Call to Women Filmmakers – Short Film Competition: Religious Freedom Is Good For Business
Author: WUNRN
Date: June 1, 2017
The Middle East Women’s Leadership Network (MEWLN) and the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) are pleased the Religious Freedom Film Competition. The goal of the competition is to challenge women filmmakers around the world to create short films that showcase how religious freedom leads to innovation, peace, security, entrepreneurship, and human flourishing in communities. The competition begins in March 2017, with the grand prize winner receiving $5000 and a trip to present her work at the2018 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards in Seoul, South Korea, on March 8, the night before the opening of the Winter Paralympics.
Strategically, these films will help to show that a commitment to religious freedom and interfaith understanding is a means to fulfilling the UN Strategic Development Goal 16:“Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”
Need
Denials of religious freedom are associated with poorer economic performance and lower global competitiveness, according to a study by researchers at Georgetown University and Brigham Young University. And other studies show that religious freedom promotes peace, which is particularly important for business because where stability exists, there is more opportunity to invest and conduct normal and predictable business operations, especially in emerging and new markets.
Vision
In our age of media, we must engage women as media advocates, believing visual narratives will encourage indigenous leaders in countries experiencing religious conflict to advance human dignity and the freedom of conscience for everyone. We believe women can create short videos that advance the legal principal of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief for every person without distinction.
Why Women Filmmakers Should Submit to this Competition
- — Women are having an extraordinary influence around the world, and their impact will increase as they develop appropriate media tools during this competition.
- — Women will be given a platform to share their message with wider audiences.
- — Women will be given practical steps to launch their religious freedom outreach.
- — Women filmmakers will become role models who can guide others in promoting religious freedom.
Short Film Competition: General Guidelines
The 1-to-3 minute films should be artful and compelling explorations of the impact of religious freedom (or the lack of it) in the workplace and community. Filmmakers may choose to create short narratives of real-life business leaders who encourage freedom of religious expression in their workplace or community.
Whether inspired by real-life events or fictional, animated, or experimental, the films should thoughtfully seek to affirm that cultural diversity and religious freedom are good for business.
- RUNTIME — Shorts: From 1 to 3 minutes
- ACCEPTED GENRES — Documentaries, Narratives, Animation, Experimental, Montage.
- DEADLINE — October 1, 2017
- PLACE OF ORIGIN — Films may developed from around the world.
- NOTIFICATION DATE — February 1, 2018
- SUBMISSIONS — The submission fee is $35.
For more details about the competition and sample films, visit the MEWLN website at http://www.mideastwomen.org/filmcompetition or contact Shirin Taber, MEWLN Director, at shirin@visualstory.org.
Click here to submit your film through Withoutabox.
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