Published by Uranium Film Festival

Aug 01, 2025

The International Uranium Film Festival is dedicated to all films (movies, documentaries, animated films, image films, art, fiction and non-fiction) about any nuclear issue: uranium mining, nuclear power plants, nuclear...

Filmmaker Arif Khan wins Samuel Lawrence Foundation Award 2025

Rio de Janeiro / Chicago - The International Uranium Film Festival has presented this year's "Samuel Lawrence Foundation Award" for Best Emerging Filmmaker. The winner is Tokyo-based British filmmaker Arif Khan for his immersive VR documentary "Address Unknown: Fukushima Now.“

„It's such wonderful news and we couldn't be more thrilled. It's a true honour & privilege for us to receive the Award from the Uranium Film Festival“, says Arif Khan. „This project has been a labour of love for all involved and this recognition means the world to us. We'd like to give our gratitude to the Uranium Film Festival for providing us the platform to share this project at such an important event that focuses on nuclear energy and the impact it has in both history and today. And of course, our most sincere thanks to the Fukushima locals who opened up their hearts and homes to bring this story to life.“

Festival jury member Jan Boudart from Chicago says in her statement: „`Address Unknown: Fukushima Now´ was really poignant and true. If you have generational roots in a place and have lived there all your life, the sadness at seeing it become uninhabitable must be extreme; and I think this was well done in the film. The use of non-visible exposures conveyed the loss-of-place that was the emotional content of the film. Also, the film left me curious to learn more. How are the restorations going? And how will they work? Will people actually come back? The outcome of trying to restore Fukushima is what we will learn in the future. Anyway, the more I think about that film, the better I like it.“

The SLF-Award is accompanied by a $1,000 cash prize donated by the Samuel Lawrence Foundation (www.samuellawrencefoundation.org). Last year the award went to Indian filmmaker Satish Munda for his short film “Jadugoda – The Land of Magic”.

SLF-Award Jury Members

Jan Boudart

Nuclear Energy Information Service

Secretary and Member of the Board

https://neis.org

Dr. Heidi Hutner

Professor of English, Sustainability Studies,

and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University.

Director of „Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island“

http://www.heidihutner.com/

Nadia Khawja

Programs Director

Samuel Lawrence Foundation

https://www.samuellawrencefoundation.org