After many long years of food shortages, dilapidated buildings, increasing wealth gaps, and strictly suppressed political unrest, Cuba has reached a boiling point. Thousands have taken to the streets in an unprecedented eruption of protest, crying out for their basic human right to freedom.

2023 Winner

“Jazz in China: The Documentary” chronicles the 100-year story of how jazz—a democratic form of music through improvisation—exists and thrives in China—a country with a long tradition of adherence to central authority.

2022 Winner

Footsteps in the Wind is an animated short film to Sting’s song “Inshallah.” Based on the harsh and intense reality of refugees around the world, this film is a narrative journey told through the eyes of children who never give up on their dreams.

2021 Winner

Boxed is a documentary by Wanjiru Njendu based on the true story of an enslaved man who mailed himself to freedom in Philadelphia in 1849.

2020 Winner