Make Film History Challenge 2026

Reuters Connect was proud to sponsor the Make Film History Challenge, in partnership with Sheffield DocFest. 

 

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New Takes on the Reuters Archive

Emerging filmmakers were given exclusive access to more than one million historic clips from the Reuters Archive, from early newsreels to the digital age, to create their own reinterpretation of news moments from global history through a contemporary lens. 

All the films demonstrated a wealth of talent and the creative potential of archive footage to bring the past into conversation with the present, and create space for new ideas, voices and perspectives.  

We’re delighted to showcase the shortlisted films which screened at DocFest here, and to announce the winning film: ‘Bermuda Riots are Different’ by Alyson Thompson and Matt Mead.

Reuters Connect Make Film History Challenge Winner

Bermuda Riots are Different (Alyson Thompson and Matt Mead)
Bermuda Riots are Different examines a decade of race riots between 1968 and 1977, and a triangle of colonial influences: Bermuda, Great Britain, USA.

Shortlisted films

52Hz (Federico Barassi)

In a world dominated by wars and the oppression of the stronger over the weaker, a whale that sings at a unique frequency becomes a global observer. Its song echoes through the depths of the ocean, bearing witness fifty years of history and revealing how human brutalities repeat across time.

Little Black Boy (João Belchior)

In a Portuguese colonial Propaganda film of the 1930s, as an African child plays with plant fibres, a voice-over calls him the image of the African of tomorrow. This film questions this imposed title through a simulated conversation with this child, acknowledging that the 'tomorrow' imagined by the colonial project has taken on different contours.

Yugoslavia (Angela Bedekovic)

A daughter talks to her absent father about war, nationality, and invincible estrangement.

Marianna

No Man’s Sea (Marianna Tsatsou)

The Mediterranean Sea emerges as witness and character, tracing migrant journeys of loss, arrival and survival across Europe´s contested waters.

Zugunruhe (Benjamin Rupprecht and Florence Humphrys)

"Zugunruhe" shares the stories of transgender people across the globe faced with the loss of legal self-determination, in juxtaposition with the lives and freedom of migratory birds. During a time of binary categorisation, can we imagine what a world without borders would look like?

 

EQUITY 6928 (Rory Carroll)

At the dawn of cinema and the notion of a moving image, a fierce battle commenced between inventors Louis Le Prince and Thomas Edison to conceive and design a machine capable of projecting multiple frames a second. Who shall win, and perhaps more importantly, how?

Online Showcase

Discover the six longlisted films selected for this year's online showcase.

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(Pauline Blanchet)

Watch Here
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Black Box

(James Madeja)

Watch Here
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The Sea

(Natalia Galgos)

Watch Here
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The March of Hollowmen

(Nyembezi)

Watch Here
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Purple Pill

(Poppy Carter & Sarah Frosh)

Watch Here
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The Clyde Gods Are Dead, 
Long Live The Workers

(Matthew Dunsmore)

Watch Here

Q&A with Helen Walker, Reuters Archive Manager

From opening up historic footage to emerging filmmakers to safeguarding decades of visual journalism, Helen Walker discusses how Reuters is rethinking archive access and reinforcing the value of trusted content in a fast-changing digital landscape.

Read here
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