Twenty-one finalists have been selected for the second edition of the international “Seven Issues Film Festival” (7IFF), which will take place this year on 29 July at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

The selection was carried out by twelve members of the international festival committee, experts in film and diplomacy from six different countries around the world. The festival is divided into seven categories under which authors aged 18 to 30 could submit their films: discrimination, environment, health, poverty, violence, women’s rights, and youth empowerment. For each category, the committee selected the three films that were technically and narratively most outstanding and that best captured the theme of the category under which they were submitted. The finalists are young filmmakers from every continent (except Antarctica), and in their films, diverse both in origin and in genre, they address a global issue through the lens of cinema, within a maximum running time of 15 minutes.

The festival is a one-day event, with a programme divided into two screening blocks followed by the awards ceremony that same evening. A total of nine awards will be presented: one for each of the seven categories, one audience award, and the festival’s Grand Prix. As the festival’s emphasis is on young filmmaking, the jury for eight of the awards consists of forty young filmmakers and diplomats from more than twelve countries, who will be staying in Paris at that time for the 21st International Youth Media Summit. The Grand Prix will be awarded by a jury of film experts and media professionals to the one film that manages to stand out above the other 21 finalists, regardless of the category in which it is competing.

Following the exceptionally successful pilot edition of 7IFF in Karlovac in 2025, where the Grand Prix, in a competition of no fewer than 28 films, was won by young Serbian filmmaker Lazar Jovanović with his film “Breaking Point,” about the canopy collapse in Novi Sad, a special second edition of the Festival follows, in the very heart of France and a centre of diplomacy, culture, and human rights: UNESCO Headquarters.

For more information about the festival and the programme, visit the official website.