Nearly 400 schoolchildren from Monaco packed the Théâtre des Variétés on Thursday to watch and vote for their favourite short films addressing global development challenges, as part of the 15th edition of the Cinema for Change festival.
The event, supported by the Prince’s Government through the Directorate of International Cooperation, brought together 18 classes from six schools across the Principality for the festival’s Children’s Prize category. Later that evening, students from Sciences Po Paris’s Menton campus convened to debate and select their preferred film for the Student Prize.
Festival founder Marc Obéron presented six short films from around the world, each illustrating aspects of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. The goals address issues ranging from poverty and hunger to climate action and quality education.
Monaco votes join international jury
The votes cast by Monaco students will be combined with those from young jury members in France and seven countries that partner with Monaco’s development cooperation programme: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.
This international dimension gives Monaco schoolchildren the opportunity to participate in a broader conversation about global development challenges alongside their counterparts in developing countries directly affected by many of the issues portrayed in the films.
Fifteen years of youth engagement
For the 15th consecutive year, the Directorate of International Cooperation has backed the festival’s three Youth Prizes – covering Children, Secondary School Students, and University Students – with the aim of raising awareness about development issues and international solidarity among young people.
The festival uses cinema as a medium to engage students with complex global issues in an accessible format. Short films allow for focused storytelling that can illustrate specific development challenges while remaining suitable for classroom settings and youth audiences.
Sciences Po partnership continues
The evening screening for Sciences Po students reflects a partnership dating back to 2014 between the Directorate of International Cooperation and the university’s Mediterranean-Middle East campus in Menton. The collaboration aims to sensitise students to development questions, human rights and the fight against global poverty.
The five films selected for the Student Prize category typically address more complex aspects of development challenges, suited to university-level analysis and debate. The format encourages students to engage critically with how development issues are portrayed and understood.
Combining education with advocacy
Cinema for Change represents an approach to development education that moves beyond traditional classroom learning. By asking students to watch, evaluate and vote on films, the festival positions them as active participants in conversations about sustainable development rather than passive recipients of information.
The festival’s broader mission centres on using film to drive social change and raise awareness of pressing global issues. The youth prizes form part of this strategy, building awareness among younger generations who will inherit responsibility for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by their 2030 target date.
The prize ceremony for Cinema for Change will take place on Saturday 11th April in Paris, where the winners selected by youth juries across multiple countries will be announced.
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Photo credit: Stephane Danna, Government Communications Department