International jury 2024
WHO is very grateful that acclaimed professionals from the film industry and humanitarian activists have accepted our invitation to participate in the 5th Health for All Film Festival jury.
Along with WHO senior experts, the jury will recommend winners to WHO’s Director-General, who will make the final decision. Alfonso Herrera, Sharon Stone, Nandita Das, Yusra Mardini, Mário Macilau, Apolline Traoré, and Paul Jerndal have agreed to support our experts.
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) category
Sharon Stone (USA) - Golden Globe and EMMY Award-winning Actress, Producer, and Activist for Health and Humanitarian Causes
Through her career as an actress which started in the early 1980s, Sharon Stone has won 10 awards from 41 nominations. Among those numerous recognitions, she was for instance rewarded for her roles in Casino, The Practice and Basic Instinct.
Sharon has supported more than 30 causes, charities and foundations dedicated to health issues, peace and social issues. In 2013, she received the Nobel Peace Summit Award for her work for people living with HIV/AIDS. She was introduced to our Health for All Film Festival by our institutional supporter DNDi that she regularly supports, and DNDi won a prize in our first edition with their film about sleeping sickness. Sharon Stone declared in the AARP online media: "I've made humanitarian causes and my children much more my priority than the Hollywood scene, being liked and getting movie parts."
Apolline Traoré (Burkina Faso) - Filmmaker and Producer
Apolline Traoré is a Burkinabe filmmaker and winner of several awards and distinctions. After traveling the world with her diplomat father, she entered the prestigious Emerson College of Art in Boston, USA.
Her first short film, "Kounandi", was selected in 2004 at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. At 25 years old, she directed the cult series "Monia et Rama", followed a few years later by "Le Testament". In 2008, she decided to settle in the country.
After "Frontières" (2017) and "Desrances" (2019), "Sira" (2023) is her
fifth feature film.
Her work places particular emphasis on the voice of women
and the scourges that plague the African continent.
In 2019, she was awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre du mérite, des arts, des lettres et de la communication', and in 2020, she was installed as Ambassador of the National Museum.
Dr Jérôme Salomon (France) - Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO
Appointed in April 2023, Dr Jérôme Salomon oversees a broad portfolio of technical programmes covering HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually-transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, mental health, substance use disorders, and noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer.
Dr Salomon previously served as the Director-General for Health at the Ministry of Health and Prevention of France. He was a Member of the WHO Executive Board prior to his appointment as a WHO Assistant Director-General and has extensive experience in health systems management, communicable diseases and international public health.
Dr Salomon holds a medical degree, a Master of Public Health and a PhD in epidemiology.
Emergencies, Migrants and Refugees Health category
Alfonso Herrera (Mexico) - Actor, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
Alfonso Herrera is best known for his roles in theater, film and television in Pillowman, La Dictadura Perfecta, ¡Qué Viva México!, Sense 8, Ozark and Rebelde. He is also part of the cast of Rebel Moon, a Netflix movie to be released in late 2023.
He has been supporting UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, since 2016. As part of this ambassador role, Alfonso has steadily supported various actions by going to field missions for UNHCR, meeting forcibly displaced populations, and joining awareness-raising and fundraising campaigns.
Yusra Mardini (Syria) - Olympic swimmer, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador,
Yusra Mardini is an Olympic swimmer, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, and the subject of the critically-acclaimed Netflix film, The Swimmers. Born and raised in Damascus, Syria, Yusra and her sister, Sara, made the difficult decision to flee the civil war in 2015 and undertake a perilous journey to safety. After reaching Europe, Yusra and her sister made their way to Berlin, Germany. Her dream of participating in the Olympic Games came true with the Refugee Olympic Team at the Rio 2016 Games, and again at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
In 2017, Yusra was appointed the youngest-ever UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. She has also recently established her own charitable foundation, The Yusra Mardini Foundation, which supports young people and refugees through sports programs and humanitarian assistance.
Dr Catharina Boehme (Germany) - Assistant Director-General, External Relations and Governance, WHO
As Assistant Director-General of External Relations and Governance, Dr Boehme leads WHO’s strategic engagement in the areas of governance, resource mobilization and partner relations. Her portfolio includes providing secretariat support for the World Health Assembly and the WHO Executive Board, along with intergovernmental processes mandated by WHO governing bodies, including those that relate to governance reform and sustainable financing. She oversees WHO’s coordinated resource mobilization and donor relations and Organization-wide efforts to improve the predictability, flexibility and sustainability of WHO financing. Dr Boehme is also responsible for engaging WHO in multilateral and multisectoral partnerships for advancing global health, including with civil society, the private sector and other non-state actors.
Dr Santino Severoni (Italy) - Director of the Department of Health and Migration, WHO
Dr Santino Severoni has been Director of the Department of Health and Migration at WHO headquarters since 2020. He is a medical doctor, health economist, epidemiologist and systems manager with over 24 years of experience as an international senior technical adviser and executive. He has worked with WHO, governments, NGOs, and foundations in eastern Africa, central Asia, the Balkans and Europe. His areas of expertise include global health, health sector reforms, health systems strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination effectiveness and management of complex emergencies. Within WHO, he has held various positions including WHO Representative in Albania and Tajikistan, Regional Office’s Special Representative on Health and Migration and acting interim Director on Health Systems and Public Health.
Better Health and Physical Activity category
Nandita Das (India) - Filmmaker, Actor, and Social Advocate
Nandita Das has acted in 40 films in 10 languages and has directed three feature films, Firaaq (2008), Manto (2018) and Zwigato (2023). The last two were produced by ‘Nandita Das Initiatives’, a creative platform founded by her in 2016. She has served twice on the jury of Cannes Film Festival, among other prestigious festivals.
She was conferred the ‘Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters’ by the French Government. Nandita has a Master’s degree in Social Work and continues to advocate issues of human rights and social justice. She was the first Indian to be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the International Women’s Forum.
Mário Macilau (Mozambique) - Multidisciplinary Artist and Activist
Mário Macilau is a multi-disciplinary artist most known for his photography.
Macilau specialises in long-term photography projects and series that address the complex realities of human labour and environmental conditions. Macilau started his journey as a photographer in 2003 from the streets of Maputo, becoming professional when he traded his mother's cell phone for his first camera in 2007.
Selected exhibitions include: Songs of the Present, Musée de la Photographie de Saint Louis, Senegal (2018); Afrique Capitales, La Villette, Paris (2017); Pavilion of the Holy See, 56th Venice Biennale (2015); Making Africa, Vitra Museum, Weil am Rhein (2015); Discovery Show, Fotofestiwal Łódź, Poland (2015); Pangaea: Art from Africa and Latin America, Saatchi Gallery, London (2014); and more.
Dr Samira Asma (United States of America) - Assistant Director-General, Data, Analytics and Delivery, WHO
Dr Samira Asma is the Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at the World Health Organization (WHO), where she ensures that health data is reliable and accessible, and is used to improve health outcomes worldwide. She leads WHO's efforts to track and accelerate progress towards the Triple Billion targets and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals as well co-leading the game-changing Universal Health Preparedness Review. Dr Asma also oversees initiatives that support countries to deliver a measurable impact, including improving data quality, timeliness, and accessibility.
Dr Asma has authored over 150 publications, books, and policy papers on global health and public health surveillance. She is widely recognized as an expert in preventing leading risk factors that cause premature deaths.
Dr Fiona Bull (Australia) - Head of Unit, Physical Activity, Department of Health Promotion, WHO
Dr Fiona Bull is Head of the Physical Activity Unit in the Department of Health Promotion at the World Health Organization (WHO) Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The unit provides normative and technical leadership to support all countries promote and enable everyone to be physically active and improve health and the environment.
She is a Professor of Physical Activity (on leave) from the University of Western Australia and a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh and a Member of the IOC Medical and Scientific Commission and IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission. Dr Bull co-authored over 200 scientific publications. She has a Scopus H-index of 65, and ranked in the top 1% of highly cited researchers across multiple disciplines in 2020 and 2022.
Dr Bull was recognized with the award of Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to global public health.
Very Short Film category
Paul Jerndal (Sweden) - Creative Director, Film Director and Writer
Paul Jerndal is a Swedish Creative Director, Film Director and writer with a strong passion for mental health. Creating emotional pieces with an engagement and dedication to all the details and art forms is significant in Pauls work. His passion, dedication and lustful leadership has been a key to his own creative film projects the past few years.
In 2023 his film "Mirrors" received the Special Prize at WHO's Health for All Film Festival in Geneva, underscoring the significance of mental health and the power of self-expression in challenging times.
Petra Hongell (Finland) - Communication Officer, WHO Regional Office for Europe
Petra Hongell, 2nd year HAFF juror, is a film enthusiast who currently works as Communications Officer at WHO’s Regional Office for Europe. At WHO/Europe, she’s one of the organizers and moderators of the popular docUNight screenings at UN City in Copenhagen.
In her previous post with the UN Regional Information Centre UNRIC, she initiated and led the pan-European documentary project UN Cinema (also known as Ciné ONU) screenings in the Nordic countries, and has collaborated with film festivals surrounding the SDGs both in the Nordic countries, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others.
Mrigank Shail (Canada) - Strategic Communications Consultant, WHO's Headquarters
Dr. Mrigank Shail is an accomplished medical researcher, writer, and strategic content creator passionate about global public health and strategic communications. Currently, he serves as a Communications Consultant at the World Health Organization and is an adjunct lecturer at the Institute of Health, Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Shail’s research interests focus on exploring data-driven strategies to develop effective social media communication campaigns, establish an expert online presence, and promote health messages to target audiences.