Movie-making competition helps EBRD reach out to new audiences

Video: Drops of Hope

And the winner is …

It may not have boasted the glamour of the Oscars or of the Cannes Film Festival and it certainly didn’t have the sunshine of those locations. But the recent film awards ceremony that the EBRD took part in on a rainy day in London meant just as much to young movie-makers in our member countries as more established prize-givings do to Hollywood royalty.

I presented the EBRD-sponsored prize for the best film on the impact of water. It was one segment of the TVE biomovies 2011 competition, which was heavily promoted by Google subsidiary YouTube. The prize ceremony itself took place at Google’s London HQ.

Why was the Bank involved? As part of our new communications strategy, we are making an effort to reach out to the sort of audiences who wouldn’t normally follow the EBRD’s activities – the internet generation who don’t get their information from press releases, newspapers or television news bulletins. For young people in the SEMED region, in Russia and many other countries of operations, online is now the source of their knowledge.

In the autumn of last year, we asked young people, through this colmpetition, to suggest and storyboard one-minute films on the impact of water.

One minute was regarded as the best length for making them accessible for mobile phones. Two of the best ideas were picked and the filmmakers were then helped to produce their movies. The two sets of finalists were Ines Chaalala (from Tunisia) and Savis Joze Sadeghian (from Italy) with their film, Drops of Hope; and Peter Vadocz, from Hungary, with Clear Water.

Between them, the two films got 100,000 views on YouTube, which is a phenomenal success. Many of those people went on to view links which tell them more about some of the EBRD water projects. The final prize was won by Drops of Hope and Savis Joze Sadeghian joined us at the ceremony, via Skype, to receive the award.

The huge viewing figures show that with an imaginative approach, it is possible to get the EBRD’s message to new and younger audiences, raising awareness of the Bank’s role.

This year, we’ll be taking part in the tve biomovies competition again and we’ll be asking filmmakers to examine the impact of women on the environment. Bookmark this site and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to get more details as they become available.