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Awards

2025

  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices, the film we co-produced with our Pacific Fellows on the impact of climate change on Indigenous Pacific Islanders with disabilities, won the Justice category of the 2025 Covering Climate Now Journalism Awards, selected from over 1,200 entries. Judges praised it as “poignant” and “essential,” noting the dignified light in which it casts sources. “By marginalized peoples, for marginalized peoples, this is journalism done the way it was intended to be,” they said. Covering Climate Now, co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation in association with the Guardian and WNYC, is a global consortium strengthening climate journalism worldwide.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices was screened at the 18th UN Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (COSP18) during a side event on strengthening resilience in emergencies and climate change through enhancing disability inclusion in the Commonwealth.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices has been accepted into the 2025 Superfest Disability Film Festival and honored with this year’s Advocacy Award. Selected by a team of disabled curators, the film stood out among a record-breaking 450+ submissions.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices has been selected to screen at the disABILITY Film Festival Leuven Short Film Competition in Leuven, Belgium.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices won third place in the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ)’s 2024 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award competition. Administered by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, the Schneider prize is the only professional contest in the US devoted exclusively to the coverage of people with disabilities and disability issues. RTRV won third place in the small media category.
  • ‘I Feel Like an Outsider, ‘ a short film by DJP Fellow Kinanty Andini about limited mental health care and support for Indonesians with psychosocial disabilities, is an official selection in the Mental Health Warrior Film Festival.

2024

  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices won Best International Film at The Together! 2024 Disability Film Festival, organized by the UK Disabled People’s Council.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices received Special Mention at the A&E, Accessibility and Environment Film Festival, was a finalist in the Cinema Touching Disability Festival, and was an Official Selection in the Art Without Limit International and Focus on Ability festivals.
  • On International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Rising Tides, Raising Voices was featured at UNESCO’s inaugural Festival of Short Films on Disability Inclusion in Paris. It was also part of a panel discussion and special screening hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in Rome.
  • We received the Mental Health Hero Award at This Is My Brave Australia (TIMBA)’s 7th International Mental Health Film Festival. Our films, Breaking Chains by DJP Fellow Sanjaya Raj Neupane and ‘I Feel Like an Outsider by DJP Fellow Kinanty Andini, were recognized for promoting inclusion and empowerment by highlighting the intersection of mental health and disability justice. 
  • Dramatic Waves of Change, a short film about a disabled activist in Kiribati using theater to confront climate change, was a finalist in the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival. It was produced by Faaolo Utumapu-Utailesolo, a blind filmmaker from Samoa.
  • Rising Tides, Raising Voices was endorsed by the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development as a Decade Activity.

2023

  • We were a finalist in the Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) in the Production Companies category, selected from entries from 27 countries. The 12th annual SIMA Awards were supported by the International Documentary Association, Doc Society, Firelight Media, and other national and international documentary and social change organizations.
  • We won two gold Anthem Awards honoring mission-driven journalism. From nearly 2000 entries across 43 countries, our work was featured along with Mother Jones, ITVS, and Human Rights Watch. Judges included Tarana Burke, Ashley Judd, and The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson. 
  • We were nominated for a Webby Award in the Websites and Mobile Sites – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category. We were singled out as one of the five best sites in the world in this category, making us among the top 12% of the nearly 14,000 projects entered.
  • We were a finalist in the On The Rise: 0-4 Years in Business category and an honorable mention in the Media & Entertainment category in Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards.