Cinema for Peace is a group based in the United States that aims to raise awareness for the social relevance of films, and to make active use of the influence of movies and documentaries on the perception and resolution of global social, political and humanitarian challenges. Since 2002, the group has been inviting film makers, humanitarian and human rights activists, and public figures to its annual awards ceremony in Berlin to honor a selection of cinematic works on humanitarian and environmental issues. The awards include: The Most Valuable Movie of the Year, The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year, The International Green Film Award, The Award for Justice, the International Human Rights Award and further Honorary Awards. The group also raises funds for the Cinema for Peace Foundation and other charities.
Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Jaka Bizilj launched the Cinema for Peace initiative with the annual gala as a platform for communicating humanitarian, political and social issues through the medium of film. Bob Geldof described the awards gala as "the Oscars with brains". Since 2008, various projects initiated by the worldwide Cinema for Peace initiative are carried out by the charitable Cinema for Peace Foundation, based in Berlin, chaired unsalaried by Jaka Bizilj.
In addition to the annual Cinema for Peace Gala in Berlin the initiative also stages further special encounters in Europe, the USA and Africa, to draw media attention to current issues and major projects as well as to human rights defenders. On 18 May 2011 Cinema for Peace held its first dinner at the Cannes Film Festival to honour the humanitarian work of Sean Penn in Haiti. At this occasion, together with Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Uma Thurman, Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway about 700,000 U.S. dollars were raised for his J/P Haitian Relief organization. Overall, as by mid-2011 the Cinema for Peace platform collected more than three million Euro for charitable purposes, as confirmed by external audit. All donation proceeds are published for transparency. The costs of all events are funded by sponsors. Iniator Jaka Bizilj and his production company Star Entertainment have been acting as largest sponsor in the period from 2002 to 2011.
Cinema for Peace distributed the Bosnian Oscar-winning war satire No Man's Land (2001 film) by Danis Tanovic. In 2014, Jaka Bizilj as the Founder of Cinema for Peace invited Pussy Riot to the Olympic Games in Sochi and introduced them to Hollywood and to Washington in order to promote global human rights responsibility and advocate a global Sanction List for human rights offenders.
Committee and supporters
Among the Cinema for Peace chairs, speakers and committee members have been, among many others, Buzz Aldrin, Antonio Banderas, Deepak Chopra, George Clooney, Catherine Deneuve, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bob Geldof, Richard Gere, Dustin Hoffman, Elton John, Nicole Kidman, Sir Christopher Lee, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Hilary Swank, Wim Wenders, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the Prosecutors of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo and Fatou Bensouda as well as Nobel Peace Award Laureate Mikhail Gorbachev.
Beneficiaries and partners of the Cinema for Peace activities include the Cinema for Peace Foundation, the United Nations agencies UNICEF and UNIFEM, Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization, Richard Gere's "Healing the Divide" and the International Campaign for Tibet, which was initiated in a meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2004, "Schools for Africa" by UNICEF and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Leonardo DiCaprio Fund, the Elton John Aids Foundation, amfAR, the Gorbachev Foundation, Amnesty International, Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, Eastern Congo Initiative, and the Human Rights Film Network
The annual Cinema for Peace Awards seek to promote films, and social issues covered in films. The Awards include: The Most Valuable Film of the Year, The Most Valuable Documentary of the Year, The International Green Film Award, The Award for Justice, the International Human Rights Film Award (in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network, as well as various Honorary Awards.
The Most Valuable Film of the Year and the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year are judged by a committee of more than 100 filmmakers and humanitarians each year. The Honorary Award is awarded each year to a person for outstanding social and/or political or environmental achievements.
In 2007, Cinema for Peace launched together with Amnesty International the “International Human Rights Film Award” and in 2009, together with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, in The Hague, the “Cinema for Peace Award for Justice”. Cinema for Peace has awarded the "International Green Film Award" beginning in 2009, to honor members of the film community for an environmental movie or for outstanding achievements in raising awareness for green issues. The first Green Film Award Winner presented by Mikhail Gorbachev was Leonardo DiCaprio for his film The 11th Hour (2007 film). In 2010, the ‘International Green Film Award’ was presented by Mikhail Gorbachev and Leonardo DiCaprio to Crude (2009 film) and director Joe Berlinger. The 2011 International Green Film Award was presented by Opel Project Earth to Jane's Journey, directed by Lorenz Knauer for his film exhibiting Jane Goodall's travels in her work to preserve endangered species around the world.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 2009, former President Mikhail Gorbachev received the Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for his central role in ending the Cold War and paving the way for a peaceful reunification process in Germany. At the Cinema for Peace Honorary Dinner at the China Club in Berlin, Bob Geldof, Plácido Domingo and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, German Foreign Minister during the reunification era, were the laudation speakers. The dinner was chaired among others by arts patrons Dieter Rosenkranz and Alexander Lebedev. Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks International Bill Roedy presented on this occasion the MTV Free Your Mind Award to President Gorbachev.
Two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn was awarded the Cinema for Peace Honorary Award in 2011 for his humanitarian work in New Orleans and Haiti. In January 2010, he founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organization to aid victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.
"In the Land of Blood and Honey", the directorial debut of Angelina Jolie, was honored with the "Honorary Award for Opposing War and Genocide" at the Cinema for Peace Berlin 2012. The film tells the story of the love between a Serbian man and a Muslim woman, who realize, upon the outbreak of the Bosnian war, they not only stand on opposing sides, but the man is now a soldier and the woman a prisoner of war. "In the Land of Blood and Honey" depicts the horrific violence of the civil war and makes a call for peace.
Charlize Theron received the Cinema for Peace Honorary Award 2013 for her commitment against the spread of HIV/AIDS among young South Africans. The South African actress and United Nations Messenger of Peace is the founder of the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP), which calls for medical education and battles against the spread of HIV.
Cinema for Peace Berlin 2013 highlighted artistic and social opposition to anti-Semitism in Germany and other counties. The Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for Opposing Anti-Semitism was presented to actress Veronica Ferres, Charlotte Knobloch and Marga Spiegel, who all have been working against anti-semitism and xenophobia for many years. The award was presented by German Rabbi Daniel Alter, who was the victim of an attack motivated by religious hatred on the streets of Berlin in 2012.
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Beasts of No Nation by Cary Fukunaga
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Cartel Land by Matthew Heineman
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to ''Watchers of the Sky by Edet Belzberg
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award to Racing Extinction by Louie Psihoyos
Cinema for Peace Special Award for the Most Valuable Film on Refugees to 'A Syrian Love Story' by Sean McAllister
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Selma by Ava DuVernay, Unbroken by Angelina Jolie and Timbuktu by Abderrahmane Sissako.
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Drone by Tonje Hessen Schei and E-Team by Katy Chevigny and Ross Kauffman.
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to Three Windows and a Hanging by Isa Qosja and Miners Shot Down by Rehad Desai.
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award to Virunga by Orlando von Einsiedel.
Cinema for Peace Special Award to Til Schweiger and Honey in the Head.
Cinema for Peace Special Award to Ennio Morricone.
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Ai Weiwei.
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to 12 Years a Slave directed by Steve McQueen.
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Alias Ruby Blade by Alex Meillier, Children on the Frontline by Marcel Mettelsiefen and Anthony Wonke, Dirty Wars by Rick Rowley, Everyday Rebellion by Arash Riahi and Arman Riahi, Ground Zero: Syria by Robert King, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Recycling Medea by Asteris Kutulas, The Family by Stefan Weinert, The Kill Team by Dan Krauss, The Missing Picture by Rithy Panh, The Square by Jehane Noujaim.
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to #chicagoGirl: The Social Network Takes on a Dictator by Joe Piscatella.
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award to Big Men by Rachel Boynton.
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to the late Nelson Mandela.
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to the filmmakers of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Sir Christopher Lee.
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Lincoln
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Searching For Sugarman and to The Gatekeepers
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to No and Class Dismissed on Malala Yousafzai
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to Call Me Kuchu, and the late David Kato and Frank Mugisha
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award to Bitter Seeds
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Charlize Theron and her Africa Outreach Project
Cinema for Peace Award for Opposing Anti-Semitism to Veronica Ferres, Marga Spiegel and Charlotte Knobloch
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to In the Land of Blood and Honey
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (West Memphis Three)
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to Justice for Sergei on Sergei Magnitsky and to Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to The Lady and Aung San Suu Kyi
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award to Burning in the Sun
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Angelina Jolie and cast for: In the Land of Blood and Honey
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Of Gods and Men
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to Skateistan – Four Wheels and a Board in Kabul
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to Blood in the Mobile
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to Father Marco Arana Zegarra in The Devil Operation
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award presented by Opel Project Earth, 1st Prize to Jane's Journey
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award presented by Opel Project Earth, 2nd Prize to A Message from Pandora
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award presented by Opel Project Earth, 3rd Prize to Harmony
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Sean Penn for his aid work with the J/P Haitian Relief Organization
Cinema for Peace Award for Fighting AIDS to the CEO of MTV Bill Roedy for the “Staying Alive” campaign, the “Ignite” campaign and “Shuga”
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to The White Ribbon and Michael Haneke, Stefan Arndt, Klaus Chatten and Burghart Klaußner
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary to 'The Picture of the Napalm Girl' by Marc Wiese, Nick Út and Kim Phúc
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice presented by Luis Moreno-Ocampo to 'Children of War' and Bryan Single, to 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' by Cyrus Nowrasteh and to 'Women in Shroud' by Mohammad Reza Kazemi and Farid Haerinejad
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of a Director/Actor/Producer of the Year to 'Triage' and Danis Tanovic, Cedomir Kolar, Colin Farrell and Sir Christopher Lee
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to 'Tibet in Song' and Ngawang Choephel
Cinema for Peace Award for Reconciliation to 'Five Minutes of Heaven' and Oliver Hirschbiegel, Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt
Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award presented by Mikhail Gorbachev and Leonardo DiCaprio to 'Crude' and Joe Berlinger
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to 'As We Forgive' and Laura Waters Hinson and President of Ruanda Paul Kagame
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to 'Milk' and Gus Van Sant, Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Dustin Lance Black, Michael London and Sean Penn
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to 'The Heart of Jenin' and Ismael Khatib, Leon Geller, Marcus Vetter
Cinema for Peace Award for Justice to 'Pray the Devil Back to Hell' and Gini Reticker, Abigail Disney, Vaiba Flomo
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to 'Burma VJ – Reporting form a Closed Country' and Anders Østergaard, Lise Lense-Møller, Aung Htun and The Democratic Voice of Burma
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Inspirational Movie of the Yearto 'The Day After Peace' and Jeremy Gilley & Peace One Day, to 'Menachem and Fred' and Menachem Mayer, Fred Raymes, Jens Meurer, Ofra Tevet and Ronit Kertsner and to 'Valkyrie' and Tom Cruise, Bill Nighy, Christian Berkel, Matthias Schweighöfer, Bryan Singer and Philipp von Schulthess
Cinema for Peace Award for Contribution to the UN Millennium Development Goals to '8' and Jane Campion, Gael Garcìa Bernal, Jan Kounen, Mira Nair, Gaspar Noé, Abderrahmane Sissako, Gus van Sant and Wim Wenders
International Green Film Award to Leonardo DiCaprio
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Roger Waters
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to 'Persepolis' and Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Documentary of the Year to 'Trouble' and Ralf Schmerberg and Dropping Knowledge
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer or Screenwriter for 'Juno' and Jason Reitman, Diablo Cody, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon
Cinema for Peace Best Short Film Award to 'The Spirit' and Joseph Fiennes
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network to Malalai Joya and 'Enemies of Happiness'
Clean Energy Award to 'Earth' and Alix Tidmarsh, Sophokles Tasioulis, Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield, Nikolaus Weil and Stefan Beiten
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Ben Kingsley for portraying Simon Wiesenthal, Itzhak Stern in 'Schindlers List' and Mahatma Gandhi
Cinema for Peace Special Award to the makers of The Experimental Witch initiated by writer Paolo Coelho and created with the original work of 14 filmmakers from around the world.
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Clint Eastwood for 'Flags of our Fathers' and 'Letters' from Iwo Jima
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Director of the Year to Bille August for 'Goodbye Bafana'
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Actor of the Year to Forest Whitaker in 'The Last King of Scotland'
Pioneer Award to Bob Geldof
International Human Rights Film Award in cooperation with Amnesty International and the Human Rights Film Network for 'Coca – The Dove from Chechnya' and Eric Bergkraut
Cinema for Peace Brehm & V. Moers Talent Grant to 'I Don`t Feel Like Dancing'
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to George Clooney and Grant Heslov for 'Good Night, and Good Luck'
Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Work of a Director, Producer or Screenwriter to David Yates und Richard Curtis for 'The Girl in the Café'
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Michael Winterbottom
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Terry George, Alex Kitman Ho, Sam Bhembe, Roberto Cicutto and Don Cheadle for 'Hotel Rwanda'
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Yearto John Boorman and Robert Chartoff for 'Country of My Skull' and the film upon which it is based, In My Country
Cinema for Peace Honorary Award to Lars von Trier
Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Movie of the Year to Danis Tanovic for 'No Man's Land'
'Cinema for Peace Honorary Award' to Istvàn Szabo for portraying the Jewish struggle for survival after WWII
