SIMA 2025 Winners Announced: Stories From 30 Countries Awarded In The 13Th Annual Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA)

SIMA 2025 Winners Announced

SIMA AWARDS announced their 2025 film festival winners this morning

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, February 7, 2025 /EINPresswire / -- All transformation begins with an exploration of truth. It is the spark that exposes, awakens, and dismantles. In the hands of storytellers, it becomes a force of reckoning. The winners of the 13th Annual International Social Impact media Awards (SIMA 2025) hold up a mirror to our world with an unflinching, intimate, and revelatory gaze.

SIMA, the non-profit impact media agency that celebrates, curates, and distributes documentaries and creative media projects advancing positive social change, announced their 2025 festival winners this morning. Chosen from 68 finalists spanning 37 countries, this year's winners unearth a world on the brink of radical evolution.

The SIMA 2025 winners traverse an extraordinary spectrum of human experiences, capturing personal resilience, political upheaval, and systemic dissolution. MEDIHA, Best Documentary and Ethos Jury Prize winner, is a harrowing self-portrait that transforms trauma into testimony as its filmmaker navigates survival amid devastating loss. In HOLLYWOODGATE, Best Director winner Ibrahim Nash'at, gains unprecedented access to the Taliban's takeover, capturing chilling shifts in power after the U.S. withdrawal.

QUEENDOM, Best Cinematography winner, turns radical artistic defiance into a cinematic act of resistance against Putin's regime. Academy Award nominee and SIMA 2025 Best Editing winner SUGARCANE excavates the wounds of Indigenous injustice, exposing long-buried abuse at an Indian residential school. From Best Sound winner MARCHING IN THE DARK, which follows one widow's quiet defiance against cultural abandonment, to Transparency Jury Prize winner BLACK SNOW, which unravels the fight for truth in the face of government disinformation-each film awarded this year stands as a striking testament to the endurance, activism, and hope required in the relentless pursuit of justice.

“SIMA 2025 winners reveal the depths of human resilience, creativity and activism with raw elegance and disarming intimacy that is truly transformative. In a fractured yet fiercely hopeful world, they challenge us to see-and to never look away. Their work is a testament to the power of storytelling to shift perspectives, shape understandings, and birth revolutions. To all the remarkable filmmakers and producers, thank you for your artistry, bravery, and unwavering commitment to fearless authenticity. We are honored to stand with you in championing your vision.”
Daniela Kon Lieberberg, SIMA Founder & CEO

In addition to spotlighting the gold standard in social impact filmmaking, SIMA 2025 announces the winners of one of the world's first awards of its kind: the inaugural Impact Campaign Awards, presented to two campaigns that have demonstrated innovative approaches, effective partnerships, and measurable outcomes in driving social change and fostering a sustainable culture of advocacy after the credits roll.

THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED, SIMA 2025 Legacy Award winner, follows filmmaker Assia Boundaoui as she uncovers a covert FBI operation that subjected her Arab-American community to mass surveillance. Their accompanying impact campaign raised awareness of the psychological violence caused by federal community surveillance, garnering widespread media coverage and strong support from American Muslim and Arab communities.

ANOTHER BODY, the SIMA 2025 Catalyst Award winner-an SXSW winner and an Emmy-nominated documentary-follows one U.S. college student's quest for justice after discovering deepfake pornography of herself online. Its associated impact campaign, #MyImageMyChoice, is a cultural movement tackling intimate image abuse, pressuring governments and tech companies to #BlockMrDeepfakes and shut down the 3,000+ sites dedicated to online gendered abuse. By implementing innovative strategies that extend beyond the screen, these campaigns set a new precedent in impact producing-moving the conversation beyond quantitative metrics into a new paradigm of qualitative and human-centered advocacy.

The SIMA 2025 Winners are now eligible for entry into Cinema Across Borders, SIMA's global traveling series that reaches over 30 countries annually. These screenings span diverse forums-from film festivals in Buenos Aires to remote villages in Liberia-sparking dialogues, shifting perspectives, mobilizing local activism, and empowering changemakers and organizations to amplify their impact. Additionally, select 2025 short documentaries and impact videos are now eligible to join SIMA Academy , SIMA's award-winning global education platform. Reaching over 140,000 students in 100+ countries, these films invigorate teacher training programs, youth advocacy workshops, student film clubs, and local impact projects, inspiring the next generation of changemakers.

Erinn Sullivan
SIMA STUDIOS
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