SOBEM organized this global contest for the first time. Over five continents, we have gladly brought in 31 contestants from local Chinese churches in Canada, United States of America, Peru, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. All entries have been produced in different styles and approaches, yet to bring out the same thematic message “This Is Love”, through creative expression of Christian faith and positive life value from the Bible.
All entry videos reflect the passion in preaching the gospel with short film, and never short of authentic real life stories in their contents. They also demonstrated high quality in three judging criteria namely message effectiveness, content creativity and production quality. They are tightly scored both in the first screening by SOBEM team and final judging by a nine members professional panel. Based on the averaged total score in the screening, 14 entry videos entered professional judging to decide the final results on the same scoring method, along with the online polling result. All winners are well deserved.
“We are the story, we are the media” is the core conviction of SOBEM’s media mission, and our determination is to mobilize fellow Christians around the world to tell their life stories by their own production of short film, to witness Christ’s salvation and to bring forth positive life values on new media platforms. This is the origin of this global contest to achieve these purposes: (1) to promote creative short film production to spread the gospel, (2) to build a global hub of gospel short films, (3) to synergize Chinese churches all over the world on a new wave of media mission movement.
SOBEM started organizing this contest from 2018 and opened to application on April 1, 2019 till September 30. After first screening results were announced on Oct 30, professional judging and online polling took place through the whole month of November, leading up to final results announcement on Dec 12. We are thankful to have seen God’s provision and guidance through this lengthy process, in terms of professional advice by brothers and sisters everywhere in support of planning, rules and regulations, promotion and contest management etc., as well as generous financial sponsorship by a few Christian business people. With a thankful heart, we praise God for his abundant grace. On the blessed first step, we look forward to have more people to joining force in media mission and walk on the path together.
