Renowned Hollywood actress Sharon Stone (‘Basic Instinct’, ‘The Specialist’, ‘King Solomon’s Mines’, etc.), Mexican actor Alfonso Herrera, and Indian musician Ricky Kej are among distinguished artists, professionals and activists making up the jury for the 2023 World Health Organisation (WHO) Health for All Film Festival.
Others on this year’s festival jury include Melissa Fleming (United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications); Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health from South Africa); Sherrie Silver (dance choreographer from Rwanda), Sophia Kianni (Iranian-American climate activist ); and Adelle Onyango (media personality and podcaster from Kenya).
The jurors will be joined by WHO senior experts and will in the coming weeks review some 90 shortlisted films from among short films submitted by nearly 800 film makers from 106 countries on a wide range of topics including trauma of war; diseases, including COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, mental health issues; disability; as well as environmental and social factors of health, including gender-based violence. They will recommend the winners to the WHO Director-General who will make the final decision and announce the winners in June 2023.
Three “GRAND PRIX” and four special prizes will be announced in June at the online Awards Ceremony followed by a series of discussions with winners and jurors.
Speaking on the Health for All Film Festival, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said it “gathers powerful stories on many health issues from all over the world, bringing emotion and a human face to WHO’s scientific work”.
“Film has great potential to raise awareness of lesser-known health issues and improve understanding of people’s experiences with health – these are important ways to advance towards Health for All,” he said.
Launched in 2020, the WHO Health for All Film Festival, now in its fourth edition, has seen the submission of almost 4,300 films by patients, health workers, activists, students and professional film makers.
The WHO said the 90 shortlisted films are available on its YouTube channel in six playlists, one for each of the competition categories: Universal health coverage, Health emergencies, Better health and well-being, Climate change and health, Sexual and reproductive health and rights, and Very short films. It encouraged the public to view and comment on their favourite shortlisted films and champion them on social media using the hashtag #Film4Health.
