Congratulations, how have you experienced these 15 years?

I feel incredibly grateful. When we launched in 2012, we had no idea whether anyone would answer the call, and then hundreds of films came our way. Many of the people who helped shape SIMA in those early years are still with us, as jurors, partners, and friends.

It’s extremely moving to see the length of life these films have had and what they’ve set in motion in the world. Some that were finalists years ago are still being screened in communities and taught in classrooms today. Some students who learned with SIMA Academy and created impact projects in their communities went on to become Cinema Across Borders fellows, and now run organizations of their own. Fifteen years in, SIMA has grown from an awards program into an ecosystem, built by a lot of people who care about the same thing.

The submissions for SIMA awards 2027 have now closed, what do you hope to come across?

To be surprised and inspired. We look for bold, courageous work that pushes the boundaries of impact storytelling. Films made with integrity and real access that leave us seeing the world with different eyes.

But Integrity, above all. When I watch a submission, I'm really watching the relationship between the filmmaker and the people on screen. You can feel when there is trust, when someone was invited in rather than captured. The films that stay with us usually come from filmmakers who either lived the story, or who took the time to earn it. Each edition, a few films arrive that blow my mind and break my heart in the best possible ways, and change how I think about a subject I thought I knew. That never gets old.

In our Impact AI category, which is sponsored by SOUTS this year, I hope to see more work like last year's winner, Hearing Their Voices, which used AI avatars to share the testimonies of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence while protecting their identities. What matters to us is not what the technology can do, but what it can do for humanity. Our finalists will be announced on January 13.

You've got an amazing jury, how do you find them?

Jury members are invited by recommendation and introduction, usually from people already on our jury, so the circle grows through trust. They're people who have spent their lives in human rights, education, journalism, impact cinema, and international development. Some have been with us since the very beginning and have juried for SIMA for over a decade now. Others are newer, and they keep bringing fresh perspectives from around the world. This year we're joined by Susan Mbogo from Docubox in Kenya, Rodrigo Díaz Díaz from Taturana in Brazil, Emilien Schenker from StoryBoard Collective in Geneva, Polina Buchak from Razom for Ukraine, and Emanuel Rotstein from Warner Bros. in Germany. We're so honored to have them. Altogether, it's an incredible group of 44 jurors from all corners of the globe. Before films reach them this year, they pass through a pre-selection committee of 211 members. Another 250 students serve as jurors for our Student Choice Award. Across the juries and pre-selection committee, we have people from 80 countries. That breadth matters. A film made in Dhaka or Bogotá deserves viewers who can read its context, not just its craft.

Our jury members share values. We look for people whose own work reflects a commitment to human rights and ethical storytelling, and who bring real experience from the field, whether that's behind the camera, as producers or editors, in newsrooms or classrooms, or on the front lines of human rights and community impact work. Judging is a responsibility. Someone has put years of their life into that film, and our jurors watch it knowing that.

What do you think sets storytellers apart from one another?

Often it comes down to restraint. Many filmmakers have access to remarkable stories, but what sets some apart is what they choose not to show, how long they are willing to wait, and how much they trust the audience to arrive at its own understanding. The other difference is proximity. Storytellers who are part of the communities they film, or who have taken the time to be accepted by them, tend to make films that feel less like observation and more like witness, and I think audiences can sense that difference even when they can't name it.

What's a pattern in the film industry that you've seen in the last year?

I think everyone working in documentary has felt it this year. The traditional pathways keep narrowing. Streamers and broadcasters are taking fewer risks, to say the least, and independent documentaries tackling urgent issues are finding it harder than ever to reach audiences beyond the festival circuit. That's hard to watch, but seeing the response to this reality still gives me a lot of hope. Community screenings, education, and partnerships with organizations have always been part of the picture, but what used to be secondary pathways have become essential. More filmmakers are now building their own routes to audiences from the start. It isn't easy, and it still takes funding and partners willing to stay for the long run. A lot of people are working to meet this moment, from independent distribution platforms and impact producers to educators, festival programmers, community organizers, funders, and filmmakers themselves.

SIMA and ShareDoc are part of that larger effort, coming at it from different sides. SIMA brings films into classrooms and communities the market tends to overlook, and ShareDoc lets audiences support the people on screen directly. For all of us, the question is shifting. It's no longer only who will buy a film, but who needs to see it, and what becomes possible once they do.

What do you hope filmmakers of tomorrow make films about?

Nothing changes until someone can imagine it differently, and documentary lets us see those possibilities already taking shape in people's lives. So I hope the filmmakers of tomorrow make films that widen what we believe is possible. I hope they tell stories from inside their own communities, in their own languages and on their own terms, and turn the camera toward the people already building what comes next. And I hope they make room for the quiet stories that don't trend but reveal something true about how we live, because those are often the ones that stay with us long enough to change us.

Can you explain how ShareDoc and SIMA work together?

We share the belief that a film's impact shouldn't end with the screening. When a film moves you, ShareDoc gives you something to do with that feeling, and you can support the person you just watched. At SIMA, we're always looking for ways to extend the life of the films we champion. We tell filmmakers in our network about ShareDoc because it opens another avenue for their work to make a difference for the people at the heart of the story, and more filmmakers should know that's possible.