Big Syn Institute is a part of the Centre for Big Synergy (CBS), a Civil Society Organisation of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

‘Big Syn’, stands for ‘Big Synergy’ – the driving force for the initiatives of CBS.

Big Syn Institute is the creative and cultural arm of the Centre for Big Synergy, and was founded to create positive changes through the power of art and creativity.

Big Syn International Film Festival was founded in 2019 by the founders of Centre for Big Synergy, sustainability advocates and thought leaders, Dr. Ragini G Roy and Dr. Sourav Roy. It was as an extension of their myriad efforts to educate the civil society about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and inspire them to act on those using the power of meaningful cinema.

Since inception, OSCAR, BAFTA and EMMY award-winners as well as leaders from film, media, sustainability, policy and social impact have joined forces with them to establish the Big Syn International film festival as the world’s biggest sustainability film festival.

Given the state of the world around us, there is a well-recognised need of building a more responsible future for us. The arts, since ages have inspired, challenged and proposed much-needed changes to our socio-economic conventions. Film, amongst others, holds immense power to bring to perspective the ‘real’ needs of the time and offer ideas of meeting those needs through a synergy of ideas and actions. They also help open dialogues amongst, at times, totally disjointed parts of the society or the world to usher a new era or collaboration and change.

Driven by this optimism, the Big Syn Institute organises the Big Syn International Film Festival (BSIFF) – the biggest United Nations Sustainable development Goals initiative of its kind. Through relatable films, every year, this online film festival, educates millions of viewers from around the globe about the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), and inspires them to act on these global goals in their own small or big ways.

The Big Syn Institute is currently developing partnership programs to help filmmakers and artists in the UK collaborate with international peers to create films and drama that can demonstrate the interdependent nature of our lives in the modern world, and hence the shared responsibility for each and every person on the planet to help meet the UN 2030 Agenda. The objective of such initiatives would be to draw attention to the fact that the responsibility of meeting the UN 2030 Agenda lies more with individuals, businesses and governments that have the ‘choice’ to do so rather than ones who are worst hit by major global issues such as climate change, poverty, poor education, sanitation, healthcare or gender inequality, to name a few.

While the Centre for Big Synergy kindly offers the resources for the running of the Big Syn Institute, its activities including the Big Syn International Film Festival are run by a dedicated group of volunteers from across the world, overseen by the leadership team of Centre for Big Synergy.