Background
Over the past few years rapid advances have been made in artificial intelligence (AI), resulting in numerous breakthroughs within the arts and sciences. Progress within the field of AI and public health promises to offer profound opportunities to improve health and wellbeing. While also generating new and exacerbating known health harms, raising challenging ethical and policy questions. All areas of public health practice (security, promotion, and healthcare) have the potential to be radically changed by AI.
With this in mind, the UK Faculty of Public Health (FPH) set up the AI and Digital Public Health Special Interest Group (SIG) in 2024 to bring together members from across the Faculty working in this space to increase impact, share learning and resources, and act as an expert resource to the FPH, its members, and the public.
Advances in the creation of images by AI have seen some of the most progress to date, with the release of numerous consumer-facing applications designed to create static and animated images from user prompts.
Launch of the 5th International Public Health Film Competition on the theme of "AI and Public Health"
Looking to build a collaboration around AI and Public Health Film, members of the Film SIG reached out to the AI and Digital Public Health SIG to assess the current state of public health films related to AI, and source suitable films from around the world.
We then reached out to the Public Health Film Society (PHFS), a UK based charity that has been undertaking public health film events and competitions since 2016.
Together we launched the 5th edition of the International Public Health Film Competition (IPHFC) on 11 March 2024, with the theme of "AI and Public Health." The competition was advertised through the PHFS website, the FilmFreeway platform and invitations were sent to film schools throughout the world with the message that we were looking for films that investigate themes on health and psychological well-being, especially those about AI and its interface with health, public health films made using AI or otherwise related to AI and public health.
And the winner is….
In total 1,516 films were submitted to the 5th IPHFC by 1 September 2024 from 103 countries. 3.8% (57/ 1,516) of films submitted to the competition indicated they were related to AI and public health.
A distinguished committee of film and public health experts was convened to assess the submitted films, including Nimish Kapoor, Festival Director of the National/ International Science Film Festivals of India; Linda Bergonzi-King, Chair of the American Public Health Association (APHA) Global Public Health Film Festival and Patrick Russell, Senior Curator (Non-Fiction) at the British Film Institute (BFI) National Archive.
The overall winner of the competition was a powerful film, "I’m Going Mad" (Jag Börjar Bli Delli) by debut director Matez Monir Garci about a young man’s silent struggle with mental illness set within the backdrop of a deprived neighbourhood in Stockholm, rife with gang violence.
A further Highly Commended award was given to "There once was – There is no more – There is" by Karina Paciorkowska and Łukasz Kamil Kamiński for its novel approach to the subject of how to discuss difficult or traumatising events with children and young people using animation.
Unfortunately no AI-related films received awards this time around, but we are sure that it won’t be long before one makes the shortlist and even wins a prize. We can’t wait to see what new public health films will be created by AI, but in the meantime we very much look forward to collaborating together in this fast evolving field.
