ABOUT SIMA — Supporting visionary changemakers worldwide.

OUR MISSION

To hold a global standard for high-integrity media and ensure the most consequential work reaches the audiences, institutions, and civic spaces where it shapes understanding and inspires action.

SIMA is a 501(c)3 non-profit registered in California and Germany.

STRATEGY

Extraordinary work of artistic rigor, moral clarity, and civic urgency exists, but most of it never reaches the institutions, classrooms, and communities where it could do its most consequential work. SIMA exists to close that gap. For fifteen years, we have worked at the intersection of film, education, and civic engagement — from the grassroots upward, across 140+ countries — curating filmmaking of civic and cultural relevance, building the platforms and partnerships that carry it forward, and investing in the artists, students, educators, and civic leaders who mobilize it for change.

WE BUILD A GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CREATIVE IMPACT

OUR STORY

In 2012, documentary filmmaker and human rights activist Daniela Kon Lieberberg founded SIMA to champion filmmaking with the power to challenge stereotypes, inspire understanding, and give communities the tools to drive change on their own terms. SIMA launched as the first international competition recognizing documentary cinema at the intersection of creativity, human rights, and humanitarian impact. Today SIMA is a leading global curator of social impact storytelling — still carrying the conviction that documentary film is among the most powerful instruments we have for understanding and responding to the defining issues of our time.

“Through SIMA we were able to reach thousands of people via documentaries ABOUT THE ISSUES THAT ARE CLOSE TO OUR HEARTS, to make our problems visible, to give the solutions a stage to be seen and to inspire change.”

Carlo Steensma, Community Director, QS Impact

PROGRAMS + SERVICES

FOUR PROGRAMS. ONE GLOBAL SYSTEM.

The annual SIMA Awards define a global curatorial standard for documentary film and impact media, identifying work that stands apart in its artistry, integrity, and consequence. SIMA Academy brings that work into educational contexts worldwide, equipping 160,000+ learners with the critical frameworks and competencies to engage with global realities. Cinema Across Borders carries it into grassroots communities across the Global South, strengthening local leadership and transforming curated film events into durable civic infrastructure. Fiscal Sponsorship provides the nonprofit architecture for filmmakers and cultural producers to finance and launch purpose-driven work while retaining full creative autonomy.

IMPACT

Each year, SIMA’s programs engage 4,800+ filmmakers, 5,800+ educators, and 160,000+ students across 140+ countries. Through 100+ partner organizations, community screenings reach 30 countries. More than 7,000 virtual screenings connect this work to over 5 million viewers worldwide. Through Fiscal Sponsorship, SIMA supports creative impact projects in 50+ countries — enabling over 110 filmmakers and cultural producers to realize their work.

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JOIN US

SIMA is a community of filmmakers, educators, curators, organizers, and institutions who share a conviction: that creative work, held to the highest standard and placed with care, has the capacity to alter what people know, believe, and demand of the world. If that is the work you are doing, as a creator, a collaborator, or a supporter, we invite you to join us.