UNAOC and IOM Announce Plural+ 2014 Award Winners

On Thursday 4 December the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced the PLURAL+ 2014 Award Winners at the Paley Center for Media in New York City.

The International Jury Award winners for the video entries of the age category of up to 12 years are Aldo Abril, Mauricio Buendía, Sofía Marvizón, César Hernández, María Hernández and the team from Telekids Workshop (Spain); for the age group 13-17 are Michael Born, William Snyder, Matthew Steinman & Nathan Martin (Canada); and 18-25 age category Al-Mothana Al-Ghizzawi and Anas Yahya from BlueLight Film Productions (Jordan). Ms. Kim Brizzolara and Mr. Laurent Imbault, both members of the PLURAL+ 2014 International Jury, presented the awards to the winners.

Photo: UNAOC/Verlaine SoobroydooAddressing the gathering, The United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations, Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser underlined that “PLURAL+ is another example of UNAOC’s commitment to supporting youth empowerment with the aim of mainstreaming the voices of young people in media regarding topics that truly touch and influence their lives, such as migration, diversity and social inclusion.”

Ms. Lea Matheson, Charge Affairs ad Interim at IOM’s Office of the Permanent Observer to the United Nations, and Mr. Maher Nasser, Acting Head of the Department of Public Information of the United Nations, also addressed the packed auditorium of New York’s Paley Center for Media. The event was hosted by award-winning actress Susan Rybin and featured as well an extraordinary performance by the 2014 New York City Youth Poet Laureate, Ramya Ramana.

Photo: UNAOC/Collin GibersonPrior to the evening ceremony, PLURAL+ 2014 Partners Awards were presented and the videos screened. An engaged audience had the opportunity to discuss with the young media makers attending the event. The noon activities included a workshop, co-coordinated with UNICEF/Voices Of Youth, with the young media makers in New York for PLURAL+ Awards.

PLURAL+ is a youth video festival focusing on migration, diversity and social inclusion, emphasizing intercultural dialogue, youth expression and the desire for peace and better understanding world-wide. It is a joint initiative of the UNAOC and IOM, with the support of many partner organizations from across the world. Over the last six years, PLURAL+ has received over 950 video entries representing 113 countries from around the world. With the support PLURAL+ partners, PLURAL+ videos are screened and broadcast on a variety of media platforms across the world. For more information and to view the twenty-eight PLURAL+ 2014 award winning videos, please go to pluralplus.unaoc.org

Photo: UNAOC/Collin Giberson