September 3, 2025 – New York, NY – Shine Global, the award-winning non-profit media company dedicated to improving children’s lives through powerful storytelling, today announced the documentary Speak. as the Grand Prize Winner of the 2025 Shine Global Resilience Awards, an annual celebration of exceptional films that highlight the strength and perseverance of children and families worldwide.

As the Grand Prize Winner, Speak. will receive a $25,000 prize package, which includes a cash award and impact campaign services from Picture Motion, the leading marketing and advocacy agency for social impact films.

The award will be officially presented during Shine Global’s 20th Anniversary Celebration on September 30, 2025 in New York City, honoring two decades of impactful storytelling and a dedication to improving children’s lives through the power of film.

Speak., a feature documentary directed by Jennifer Tiexiera and Guy Mossman, follows five bold young voices on a high-stakes journey to win “the Super Bowl of public speaking,” the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Championships in the Original Oratory category. Future stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the film’s own executive producer Josh Gad, all participated as teens.

“Speak. is a timely and deeply hopeful film,” said Shine Global’s co-CEO and Creative Director, Alexandra Blaney. “At a moment when cultural divides threaten to pull us apart and vicious social media rhetoric dominates the news cycle, these young voices remind us of the power of courage and dialogue. The film transcends the competition documentary format for a powerful and hopeful look at the next generation of leaders.”

Speak. had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and has won several other awards including the Kathleen Bryan Edwards Award for Human Rights at Full Frame and Best Feature Doc at Thin Line.  It opens September 19 at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film in New York City for a week theatrical run.  In addition to Tiexiera and Mossman, who was also the cinematographer, the film is also produced by Pamela Griner with Executive Producers Josh Gad, Lisa Hepner, Simon Kilmurry, Andrea van Beuren, and the Schultz Family Foundation.

In the four years since the Resilience Awards launched, Shine Global has supported 41 films and seven film festivals and organizations, providing over $100,000 in direct cash support in addition to in-kind services and support.  Past winners of Shine Global’s Resilience Award Grand Prize have all gone on to Emmy nominations and also to win a Peabody Award (Daughters, Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae), broadcast on PBS and be nominated for BIFA and Grierson Awards (Name Me Lawand, Directed by Edward Lovelace), and be acquired by Paramount for distribution (Lift, Directed by David Petersen). 

Celebrating All 2025 Resilience Award Winners

In addition to the Grand Prize, the Shine Global Resilience Awards honored outstanding films through partnerships with major festivals and industry organizations throughout the year, amplifying diverse stories of children’s resilience:

• DJ Ahmet, Written and Directed by Georgi M. Unkovski, Produced by Ivan Unkovski, Ivana Shekutkoska, Winner of Children’s Resilience in Screenwriting Award at 2025 Nantucket Film Festival
• Comparsa, Directed by Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson, Producers Olivia Ahnemann, Anna Hadingham, Vickie Curtis, Doug Anderson, Winner Children’s Resilience Documentary Prize at Sheffield DocFest
• Rise, Written and Directed by Jessica J. Rowlands, Winner Children’s Resilience Short Film Prize at Indy Shorts International Film Festival
• Savages, Written and Directed by Claude Barras, Producer: Nicolas Burlet , Winner Unstoppable Kids Prize at the New York International Children’s Film Festival
• Remedial, Written and Directed by Laurie J. Gardiner, Winner Children’s Resilience in Disability Stories Screenwriting Award at ReelAbilities Film Festival
• In Case You Forgot, Directed, written, and produced by Jackson Provan and Henry Slater, Winner Shine Global Resilience Award for Young Filmmakers at Montclair Film

These partnerships underscore Shine Global’s commitment to amplifying diverse, global voices and ensuring stories of children’s resilience reach audiences everywhere. 

About Shine Global

Shine Global is a nonprofit media company that improves the lives of children by telling powerful stories to raise awareness, promote action, and inspire change. We produce and support inspiring films and compelling content about underserved children. Through tailored distribution and outreach, we connect with our audiences in communities, classrooms, museums, and on Capitol Hill as part of a powerful engagement campaign to encourage social change.

Since our founding in 2005 by Susan MacLaury and Albie Hecht, Shine Global films have won more than 100 major awards, including an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Subject for Inocente, an Academy Award® nomination for Best Live Action Short for Anuja, and an Academy Award® nomination and two Emmys® for War/Dance. Recent films include the documentary-animation hybrid Liyana, the hit documentary The Eagle Huntress, Through Our Eyes: Homefront which is available on HBOMax, the Ariel Award winner Home Is Somewhere Else, and Comedy Against the Odds which is currently in film festivals.

ABOUT SHINE GLOBAL’S RESILIENCE AWARDS

The Shine Global Resilience Awards were created to honor films that highlight the strength, dignity, and power of children in the face of adversity. Past winners of Shine Global Resilience Awards include the feature documentaries Daughters (2024, Directed by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae), Name Me Lawand (2023, Directed by Edward Lovelace), and Lift (2022, Directed by David Petersen), Los Frikis (2024, written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz) in partnership with Nantucket Film Festival, the short documentary Ayenda (2023, directed by Marie Margolius) in partnership with Heartland Film’s Indy Shorts International Film Festival, Okthanksbye (2023, Nicole Van Kilsdok) with ReelAbilities Film Festival, and Dounia – The Great White North (2024, directed by Marya Zarif and André Kadi) in partnership with the New York International Children’s Film Festival.