On Tuesday Sundance Film Institute announced a worldwide short film challenge calling for stories about overcoming poverty and starvation.


According to the Associated Press, the executive director Keri Putnam made the announcement Tuesday at the Sundance Film Festival. She says the goal is to "inspire ideas, discussions and solutions through films." Five winning films will be selected to be shown at next year's festival, and each of those five filmmakers will receive $10,000.


The challenge, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, began Tuesday afternoon with a private screening and the launch of a page on Tongal for submissions. On Tongal the filmmakers are encouraged to use whatever style or structure they wish as long as they "touch on economic inequalities."


The screening consisted of the first five films for the challenge, which were made with production grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They included documentaries from India, Kenya, Haiti, and Madagascar, as well as a narrative also from India.