The move to Indonesia follows the successful inaugural edition of the Alternativa Film Project in 2023, which was held in Kazakhstan, and the upcoming second edition will expand its focus to the Indonesian and South East Asian market. The Awards open for submissions from 17th June, and filmmakers from all Asian countries are invited to submit feature films, documentaries, animation and hybrid films for competition. For the short film category, entries will be accepted exclusively from South East Asia. Full submission criteria can be found here: https://filmfreeway.com/alternativa_film_awards
The Alternativa Film Awards winners will be chosen by an International Jury consisting of film directors and producers from Asia and other regions, as well as community leaders and NGO representatives. The Awards present an alternative system for recognizing professionals who have a vision to create an impact, by making them more visible on a global scale and providing them with a path to reach a wider audience. The initiative recognizes films with artistic excellence that also address important social and cultural topics, and which have an ambition to positively affect the lives of people and local communities.
The Jury will present winners with monetary prizes to be spent on an impact campaign or further development of their filmmaking skills. The total prize fund stands at $100,000, with $20,000 each awarded in the four full-length categories, and $10,000 each for the two winners in the Shorts Awards category.
The new accompanying Festival of all nominated titles will run across the week leading up to the November ceremony and marks an evolution of the project within Alternativa’s film initiative – which also includes education and mentoring outreach via Alternativa Film Labs. This expansion is a natural evolution of the nomadic nature of Alternativa and with each edition, the initiative aims to increase its geographical footprint and ongoing tangible support for filmmakers.
Liza Surganova, Head of Alternativa Film Project, says “The Alternativa Film Awards serve as a tool to support the development of local film industries – by celebrating filmmakers from underrepresented communities who have important stories to tell and that have the potential to impact the cultural and social landscape. Cinema is a powerful way to create change and the ambition of Alternativa is not only to challenge injustices in the film industry, but to bring about real progress in the world – which is why it’s also so important to share the shortlisted films with the public through our new Festival initiative.
As we bring Alternativa to a new market each year and build initiatives which continue year on year in each of our locations, we hope this nomadic approach will enable us to engage a wider international audience. We’re so proud of the success stories coming out of our first edition, and we can’t wait to grow our work across Indonesia and the wider region.”
In 2023, the Alternativa Film Project supported a number of filmmakers – with 350 submissions received across 25 countries for the Awards strand. Five films across the “Spotlight”, “Future Voice”, “Alter”, “Nativa” and “Shorts” awards were highlighted. The winner of the “Nativa” award – a documentary film from Nepal by Rajan Kathet and Sunir Pandey titled ‘No Winter Holidays’ – has used its monetary prize to organise theatrical distribution of the film in Nepal, alongside community screenings in the region where they filmed and screenings to younger audiences at schools and universities. The project spotlights themes including: poverty, gender roles, rural-urban divide, cheap migration to supply economic powerhouses and isolation.
Furthermore, the Alternativa Film Labs hosted three training programs for filmmakers across various ages and skill levels, attended by 37 filmmakers, 12 young people, and seven tutors from Europe and USA. From this, five winners were awarded places on Pop Up residency in Europe from Tatino Films or participated in the EFM Toolbox program alongside gifted travel grants for the EFM.
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