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Our friends at Britdoc are bringing back The PUMA Impact Award for the 4th year. Submit your film before April 28th to this annual prize honoring the best in documentary filmmaking for social change. €50,000 (approximately $84,000) in awards go to the documentary films that have made the greatest social or environmental impact, celebrating the filmmakers and aiding the continuation of the film’s campaign.

Past winners have included The End of the Line in 2011, an environmental documentary on the overfishing of the world’s oceans; Budrus in 2012, about non-violent demonstrations by the residents of Palestinian village Budrus to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier; and The Act of Killing (POV 2014) in 2013, to highlight and begin the reconciliation process for the 1965 Indonesian genocide which claimed the lives of a million people.  Special mentions have been accoladed to Josh Fox’s anti-fracking polemic GaslandBurma VJ, about the video journalists who risked their lives to report the 2009 Burmese uprising and Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s The Invisible War tackling sexual assault in the US military.

Anyone can put a film forward, from any country – filmmakers, distributors, film festivals, partner organizations (including NGOs and foundations), film critics and journalists – up to five years after the release. Independent creative documentary films on any subjects are welcome, from social justice issues to the environment – and in any form, from expository to observational.

Each filmmaking team submits data demonstrating the film’s social impact, for example:

PUBLIC AWARENESS – How it changed public awareness of a given issue.
CORPORATE CHANGE – How it influenced corporate policy or workplace issues in a positive way.
POLITICAL CHANGE – How it impacted lawmakers and politicians, triggering reviews or inquiries.
BEHAVIORAL CHANGE – How it affected consumer purchasing or voting decisions.
CAPACITY BUILDING – How the film helped build capacity or raised funds for campaign organizations and other partners.

To submit a film and get all the relevant info, head over to Britdoc.

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POV Staff
POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 400 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues.