2024 Award Recipient
MarkLeschinsky
Project Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF)
Project Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF)
Mark is a social impact filmmaker who has been making films since he was 11 years old. When he was 14 and in the midst of the COVID pandemic, Mark was ready to submit his latest short film creation to online film festivals but was met with the daunting financial reality of submission fees.
Mark realized that film festivals are inaccessible to so many young, emerging artists like himself—either because fees are too expensive or festivals don’t prioritize student voices, or both. So he decided to create a festival entirely for students, by students.
In May 2022, Mark launched the Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF), giving his creative peers a free, accessible platform designed to amplify a diversity of voices.
SWIFF has become the largest student-run film festival in the world, with over 17,000 films by more than 12,000 youth filmmakers from 149 countries represented on the platform. Every year, nearly 1,000 film reviewers and youth volunteers are inspired to join the team and provide feedback on film submissions to determine the winner.
The Student World Impact Film Festival (SWIFF) elevates the voices of young storytellers, ages 10-30, to provide students the opportunity to share their voices with the world and pave the way for a more inclusive, culturally accepting, and equitable society. SWIFF waives submission fees for its annual film festival, which streams the films of youth artists live to global audiences. To date, SWIFF has empowered 12,156 artists across 149 countries.
