Cinema For Peace - Award History

Award History

The annual Cinema for Peace Awards seek to promote valuable films and attract worldwide attention to important 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 dedicated 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 (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 fight to preserve endangered species around the world.

Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for Mikhail Gorbachev

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.

Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for Sean Penn 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.