey that discarded pieces of clothing make and what kind of impact this has on local industries. Finally, in September we offer a global screening of Desert Migration—a beautiful exploration of the struggle of HIV positive men trying to rebuild the lives they thought they’d never be able to live. Collectively over 3,000 audience members across the globe tuned into these virtual events. 

SIMA's Fiscal Sponsorship:

Supporting projects at the intersection of creativity and social impact we have added nine new projects to our Fiscal Sponsorship Program; including 3 projects focused on sustainable development, one equity disaster relief fund, one media platform and mentorship program meant to address the disproportionate impacts the war on drugs and criminalization of cannabis has had on low-income and communities of color, a documentary following four children as they experience Holocaust education in the public school system in rural Germany amidst the resurgence of the far-right and xenophobia, as well as a documentary about the NRA, Russia and the 2016 U.S electiones, and finally two feature length documentaries following very different yet similar stories of people going through the border crossing experience. So far these projects have raised over $112,500 through SIMA.

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:

• SIMA Studios