The 2025 Impact Days awards were handed out March 11 at the end of 2.5 days of frenetic Impact activity.
The StoryBoard Impact Award, valued at CHF10,000 (approx €10,500) was given to Children of Honey by Igar Ganatra and Immanuel Musa Marco. The Swiss Focus Award (CHF 2,500, approx. €2,600) went to the project Nathalie by Tamara Milosevic. The Sublimages Impact Award, offered by Sublimages and comprising a translation and subtitle creation into one of four languages was won by the Ukrainian team of directors Alisa Kovalenko/Marysia Nikitiuk and producers Natalia Libet/Olha Beskhmelnytsina for their project Traces.
Children of Honey follows three young Hadza friends—Nd!uba, Nguilabe, and Embilibi—at a critical crossroads of their once-peaceful hunter-gatherer community. With 90% of their ancestral land lost and modern pressures mounting, they must decide whether to hold onto their ancient traditions or be pulled into modernity.
Handing over the StoryBoard Impact Award, Emelien Schenker, Impact Fund Manager at StoryBoard Collective, commented: “We want to acknowledge the power of friendship and the importance of actively listening to young people through uncertain times, not only in the West but – as we were reminded this morning – worldwide. In this context, words, languages, traditions, and the communities that keep them alive matter more than ever. Indeed, we have too often learned – far too late – about the tragic erasure and loss of Indigenous cultures, especially in the Americas. Today, one project stood out and gave us the opportunity to take action now. The passion and playfulness of the Hadza children offer a beacon of hope, showing us the power of leading their own efforts to preserve their heritage. While the film continues its production journey, its impact campaign is equally urgent and promising— not only for the Hadza community but for the world beyond.”
Swiss Focus Award winner Nathalie reflects the fate of many people who, despite their best efforts, live on minimum subsistence in Switzerland. The eponymous protagonist struggles with the challenges of a precarious financial situation. Various circumstances have placed her in a difficult situation, making everyday life complicated for her and her children. These circumstances often lead to health problem, particularly psychological ones, which create a vicious circle for her professional and family survival.
In Alisa Kovalenko/Marysia Nikitiuk’s Sublimages Impact Award-winning Traces, six women share their stories of the traumatic experience of sexual violence and torture during Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014-23 in order to preserve the truth. Traces weaves their experience into a complex psychological multi-portrait, revealing collective trauma and documenting war crimes.
“As well as being a unique document of the crimes committed, this film is also a powerful testament to human resilience and resistance,” director Kovalenko told BDE this week. “In our film, we do not talk about survivors as ‘victims’, passive and suffering, with whom everyone can only sympathise, but about survivors who do not give up and fight, and who can become a source of inspiration.”
