WHO launches 4 edition of the health for all film festival

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a call for short films to participate in the fourth edition of its Health for all film festival.

The call opens on October 31 and will close on January 31. The movies submitted can be up to eight minutes long.

The festival’s winning movies promote important global health issues and garner more support to find solutions for them.

Since 2020, the health for all festival has amassed 3500 contributions from 110 different nations, and it anticipates receiving another 1000 by this fourth edition. 

WHO presents an invitation to all public institutions, nongovernmental organizations, patient and healthcare worker groups, public health students, and film schools worldwide to submit their original short films. 

Independent filmmakers, production companies, and TV broadcasters are all welcome at the festival.

The official selection, which is formed of roughly 70 short films chosen annually by WHO personnel from a larger pool of submissions, serves as a valuable resource for health education and more localized efforts to improve global health awareness. 

Three “GRAND PRIX” will be given out, one for each major category and in line with the three primary objectives of WHO’s global public health strategy: greater health and wellbeing, universal health coverage, and medical crises. 

A student-produced film, a very short one (between a minute to two minutes and 30 seconds long), as well as films that address sexual and reproductive rights, climate change, and health, will all receive special awards.

“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 the Health Emergencies Programme, Dr. Mike Ryan, a 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,” said the juror.