United States - At 7.00pm on 27 October, in the Paley Center for Media, New York, young media makers from around the world will be honoured at the 2016 PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival and Awards.

The ceremony will be hosted by Victoria Pannell, a young New York community activist, and is open to the public. Selected from more than 300 video from 68 countries worldwide, PLURAL+ 2016 is honored to announce its four International Jury Winners.

• EXCLUDED, USA, Kijani Derenoncourt, Kara Peeler, and Sagun Shrestha. – Category up to 12 years old
  Excluded, created by young students under the age of 12, and reflects on the various kinds of exclusions happen in our society, and at schools in particular. Students can be excluded and discriminated against because of their ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. The result of social exclusion is dangerous, and thereby providing a solution to it is crucial.
• MIGRATION, Italy, Dario Gasparo, Class IIA, School "Caprin" of Triest – Category 13-17 years old
  Migration, created by students from the School “Caprin” of Trieste in Italy, reflects on the root causes of migration. Because of the unequal distribution of resources and polluted environment, people around the world live in drastically different living standards. The video illustrated that removing the causes of migration is the only right choice to allow every human being to live where he/she was born.
• THE PRICE OF OUR DREAMS, USA, Perla Liberato – Category 13-17 years old
  The Price of Nuestros Sueños is a video directed by Perla Liberato, a young American girl migrated from Mexico. Through her video, she reflected on her mothers’ and her own experiences after coming to America, as well as the difficulties they have gone through. The reality of life in a new country often does not meet our expectations. Our dreams often come at a price.
• I AM ALIYA, Slovenia, Matic Carl, Martin Deisinger, and Mojca Spik – Category 18-25 years old
  I Am Aliya, created by three young film makers from Slovenia, reflects on the difficulties and hardships Syrian refugees had to face from their country of origin, all the way to their destination.  Syrian refugees not only have to leave everything behind, but also have to face discriminations of all kinds.

The evening ceremony will be preceded by partner award screenings and youth media workshops. The four International Jury Winners will be joined by media makers winning awards from PLURAL+ partner organizations, traveling from as near as New York and as far as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Canada, Kenya, and France. Collectively, 31 videos were chosen from the 2016 entries to receive awards from PLURAL+ and its partner organizations. You can watch a trailer for the winning videos here.

PLURAL+ is an international youth video festival focusing on migration, diversity and social inclusion. PLURAL+ - a joint initiative between the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - aims to foster dialogue, partnership and action on critical issues and opportunities faced by youth worldwide. PLURAL+ recognizes youth as powerful agents of social change, and supports cooperative efforts to reduce tension in a world too often characterized by conflict and division. Since its launch in 2009, PLURAL+ has received nearly 1,500 video submissions from around the world.

“Diversity indicates a plurality of perspectives and ideas working together to create an even better society. Relatedly, social inclusion is critical to this process of sharing each other’s diverse viewpoints. The importance of diversity and social inclusion is heightened in our global modern world with increased migration.” Jeeyoon Lee, PLURAL+ Reel Grrls Best Animation Award Winner.

For more information on the PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival and to register to attend, please visit pluralplus.unaoc.org.

Please direct further media requests and questions to the PLURAL+ team, Email: plural@unaoc.org, Tel. +1.212-681-7000.