AFS Impact
450
Annual Film Screenings
American documentary screenings hosted by U.S. Embassies
50+
Annual Global Exchanges
Weeklong workshops and film screening tours around the world
375
Filmmakers Trained Annually
Residencies and exchanges for global filmmakers
Impact Stories
Screenings
AFS organizes hundreds of screenings of American documentaries each year. Here’s an example of the impact of just one AFS film program.
Inventing Tomorrow, which follows teenage innovators as they compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), was screened by the U.S. Embassy in Athens in 58 schools, reaching more than 12,000 students.
The U.S. Embassy received a deluge of feedback: Greek students wanted to compete in the prestigious ISEF competition, too, but Greece didn’t have a competition that could generate finalists for the international event. Yet.
“Those screenings inspired us to create a whole new program,” said Eleni Alexaki, U.S. Embassy Cultural and Educational Affairs Specialist. From there the U.S. Embassy partnered with the Greek Ministry of Education and a local science festival to organize the country’s first national STEM competition. “We eventually sent two rounds of Greek teams to ISEF. More than 80 teams and hundreds of students competed to get there,” Alexaki said.
Filmmaker Envoys
AFS organizes more than 50 in-person exchange programs each year, which creates lasting connections between American filmmakers and local audiences. In 2023, AFS worked with the U.S. Embassy in Thailand to produce a screening program around a film called The Human Element, which explores the environmental impact of human activity on various communities.
“When filmmakers release our work into the world, we naturally want it to be seen by the largest audience possible, to make waves, to resonate in viewers’ hearts and minds," said Matthew Testa, director of The Human Element. "I had all this in mind when AFS invited my climate change film, The Human Element, into its 2023 programming, and my team and I happily accepted. My travels with AFS would prove to be much more than that."
Screenings were coupled with a workshop taught by Matthew in Chiang Rai. The goal? To have participants shoot a short climate-focused film in two days. Since then, the Thai filmmakers have screened their short docs for NGOs, schools, and policy makers to push for change in Thailand.
Being a cultural representative for my country was a tremendous honor that I’ll never forget, and an experience that has me seriously considering a future in teaching.Matthew Testa, Filmmaker
International Filmmaker Support
AFS produces residencies and intensive regional workshops supporting international filmmakers and their projects. The alumni of these programs number more than 320 people from 78 countries.
In 2014, Egyptian filmmaker Mayye Zayed knew she had to make a film about a group of young girls training to be weightlifters on the streets of her hometown Alexandria. Unsure of how to film this project, Mayye participated in AFS’s intensive doc residency at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, where she developed her film and her pitch.
After the workshop, Mayye went on to present her newly crafted pitch at the Durban International Film Festival. She was eventually offered funding from Hot Docs’ Blue Ice Fund. An AFS instructor offered feedback on her work.
In 2020, Mayye’s documentary Lift Like a Girl premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won multiple awards.
I started working on my documentary Lift Like a Girl in 2014. Two years later, I had no funding, and the story was all over the place. That’s when I learned about the AFS Doc Residency in Los Angeles, where I found the true essence of my story. I traveled to the Durban International Film Festival right after the workshop, pitched my film confidently, and in less than six months, got my first grant. In 2021 Lift Like a Girl became the first Egyptian documentary to be bought by Netflix.Mayye Zayed, Filmmaker
Special Collaborations
AFS collaborates with American film studios, as well as US-based and international film festivals and organizations to develop screening and exchange program partnerships.
In April 2023, AFS brought 18 leaders of the African animation industry to Los Angeles for a weeklong exchange program focused on professional development—the culmination of a seven-month virtual masterclass series AFS produced as a collaboration with Walt Disney Animation Studios and South Africa’s Triggerfish Studios.
Participants came from Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. Fourteen of them were then working as directors on the Disney+ African animation anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, which has since won numerous awards.
What’s been exciting is going to the Disney studio and to social mixers where we were introduced to really experienced people. The industry feels impenetrable sometimes when you’re in South Africa. You look at the tutorials, but speaking to people face-to-face really illuminates it. For me, this trip has blown the ceiling off my limited view of the possibilities.Nthato Mokgato, South Africa
AFS Screenings Impact Study
A 2023 study by the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center examined the attitudes of 527 viewers from Brazil, Czechia, Indonesia, Mexico, and Thailand who participated in AFS screenings of the documentaries Woman in Motion or Picture a Scientist, two films in the AFS slate that discuss the lack of representation of women and minorities in STEM fields.
The Normal Lear study found that:
78% said they felt empowered to discuss the topics addressed in the film with others.
43% agreed that a film or documentary can have a large impact on a person’s behavior, a much larger share than similar Norman Lear studies conducted on American viewers.
69% of viewers said they learned something new about American culture, and 60% said they learned something new about American documentary filmmaking.