Willy Brandt Documentary Film Award

This year, seven filmmakers have the chance to win the prestigious Willy Brandt Documentary Film Award for Freedom and Human Rights. Sponsored by the Bundeskanzler-Willy-Brandt-Stiftung, the award is endowed with 5,000 euros.

The international jury will honor a competition film for its outstanding artistic and substantive achievements. The Willy Brandt Documentary Film Prize was first awarded at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin in 2019. Peter Brandt, son of the former Chancellor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Willy Brandt, presented the prize at that time to Russian director Askold Kurov.

Winner 2026: MOTHERS OF CHIBOK by Joel Kachi Benson

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Nominated Films 2026

All the Mountains Give

ALL THE MOUNTAINS GIVE

For six years, Rakhsha follows Kurdish kolbars forced to smuggle goods across the Iranian-Iraqi border. An untold story, rendered in striking images filled with grief and love.

TO THE FILM

MOTHERS OF CHIBOK

Over ten years after their daughters were abducted by Boko Haram, four mothers in northeastern Nigeria fight against being forgotten and find new ways to stand up for a better future.

TO THE FILM

©Put your soul on your hand and walk

PUT YOUR SOUL ON YOUR HAND AND WALK

Through fragile video calls, photojournalist Fatma Hassona shares her life in Gaza. In conversations with the director, a portrait emerges of a resilient woman and her indispensable work in making Gaza’s reality visible.

TO THE FILM

©Shot the Voice of Freedom

SHOT - THE VOICE OF FREEDOM

A group of women in Afghanistan fights against Taliban oppression for freedom, education, and self-determination. A film about female solidarity and courage.

TO THE FILM

©The Wolves Always Come at Night

THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT

In the Mongolian desert, a young nomadic family fights to protect their way of life. This poetic hybrid film explores the fragile bond between humans and nature in the face of global climate crisis.

TO THE FILM

THE WOMAN WHO POKED THE LEOPARD

Imprisoned, tortured, and bereaved, Ugandan dissident Dr. Stella Nyanzi defies a dictator, runs for parliament, and seeks refuge abroad, where her fight for freedom continues.

TO THE FILM

2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA

Ukrainian soldiers fight their way through a forest to liberate the village of Andriivka, occupied by the Russian army – a film about the reality of war and the lives it takes.

TO THE FILM

Jury 2026

©Johanna Berghorn

Benita Bailey

Benita Bailey is an actress, theatre & film maker & University lecturer. She has a background in International Relations and African Studies from University of Leipzig and at Hong Kong Baptist University & worked in this field in NYC and Beijing as well as research assistant in the Human Rights department at the German parliament in Berlin. From 2012 - 2015 Benita studied acting full-time in Berlin. Since graduating in 2015, Benita has appeared on German Cinema and national television, worked with acclaimed director Robert Wilson among others. She is currently developing her first feature film and an interdisciplinary performance based on the arrivals legacy project with the Canadian collective Diaspora Kidz. Since July 2020, she has been producing #yellit on YT, in which she presents Black artists. She can currently be seen in the title role "PFLEGIONÄRIN" in the ARD-Mediathek. In 2022, she was chosen by Focus magazine as one of the 100 women of the year and is the 2024 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Initiative Winner. Benita is a founding member and on the board of the Black Filmmakers Association.

©Milena Schloesser

Can Dündar

Can Dündar is a Turkish writer and a documentary director. He has been working as a journalist for the last 47 years, for several newspapers and magazines. He worked as an anchorman for several news channels. He stepped down from his post as the editor in chief of the daily Cumhuriyet in 2016, after he was prisoned due to his story on the Turkish Intelligence Service’s involvement in the Syrian war. He was sentenced in absentia to 27 years in jail in December 2020. He founded #ÖZGÜRÜZRadio (WeAreFree) in Berlin in 2016. He’s been a columnist for Die Zeit and Gorki Theatre, and a commentator for COSMO since 2016… He produced many TV documentaries for Turkish and German televisions like ARTE, ZDF, DW, ARD, and written more than 40 books, some of which were published in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Albanian, Arabic, Chinees. He is now the chief editor of a Turkish YouTube channel and a website at CORRECT!V.

©Jasper Ehrich

Dr. Nicole Zabel

Founder of PlanetNarratives, media lawyer, script consultant, and expert in transformative storytelling as well as climate and democracy communication. Nicole Zabel holds a PhD in law with a focus on copyright, film, and media law, and has worked, among others, for the FFA, Freshfields, and UFA Fiction. As co-founder of PlanetNarratives, she supports filmmakers, media professionals, and organizations in developing impactful narratives for social change—with a focus on climate and democracy-strengthening storytelling, in collaboration with experts such as Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf, Prof. Maren Urner, Prof. Steffen Mau, and Katharina van Bronswijk. In this work, she collaborates with various civil society actors, including Project Together, Vereint für Demokratie, and others.

Prof. Dr. Susanne Stürmer

Since October 2013, Prof. Dr. Susanne Stürmer has served as president of the KONRAD WOLF Film University Babelsberg, now in her third term. The KONRAD WOLF Film University Babelsberg is the largest and oldest film school in Germany. At the start of her first term, in July 2014, the institution’s status changed: it is now both an art college and a university. Since then, as president, she has been shaping the process of developing the university’s profile together with the governing bodies and all members of the institution. Susanne Stürmer also serves as the liaison to the film industry. Under her leadership, new practice-oriented degree programs have been developed and external partnerships expanded.

Winner 2024: Mediha by Hasan Oswald

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Nominated Films 2024

©Clin d'Oeil Films

DRAWING A LINE

An illustrator in India creates political comics for social media – often from a feminist perspective. However, the Hindu nationalist government is cracking down on critical voices.

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FOREST

A family lives a nature-oriented life on the Polish border with Belarus when their home becomes a focal point of migration policy: people seek entry into the EU. A story about humanity.

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IGUALADA

2022 a left-wing activist unexpectedly becomes Colombian Vice President. She challenges not only the status quo but also the narrative of what a Black woman can achieve in her country.

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KAMAY

A young student at Kabul University took her own life after been refused to graduate. Her family seeks justice and tells in poetic words about Zahras passion for her homeland’s ecology.

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MEDIHA

Fifteen-year-old Mediha lives in a tent city in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. In her video diary, the young Yazidi girl processes her trauma of her enslavement by the so-called Islamic State.

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WE WON'T SHUT UP – A FILM FOR FREEDOM

In Spain, eighteen musicians have been sentenced to prison for making political statements in their lyrics. The Catalan music scene performs their songs and fight for freedom of arts and expression.

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WHERE THE TREES BEAR MEAT

Years of drought are bringing an Argentinian cattle breeder to the brink of ruin. Within the small cosmos the world’s big problems are reflected: resignation and optimism, life and death.

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Jury 2024

from left to right: Malte Mau, Peter Brandt (not part of the jury), Liwaa Yazji, Dr. Jens Eder. Not pictured: Luisa Neubauer, Margje de Koning

"It is a great pleasure and honour to be part of the jury. More than ever, we need an unsparing look at reality. And right now, we also need the stories, images and films that show us with radical hope what the world could become if only we want it to."

Luisa Neubauer (Jury Member 2024)

last update:

22. APRIL 2026