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Salud, Empacters! 🎊
As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take a heartfelt moment to reflect on an extraordinary year filled with impact, growth, and the transformative power of empathy. Your dedication to amplify voices, spark meaningful conversations, and drive social change through film has transformed lives. Your support and engagement mean the world to us, and we are excited to support your continued journey into 2025.
2024: That's a Wrap! Let's Roll the Credits 🎬
All of you had a starring role, for being what drives art and impact forward. Here are the highlights of this year, and a peak at what’s to come.
2024 Achievements and Milestones 🎉
🎬 Empact Campaign Highlights
The year 2024 kicked off with a heartfelt event, the immersive screening of The Last Ecstatic Days by Scott Kirschenbaum at the NYC Psychedelic Assembly. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Anthony Bossis, Ph.D., which led to deeply personal group discussions on conscious living and dying.
Home is a Hotel by Kevin Wong’s May screening drew an impressive crowd of over 130 attendees (they ran out of seats!) where 80% of the audience engaged in the film’s Empact campaign—engaging on social media and leaving desirable movie reviews.
One of our most meaningful collaborations—36 Seconds: Portrait of a Hate Crime—a compelling documentary that delves into the devastating effects of hate crimes. This powerful film (featured on Zeteo News) resonated deeply with audiences and engaged hundreds of viewers in dialogue, successfully raising nearly $1,000 towards its impact campaign.
🗓️ Key Events
Empact held a demo booth at IDA’s Getting Real ‘24 in Los Angeles—our first major public showcase! Here, we cultivated relationships with Active Voice Lab, New Day Films, ITVS, ConnectionPoint, APM Music, and incredible documentary filmmakers.
At CAAMFest in San Francisco, we partnered with producer Jenn Lee Smith to creatively promote Home Court, a documentary following Ashley, a Cambodian American basketball star. We deployed an overnight call-to-action campaign for festival viewers, connecting them to Ashley’s journey and support for Khmer Girls in Action.
Our engagement continued at the Tribeca Film Festival, where community events with Level Forward, Caring Across Generations, and Picture Motion (which was recently acquired!) proved to be a fertile ground for discussions—particularly around the potential of gamification, impact measurement, and activation strategies in impact campaigns.
Empact was a judge at Hacker Fund’s Gain Hack as part of LA Tech Week, aimed at closing the digital divide between AI, tech, and entertainment. We were thrilled to support and witness firsthand the innovative solutions that came from this hackathon!
It was an honor to participate in the Global Impact Producers Alliance’s Impact-a-thon, a hackathon to develop effective impact campaign strategies between impact producers and filmmakers—highlighting the power of collaboration and empowering storytellers with tools to succeed.
The "Future of Storytelling" Panel + Networking Event, hosted by 1985 CAPITAL, marked a significant moment bridging the worlds of media, technology, and finance—sectors that don't often intersect. It was inspiring to see everyone's shared commitment to bridging resource and opportunity gaps between these industries. We owe a special thanks to the A-Doc steering committee for their vital work in advancing AAPI filmmakers and cross-sector storytelling initiatives.
🎊 Film Festival Partnerships
The Climate Film Festival NYC
As the official impact partner to Climate Film Festival NYC, we launched a series of Empact campaigns for their powerful slate of films tackling urgent climate issues. We connected 500+ viewers with 10+ community organizations, offering real, tangible ways to take action. This experience reminded us of why we do what we do at Empact: to not just inspire people to care, but to give them the tools to make a difference.
Conero Film + ADV Festival in Italy
We were proud to sponsor the Conero Film + ADV Festival's impact awards. This festival champions an environmentally conscious approach to production and a dedication to content that celebrates unique storytelling abilities—principles we naturally, wholeheartedly support. This year’s award recipient was "For Peanut," a film about a young East Baltimore man who overcomes homelessness and hardship through mentorship and an ice hockey team. We encourage filmmakers committed to impactful storytelling to consider submitting their work to Conero for the 2025 festival!
48th Asian American International Film Festival NYC | Asian Cinevision
We partnered with the creators of Decoupling and INAY to craft impactful Empact campaigns tailored to each film, focusing on post-screening call-to-actions and educational social media content. These campaigns deepened over 100+ audience members’ engagement to extend the films' influence beyond the screen.
📱 Expanding Our Network
In 2024, Empact’s community grew significantly. We collaborated with 10+ partners on Instagram, generating over 43K impressions that sparked conversations on key social issues and motivated action. Thanks to your support, our community grew 10X, with hundreds subscribed to our newsletter and joining our Discord community.
Cue the teaser—a peek into 2025 🎥
Looking Ahead 🔮 As we peer into the future, Empact is excited to unveil groundbreaking developments that will further our mission of transforming media into a tool for social change:
🧰 Campaign-in-a-Box: Your Complete Digital Toolkit
Empact is set to launch an all-in-one campaign building tool for filmmakers and content creators to effortlessly design, manage, and measure their own impact campaigns. Activate viewer emotions through clear and compelling calls-to-action, track real-time campaign performance through robust impact metrics, and deliver comprehensive success metrics to stakeholders and funders to secure new opportunities and demonstrate campaign effectiveness.
💎 Introducing Our Brand & Nonprofit Distribution Partner Initiative
Empact is set to revolutionize distribution strategies by facilitating new partnerships between filmmakers, brands, and nonprofits. This initiative aims to turbocharge traditional distribution channels while opening up new avenues for audience engagement. Some partnerships we’re developing:
Welcome to Chinatown NYC’s vibrant network of local businesses and community events—connecting businesses to sponsor film screenings. The goal here is to provide increased visibility for both the businesses and the films themselves.
ListenFirst Coalition’s 500+ nonprofits to drive forward through our nonprofit-film marketplace, aimed at connecting nonprofits with films that share a focus on bridging political divides. Our goal here is to enhance the reach and effectiveness of films focused on political and social reconciliation and connect this ecosystem with their initiatives like Better Together Film Festival and Conversation.us.
And more (under wraps 😉)
🎴 Personal Impact Profile for Audiences
Get ready to activate your personalized impact profile! Track your contributions, discover curated films that match your values, and earn rewards as you take meaningful action.
Join Our Cast and Crew for 2025 🙌
🤘 Participate In Our Community: Whether you’re a filmmaker, activist, or passionate supporter, there’s a place for you in our Empact community. Start by following us on social media, comment, and share posts you like!
✊ Support a Campaign: Look out for upcoming opportunities to donate, volunteer, or simply learn more about a cause that speaks to you. Every action counts!
🫴 Spread the Word: Help us reach more people—if you know someone who would be interested in joining our efforts, refer them to us or share our campaigns.
Thank You 🫶
for being part of Empact’s journey. Together, we are making a difference, one campaign and partnership at a time. We can’t wait to continue this work with you in the new year.
With gratitude,
The Empact Team