HIGH NOTE CINEMA
High Note Global Prizes in Cinema · High Note House, Stage & Lounge
Where film and human rights converge at global scale — a permanent platform recognizing filmmakers whose work advances human dignity through the power of storytelling.
Presented in official alignment with UN Human Rights, our Global Partner since 2018, and with our Global Academic Partner, a world-renowned film school to be announced, High Note Human Rights Cinema brings together directors, producers, artists, composers and institutions to elevate films that do more than entertain — works that challenge injustice, illuminate untold stories, and shape the cultural narrative around the most urgent human rights issues of our time.
High Note Human Rights Cinema does not compete with the festival circuit. It elevates it, drawing from the High Note Global 100 — our curated body of the world's one hundred most influential film festivals.
2027 · The Launch
January 21–30, 2027 · Boulder, Colorado
High Note Human Rights Cinema opens with a ten-day launch at the High Note House - located at the Bohemian Biergarten which is located in the center of downtown Boulder.
Together with our Global Academic Partner and UN Human Rights, we will count down the ten greatest human rights films of all time—revealing and presenting one film each day across the ten-day program. Each night, renowned film composers will perform on the High Note Stage, followed by late-night DJ sets.
2028 · The Inaugural Prizes
The full program begins. Any filmmaker whose work has been officially selected at a festival on the High Note Global 100 is invited to submit, and the first High Note Global Prizes in Cinema are awarded across all submissions:
- High Note Global Prize for Best Feature Film
- High Note Global Prize for Best Short Documentary
- High Note Global Prize for Best Short Narrative Film
Together, these prizes recognize excellence in human rights storytelling through cinema.
The High Note House
Bohemian Biergarten · Downtown Boulder, Colorado
The High Note House is the physical home of High Note Human Rights Cinema — a ten-day programmed environment where filmmakers, diplomats, press and policy leaders converge around the year's most consequential stories.
It is hosted at the Bohemian Biergarten, a 5,000-square-foot venue adjacent to the Boulder Theater. Under the stewardship of owners Zdenek Srom and Angelie Timm, the Biergarten has become one of downtown Boulder's vital cultural institutions — a gathering point for industry, artists and culture built over more than a decade.
The High Note Lounge
Tucked at the back of the Bohemian Biergarten — reached through a private velvet-curtained entrance from within the main restaurant, or a hidden door opening onto a quiet side street — the High Note Lounge opens into a space suspended in time: Prague at the turn of the twentieth century, rendered in chandelier light, dark wood and an elegantly appointed bar.
The High Note Stage
At the back of the Lounge stands the High Note Stage. Renowned film composers perform there through the ten days, and each year UN Human Rights, High Note Global and our Global Academic Partner present the High Note Global Prizes in Cinema from it — to filmmakers being recognized at global scale, many for the first time.
