The 17th Edition of One World Film Festival Comes to Brussels
Published: Apr 12, 2024 Reading time: 2 minutes
One World, the world's largest human rights documentary film festival, is returning to Brussels. For the 17th time, this festival—the largest festival of its kind, which annually attracts tens of thousands of people —will once again fill cinemas and movie halls all over Brussels. First time in its history, besides documentaries One World will present fiction films. The festival is organised by the Czech humanitarian and human rights organisation People in Need and 10 other Brussels-based partners, including the European Parliament, the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU and The Czech Centre in Brussels.
For more than two decades, One World has been an integral part of the activities of People in Need. Since the festival was established in 1999, it has brought documentaries on human rights from around the world to local audiences, screening them in hundreds of towns throughout the Czech Republic. One World has received numerous awards, including the UNESCO award for raising awareness of human rights.
This year's edition takes place between 15 – 19 April 2024, and audiences in Brussels will have the opportunity to watch a selection of 10 films, of which 9 will be accompanied by expert debates. These debates will feature insights from human rights defenders, politicians, filmmakers, and representatives of the international community of non-profit organisations.
The festival's opening night will feature the Oscar-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, which is a compelling story about Ukrainian resistance to Russia's assault on the city in March 2022. Besides the war in Ukraine, the festival will shed light on other vital human rights subjects, such as investigative journalism (Iranian picture Son of the Mullah and a Norwegian production A Dangerous Boy), natural exploitation (Nicaraguan film Patrol), as well as activism and sexual discrimination (Who If Not Us from Belarus, and Queendom, from Russia).
The full programme and registration details can be found at www.oneworldinbrussels.com.
Guests and Participants for the discussions include (among others):
- Lyubov Smachylo, Media Initiative for Human Rights analyst,
- MEP Juozas Olekas (S&D, Lithuania), Chair of the EP Delegation for Relations with Belarus
- Victor Alfonso Navarro Lopez, A human rights activist from Venezuela
- Camilo de Castro Belli, Director of Patrol
- Ulla Hakanen, The European External Action Service (EEAS)
The festival's grand opening takes place on Monday, April 15, from 6:30 pm in Cinema Galeries. For accreditation, please write to ondrej.lukas@peopleinneed.net.
One World in Brussels is organised by People in Need, the European Parliament, the Czech Centre Brussels and the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU, in addition to a dozen Brussels-based NGOs function as festival partners. The complete programme of the 17th annual One World in Brussels and a complete list of partners and guests are available at https://www.oneworld.cz/brussels/.
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For press and media inquiries, please contact:
Ondřej Lukáš, Media Coordinator for People in Need, ondrej.lukas@peopleinneed.net, +420 776 186 529.
