Festival du Film et Forum International sur les Droits Humains
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights - Geneva
FIFDH – International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Geneva – invites filmmakers, activists, NGOs, professors, diplomats, artists, activists, journalists and the general public to join, exchange and discuss their points of view. During the 10 days of the Festival and throughout the year, the FIFDH attracts more than 30,000 festival-goers to 80 venues in the Greater Geneva area — in the city centre, but also at the UN, in museums, theatres, collective accommodation centres, hospitals and prisons — with the aim of reaching out to a wide diversity of audiences and offering an inclusive event.Let’s open the debate!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 FILM FESTIVAL
Three international feature film competitions — fiction and documentary — offer a selection of committed films, in the presence of the filmmakers and protagonists. The films are at the heart of the FIFDH’s programme, as much for their artistic impact as for the subjects they address. They encourage encounters between the guests and the different audiences in order to lead to commitment. 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.
CULTURAL AND SCHOOL PROGRAMME
Screenings in hospitals and correctional facilities, events in reception and accommodation centres, solidary tickets, the FIFDH promotes cinema as an educational and inclusion opportunity. During the Festival, FIFDH for schools offers films and discussions for students. Throughout the year, teachers can also screen films in their classrooms via the Festival’s educational platform. Films and workshops for children and their families are also available during the Festival to address human rights issues from an early age.
INTERNATIONAL TOUR
FIFDH is organizing the HUMAN RIGHTS FILM TOUR, in partnership with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the United Nations Human Rights Council OHCHR, an international tour of Swiss films followed by debates offered around the world, with the support of Swiss embassies and local NGOs. The tour has visited 60 countries since 2018, including Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, Pakistan, South Sudan, Belarus, Guatemala, Algeria, Bhutan and Madagascar.
INDUSTRY PROGRAMME
Impact Days: an unique laboratory for socially engaged cinema
This programme brings together filmmakers, producers, NGOs and foundations to develop collaborative synergies and run impact campaigns around films. As a go-between for filmmakers and international Geneva, the programme attracts every year over 900 people from 70 countries. Impact Days also offers Swiss and international documentary projects — tackling urgent and current issues — the opportunity to benefit from a training and support programme over several weeks: the Impact Lab. A catalogue of projects, including thematic resources and films about impact campaigns, is available online.
THE FIFDH PROVIDES THREE PLATFORMS OFFERING UNIQUE CONTENT ON HUMAN RIGHTS
www.fifdh.org is now offering three online resource platforms on cinema and human rights. These platforms make the Festival's rich audiovisual archive available to the public, providing a “resources and media” area, an educational media library for schools and a catalogue of documentaries deriving from its Impact Days programme, aimed at NGOs and members of the film industry.Since 2003, FIFDH has been committed to cinema and to respecting human rights. Each year, in the heart of international Geneva and in parallel with the main session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Festival presents films and debates that highlight struggles and denounce violations wherever they may occur.