German Human Rights Film Award
The German Human Rights Film Award was established in 1998 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the initiative of the Nuremberg Human Rights Centre, the Church Development Service, the Protestant Media Centre for Bavaria and the Mission Centre of the Franciscan Order. Since then, it has bi-annually honoured outstanding film productions on human rights topics. It has been unique in the field of film competitions right from the start, by considering both professional and amateur productions.
Goals
The German Human Rights Film Award has several goals. The award is intended to encourage and honour those who are untiring in their research and in-depth questioning and who aim at giving the audience moving – and often shattering – insights into circumstances, events and backgrounds which might otherwise remain hidden. It is aimed at motivating young people to deal actively with racism, xenophobia and intolerance and to produce impressive films themselves by using simple techniques. In addition, the award also wants to encourage the responsible officials in television stations to broadcast films about human rights issues. And last but not least, the award is intended to provide information to a wide audience and raise general interest in human rights issues.
It thus makes an important contribution to human rights education in Germany.
Development of Award
Since its foundation, the film award's importance has increased steadily. This is reflected both in the growing number of institutions involved and in the rising number of participants. In 2004, the challenge to capture on film both violations of human rights and "rays of hope" motivated 120 professional and 42 amateur contributors to submit their work. National organisations working in the fields of human rights and education have also shown considerable interest, and the number of organisers for the competition has grown steadily.
Organisers 2010
- amnesty international Germany
- German Bar Association
- German UNESCO Commission
- German Human Rights Institute
- German Youth Hostels
- Protestant Media Centre for Bavaria
- Foundation Journalists-Academy
- Department of Culture and Leicure of the City of Nuremberg
- Catholic Media Centre for Bavaria
- Church Development Service
- Media Service for the State of Bavaria
- Pro Asyl
- Human Rights Office of the City of Nuremberg
- Missio
- Mission Centre of the Franciscan Order
- National Spiritual Council of Baha'ì in Germany
- Nuremberg Human Rights Centre