The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching the third edition of the Health for All Film Festival call for short films.

The first two editions demonstrated its relevance for health promotion and health education and yielded great candidates and winners (Please, see the related links).

The third call for short film (three to eight minutes of length) opens on 28 October 2021 and will close on 30 January 2022. The WHO invites independent film-makers, production companies, broadcasters, public institutions, NGOs, communities, students in public health and film schools from around the world to submit their original short film.

The WHO prizes for the winning films have helped to increase awareness and support about some key health issues. With an average of 1250 submissions every year from 110 countries, it has also proven to be a useful global tool for a vast variety of expressions about people’s health concerns.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful reminder that when health is at risk, everything is at risk,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “In two years, the WHO Health for All Film Festival has become an incredible platform for telling powerful stories in powerful ways about people around the world who face health challenges of all kinds, and the people who devote their lives to defending health. I can’t wait to see this year’s entries, and I look forward to another successful Health for All Film Festival this year, and many more to come.”

A new series of about 65 short films will be presented to the public in April 2022 via WHO Youtube channel and www.who.int/film-festival.

WHO is also calling for at least six distinguished professionals, artists and activists to join in the next jury of its film festival in March 2022. Ms Sharon Stone, critically acclaimed actress from the USA and public advocate in favour of many health and humanitarian issues, has already accepted to join this future jury. They will act as external advisors to WHO’s Director-General. This jury will also be composed of three WHO’s senior experts: Dr Ren Minghui for the Universal Health Coverage category of the competition; Dr Maria Van Kerkhove for health emergencies category; and Dr Hanan H. Balkhy for Better health and well-being.

Three “GRAND PRIX” will be announced in May 2022, one for each main category.

WHO also plans to award three special prizes for a student-produced film, a health innovation film, and a film about rehabilitation.

“Storytelling is an engagement between people. It’s not just someone making a film, it’s someone watching a film.», said WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Mike Ryan, film festival juror in 2021. “This is exactly how WHO should be transforming: Transforming how we engage with the world and this festival is just one example of how we can change our mindset.”

For more details on this call, the awards, previous official selections and jury compositions and further information, visit the multilingual festival website.