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FIFDH GENEVA 2022 FIFDH Industry

Peace For Nina wins the 2022 FIFDH Impact Days Award

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- The film project by Ukrainian director Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych has received the €15,000 prize at the hybrid industry event

Peace For Nina wins the 2022 FIFDH Impact Days Award
The team behind Peace For Nina with their FIFDH Impact Days Award, with director Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych attending via video call

The fourth edition of Impact Days, the industry programme of Geneva’s International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH), drew to a close last night in the Swiss city, in a hybrid format that directly reached over 900 people who were tuning in from 70 countries. The 2022 FIFDH Impact Days Award was bestowed upon the Ukrainian film project Peace For Nina, directed by Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych.

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The film tells the story of a Ukrainian woman tirelessly campaigning on behalf of her dead son and the countless other victims of the undeclared war that Russia has waged on Ukraine for the past seven years. As Nina begins to come to terms with the loss of her son, she resolves to collect evidence of his murder and pursue her lone crusade to bring this war crime to the attention of Ukrainian and international courts. The project is a Ukrainian-Swiss production by Maksymenko-Dovhych, Lyuba Knorozok and Dea Gjinovci.

Director Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych and producer Lyuba Knorozok could not attend in person, owing to the ongoing war in Ukraine, but were attending online. They are working on the final edit and post-production at the moment, amidst the current situation, and hope to release the film this year.

The Impact Days Award consists of a €15,000 strategic impact package provided by the UK’s Think-Film Impact Production, a market-leading company with specialist expertise at the cutting-edge intersection of film and policy. They will work with the winning project to develop a comprehensive impact roadmap that harnesses the film’s impact vision and delivers measurable impact outcome. Think-Film founder and executive director Danielle Turkov said: “With the active invasion of Ukraine, the topic of war crimes is more timely than ever. We're honoured to help elevate this important film and, together, start bringing justice to the people of Ukraine.”

Laura Longobardi, head of Impact and Industry at the FIFDH, mentioned: “It’s been amazing to see so many filmmakers from around the world here in Geneva, determined to use their films as tools for concrete change. NGO engagement with the impact ecosystem has also been huge this year. We’ve really been able to broaden and deepen this space for exchange, learning and meaningful collaboration, which are so necessary in these difficult times!”

This year, 16 documentary projects participated in the Impact Days (see the news), and the programme brought together filmmakers, impact producers, NGOs and funders to build collaborations and common strategies to strengthen human rights movements through cinematic storytelling. It should be noted that last year’s projects raised €200,000 of direct funding to implement their impact campaigns. This time, less than 24 hours after the edition drew to a close, thanks to the support of International Media Support (IMS), €10,000 have already been generated for the projects Baghdad on Fire and Peace For Nina. These projects will also receive a further €10,000 apiece in matching funds thanks to the partnership with The Storyboard Collective, a Geneva-based philanthropic organisation. Baghdad on Fire, directed by Karrar Al-Azzawi and produced by Jørgen Lorentzen for Norway’s Integral Film, follows a young woman taking part in the democracy movement in Iraq.

Finally, a newly established partnership with subtitling company Sublimages will allow one project to reach strategic audiences in specific territories thanks to the provision of free translation and subtitling for their film. This year’s winning project is From Cold War to Green War, directed by Anna Recalde Miranda, and produced by Hernan Mazzeo (Lardux Films), Ilaria Malagutti (Mammut Film) and Sergio Ayala (Sisyfos Film Production). The film aims to demonstrate how the legacy of dictatorships in Latin America continues to have a devastating effect today.

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