Shine Global Named A Production Company Finalist at the 2026 SIMA Awards
Shine Global has been named a Production Company Finalist at the 2026 Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) for organizations that transform cinema into sustained action, marking the seventh consecutive year the organization has received this recognition for its work.
The Social Impact Media Awards (SIMA) celebrate excellence in storytelling that advances social justice and human rights, honoring films, organizations, and companies creating measurable impact through media. The honor reflects Shine Global’s continued commitment to harnessing the power of storytelling to drive meaningful social change. For more than 20 years, Shine Global has produced award-winning films and impact campaigns that raise awareness, promote action, and improve the lives of children around the world.
The 2026 SIMA Awards recognition highlights Shine Global’s work throughout 2025, a milestone period that included the organization’s 20th anniversary and far-reaching creative and social impact.
Anuja, Shine Global’s live-action short film shining a light on child labor and girls’ education in India, premiered globally on Netflix and received an Academy Award® nomination. In addition to international recognition, the film generated direct impact by raising $20,000 for the Salaam Baalak Trust, funding three teachers serving vulnerable children in Delhi.
Shine Global’s documentary short Comedy Against the Odds helped spark a nationwide conversation about autism awareness and inclusion. Through partnerships with Chuck E. Cheese and Autism Speaks, the campaign reached millions of families and was recognized with an Anthem Award for promoting diversity and inclusion.
The 2025 Shine Global Resilience Awards also reached new heights as both a recognition program and a field-building initiative. With Speak., a Sundance Film Festival documentary, announced as the Grand Prize winner, Shine Global has now provided over $100,000 in direct support to filmmakers and film institutions since the program launched.
Shine Global is honored to be recognized alongside fellow finalists and remains committed to producing stories that inspire change and improve the lives of children worldwide.
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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 Speak. (2025, Directed by Guy Mossman and Jennifer Tiexiera), 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 Rise (2025, Directed by Jessica J. Rowlands), 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, Savauges (2024, directed by Claude Barras), 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.
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- Shine Global Appoints TIFF & Rogers & Cowan PMK Leaders to Board of Directors
- Shine Global Named A Production Company Finalist at the 2026 SIMA Awards
- Shine Global's 2025 Highlights
- Shine Global Wins Two Anthem Awards for Impactful Storytelling
- “Shine Global Announces Speak. as Grand Prize Winner of 2025 Resilience Awards, Receives $25,000 Prize Package to Support Impact Campaign