Ok, You’ve made a film. And released it. Then what? The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights, FIFDH, in Geneva, Switzerland, that I attended recently, has a history of focusing on the answer to this question, the after-life of films. It has an elaborate programme designed for maximum impact of films, exploring the real life possibilities of films, beyond festivals, box office and streaming. 

So, I was very honoured to be invited on the Fiction Competition Jury of the 22nd FIFDH, that ran from March 8 to 17. The superb fiction films in competition included Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, Malika Musaeva’s The Cage is Looking for a Bird, Felipe Galvez Haberle’s The Settlers, Mehran Tamadon’s There Where God Does Not Exist, Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia, Paola Cortelessi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, Rolf de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness, Farah Nabulsi’s The Teacher, and Simone Massi’s Nowhere. Our jury—director Sepideh Farsi, producer Flavia Zanon Rabaeus, Thierry B Oppikofer of the Barbour Foundation, and myself—gave the Fiction Competition award (R9.5 lakh) ex-aequo to Malika Musaeva’s The Cage is Looking for a Bird (in Chechen) and Felipe Galvez Haberle’s The Settlers (Chile). Congratulations also to Laura Longobardi and Laila Alonso Huarte, Festival Editorial Co-Directors, and Jasmin Basic, Head of Fiction Programme.