PRESS RELEASE
SIMA AWARDS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SIMA 2026 Finalists Announced
Stories From 43 Countries Advance as Finalists in The 14th Annual Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA 2026)
LOS ANGELES (January 7, 2026) — In 2025, the image lost its innocence. Manipulation, replication, noise. What we see no longer guarantees what is true. Truth has become both fragile and urgent. What endures are authentic narratives—stories rooted in lived experience, carried with integrity, and told with courage. The films advancing as finalists in SIMA 2026 honor cinema as a vessel for that truth—where art becomes witness, and storytelling a vital offering. Through intimate and unflinching portraits of humanity, these works confront injustice, uncertainty, and change, while still daring to imagine something better—affirming empathy, truth, and accountability as essential to our collective resilience.
Spanning 43 countries, this year’s finalists move across the full spectrum of our shared existence—love and war, memory and justice, land and belonging, grief and renewal. These films return us to presence and meaning: from love stories told through the embodied poetry of sign language (A Quiet Love) to a new generation of Afghan skiers building community on makeshift wooden skis (Champions of the Golden Valley). Together, they insist that resilience is not a slogan or an image—it is a daily, lived practice.
Across the slate, filmmakers confront the forces shaping our world with urgency and care, turning their lens toward both overt conflict and the quieter architectures of power. Through satire as truth-telling (Coexistence, My Ass!), women challenging patriarchal systems from within (Cutting Through Rocks), and reckonings with autonomy, land, incarceration, and historical erasure (Life After, Loot, Yurlu | Country, Seeds, The Quilters), these works reject simplification in favor of stories earned through trust and intimacy—reminding us that when cinema is grounded in ethical intention, images can still carry meaning, and even help restore it.
“The SIMA 2026 Finalists show us that impact isn’t about scale, it’s about the depth of storytelling,” says Daniela Kon Lieberberg, Founder & CEO of SIMA. “At a moment when images no longer guarantee truth, these films embrace complexity and nuance, reaffirming cinema’s power to witness the world with integrity and care. We’re deeply honored to support these storytellers and their courageous, vital work.”
Beyond the films themselves, SIMA 2026 honors a powerful cohort of Impact Campaign and Production Company Finalists—projects and partners that transform cinema into sustained action. Together, they demonstrate what becomes possible when ethical production, long-term strategy, and artistic rigor move in concert: advancing reparative justice and corporate accountability (Asog, Union); amplifying survivor-led movements and legal advocacy (Devi, To Kill a Tiger, Volverte a Ver / To see you again); confronting environmental and public health crises (Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics, Yintah); defending freedom of the press (State of Silence); and building new, trauma-informed models of healing (All That I Am, From Here). From investigative journalism to immersive nonfiction and community-rooted storytelling, these campaigns and organizations reflect SIMA’s belief that cinema’s responsibility does not end at the screen—it deepens through collaboration and sustained impact.
For over fourteen years, SIMA has championed storytelling at the intersection of creative excellence and social resonance. Since 2012, SIMA has served as a global platform for filmmakers pushing the boundaries of form and access while amplifying voices historically excluded from mainstream media. In a time when image is abundant and trust is fragile, SIMA films exemplify what it means to create with authenticity—grounding cinema in intention and care. The SIMA 2026 Finalists are now eligible for consideration in Cinema Across Borders, SIMA’s traveling screening series reaching communities in 30+ countries, as well as SIMA Academy, the organization’s award-winning education platform engaging 160,000+ students across 100+ countries. As the competition enters its final judging phase, finalists will compete for awards and cash prizes, with winners announced on February 4, 2026.
MEET THE FINALISTS
CINEMATHEQUE
MEDIA CONTACT: media@simaawards.org
SPONSORS
SIMA’s Sponsors are committed to the collaborative effort of honoring the most thought-provoking documentary films of our time. The 14th Annual SIMA Awards are powered by SIMA STUDIOS, The Foundation for Systemic Change, Media for Change, Ethologics, FIPADOC – International Documentary Festival, International Documentary Association (IDA), Firelight Media & Firelight Films, DC/DOX Festival, Double Exposure Film Festival, Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), Documentary Australia, The Good Media Network, Women’s Voices Now, Doc Edge, and Docubox.
FINALISTS LIST
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
A QUIET LOVE
Garry Keane | Ireland, England
CHAMPIONS OF THE GOLDEN VALLEY
Ben Sturgulewski | Afghanistan, Germany, United States
COEXISTENCE, MY ASS!
Amber Fares | Israel, Palestine, United States, France, Canada
CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS (اوزاک یوللار)
Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni | Iran, Netherlands, United States, Germany, Qatar, Chile, Canada
INSIDE GAZA
Hélène Lam Trong | Belgium, Cyprus, France, Qatar, UK, Palestine
LIFE AFTER
Reid Davenport | United States, Canada
LOOT: A STORY OF CRIME AND REDEMPTION
Don Millar | Cambodia, Canada
MISTRESS DISPELLER
Elizabeth Lo | China, United States
MOTHERS OF CHIBOK
Joel ‘Kachi Benson | Nigeria, United States
NINXS (NIÑXS)
Kani Lapuerta | Mexico, Germany
SEEDS
Brittany Shyne | United States
SHUFFLE
Benjamin Flaherty | United States
THE SPIES AMONG US
Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman | USA, Germany
TRADE SECRET
Abraham Joffe | UK, United States, Norway, Greenland, Canada, Panama, Switzerland, Svalbard, Australia
VIKTOR
Olivier Sarbil | Ukraine, United States, Denmark
YURLU | COUNTRY
Yaara Bou Melhem | Australia
SHORT DOCUMENTARY
ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS
Joshua Seftel | United States
CHILDREN NO MORE: WERE AND ARE GONE
Hilla Medalia | Israel, United States
EXODUS
Bob Miller | Sudan, United States
FENICE
Sterling Hampton IV | United States
HOW TO SUE THE KLAN
John Beder | United States
IMADE
Ignacio Acconcia González | Spain
IT’S DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS
Billie JD Porter | United States
SALLIE’S ASHES
Brennan Robideaux | United States
THE QUILTERS
Jenifer McShane | United States
THE REALITY OF HOPE
Joe Hunting | United States, UK
WE WERE THE SCENERY
Christopher Radcliff | United States, Canada
WITH GRACE
Dina Mwende and Julia Dahr | Kenya, Norway
IMPACT VIDEO
51ST STATE
Hannah Rosenzweig | United States
ALL HEART
Michael Govier and Will McCormack | United States
CLASSROOM 4
Eden Wurmfeld | United States
FREEDOM (UHURU)
Olz McCoy | Tanzania, UK
HEALING THE HEART THROUGH ART
Natsumi Koakutsu | United States
IMILLA SKATE: THE CHOLITA SKATERS OF BOLIVIA
Rebecca Basaure and Mariano Carranza | Bolivia
MY GRANDMOTHER IS A SKYDIVER
Polina Piddubna | Germany
NEVER TOO LATE
Michael Johnston | Australia
ROOTED IN RESILIENCE: INDIGENOUS WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS LEADING WITH TRADITION
Michelle Alvarado | United States, Canada
XR (EXTENDED REALITY) + INTERACTIVE
ECHOES OF THE JORDAN
Roy Kimhi | Israel
EDDIE AND I
Maya Shekel | France, Germany, Israel
EMPATHY CREATURE
Melodie Mousset | Switzerland
LESS THAN 5GR OF SAFFRON
Négar Motevalymeidanshah | France
REVIVAL ROADSHOW
Anne Fehres and Luke Conroy | Netherlands, Malta, Australia
THE EAST SEA
Michel D.T. Lam | Canada
THE EXPLODING GIRL VR (LA FILLE QUI EXPLOSE VR)
Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel | France, Greece
PRODUCTION COMPANY
DEUSDARÁ FILMES
FIELD OF VISION
FISHBOWL FILMS
GUSTO MOVING PICTURES
MULTITUDE FILMS
OPTIMIST
ROGAN PRODUCTIONS
SHINE GLOBAL
UNTITLED FILM WORKS
WILLA
WITHOUT EXCEPTION FILMS
UTOPIA DOCS
IMPACT CAMPAIGN
ALL THAT I AM
Impact Campaign Producer | Tone Grøttjord-Glenne
Film Director | Tone Grøttjord-Glenne
Norway, Denmark
ASOG
Impact Campaign Producers | Amanda Ernst, Cecilia Mejia, and Sean Devlin
Film Director | Sean Devlin
Philippines, Canada, United States, UK
DEVI
Impact Campaign Producer | Subina Shrestha
Film Director | Subina Shrestha
Nepal, UK, South Korea
FROM HERE
Impact Campaign Producers | Olga Gerstenberger, Chelo Alvarez-Stehle, and Christina Antonakos-Wallace
Film Director | Christina Antonakos-Wallace
United States, Germany
HOLDING MOSES
Impact Campaign Producer | Rivkah Beth Medow
Film Directors | Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin
United States, Japan
PLASTIC PEOPLE: THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MICROPLASTICS
Impact Campaign Producer | Sholeh Alemi Fabbri
Film Directors | Ben Addelman and Ziya Tong
Canada, United States, Netherlands, UK, Rwanda, France, Turkey, Philippines
SONGS FROM THE HOLE
Impact Campaign Producers | Richie Reseda, Contessa Gayles, Rahael Asfaw, and David Felix Sutcliffe
Film Director | Contessa Gayles
United States
STATE OF SILENCE
Impact Campaign Producers | Daniela Rodríguez Barrera and Santiago Maza Stern
Film Director | Santiago Maza Stern
Mexico
TIGRE GENTE
Impact Campaign Producers | Natalie Conneely and Amy Ip
Film Director | Elizabeth Unger
Bolivia, China, United States
TO KILL A TIGER
Impact Campaign Producer | Nisha Pahuja
Film Director | Nisha Pahuja
Canada, India
UNION
Impact Campaign Producer | Mars Verrone
Film Directors | Stephen Maing and Brett Story
United States
VOLVERTE A VER / TO SEE YOU AGAIN
Impact Campaign Producers | Merle Iliná and Magali Rocha Donnadieu
Film Director | Carolina Corral Paredes
Mexico
YINTAH
Impact Campaign Producers | Monica Victoria and Jennifer Wickham
Film Directors | Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, and Michael Toledano
Canada
