MACAO, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On the closing night of the 9th Macao International Documentary Film Festival (MOIDF) on November 8, From Dawn to Dawn won the first-ever SmallRig Real Image Special Award.
From Dawn to Dawn, directed by Xisi Sofia Ye Chen, spends its time with Awen, a second-generation Chinese immigrant living in Spain, and the small details of his everyday life. It came out on top of six other finalists in the festival's new Emerging Directors Competition. The award is a milestone for MOIDF, too. It's the first time the festival has joined forces with an imaging brand to honor real-life storytelling.
A festival that keeps growing
Alongside its local competition, held every two years, the festival launched a new competition open to entries from anywhere in the world. The seven finalists dealt with migrant identity, daily life in wartime, and the closeness and friction between family members.
The SmallRig Real Image Special Award, created together with the festival, recognizes work that uses film to serve the public good and help society move forward. Its jury was veteran documentary cinematographer Xue Ming, Hong Kong writer-director Au Cheuk-man, and Gao Haiyan, co-founder of SmallRig and chair of the SmallRig Image Development Fund.
Two questions every film had to answer
The first was authenticity: Does the filmmaker portray the scene honestly, observe with patience, and treat the people on screen with respect? The second was social value: Does the work address issues that deserve attention, open a window onto other people's lives and inspire audiences to care, and even to act?
From Dawn to Dawn met both criteria. According to the citation, the film captures the identity struggles of second-generation Chinese in Spain through the small details of everyday life, arriving at a humane expression of letting go and making peace with oneself.
Gao Haiyan said the film embodies the kind of authenticity that both SmallRig and the festival champion: "It can begin with 'I' and go on to inspire others. This truth flows with life, and it moves us because it is intimate."
Zhou Yang, founder and CEO of SmallRig, said: "We created this award to encourage more creators to document real life, connect with more people through film, and make visual storytelling more powerful."
SmallRig and the Stories Behind the Lens
The SmallRig Awards honor finished films and help them find an audience. Their first edition received 3,891 entries from more than 120 countries. A social-impact film pitching forum helps projects in development through expert review, pitching and industry connections.
For SmallRig, the new award is another step on a long road, and a way to put its weight behind the kind of films it wants to see more of.
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SmallRig Partners With Macao International Documentary Film Festival on New Award for Real Life-Storytelling
First capabilities available through Cision MCP with rapid expansion across the Cision portfolio planned
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cision, a global leader in consumer and media intelligence and communications technology, today introduced Cision Intelligence, bringing together specialist AI with the breadth and depth of data, expertise and capabilities from across the Cision portfolio. It is designed to help brands spot change earlier and act with confidence, with the ambition of connecting these strengths through one agentic, conversational experience. The first capabilities arrive through Cision MCP, starting with Brandwatch Consumer Research.
Cision Intelligence is built on a shared AI foundation, developed once and extended across Cision's full suite of solutions and supported external tools and agents. Because it is built once and used everywhere, improvements can reach every product and supported tool it powers, so customers get the same intelligence wherever they work. As capabilities expand, teams will be able to investigate questions, understand what matters and turn insight into action in the tools they already use.
"Customers want to understand how markets are changing, what that means for their business and what to do next," said Guy Abramo, Chief Executive Officer at Cision. "Cision Intelligence brings our expertise into a conversational experience that helps them answer those questions. Our ambition is to put the breadth of Cision's intelligence within reach wherever customers make decisions, giving them greater clarity and confidence to act."
Initial access is through Cision MCP, Cision's connection built on Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets AI tools and agents work with trusted data and services. Its first release connects customers to Brandwatch Consumer Research agents, bringing consumer intelligence into supported tools and workflows. Cision plans to expand access rapidly across its other solutions, adding product agents and developing broader connected workflows over time.
Connect the signals. See what others miss.
Audiences move between search, social media, news coverage and AI-generated answers as they form opinions and make decisions. Understanding how those signals relate can reveal opportunities and concerns that are harder to see in isolation.
A product launch might generate positive coverage and strong social engagement while searches about reliability and competitor alternatives increase. Understanding those signals together could help a brand identify the questions standing between interest and purchase.
Cision Intelligence's planned expansion will draw on the breadth of the portfolio: Trajaan's search intelligence, Brandwatch's consumer research and social media management, CisionOne's media intelligence and PR workflows, and PR Newswire's distribution and Multichannel Amplification™. This connected approach will help customers move from understanding a change to deciding how to respond.
"Every team has access to AI now. The difference is what it draws on. General-purpose assistants work from much the same public information," said Jim Daxner, Chief Product Officer at Cision. "Cision Intelligence brings our specialist data and expertise to the questions that shape where a business invests. We're starting with consumer intelligence in the AI tools teams already use and expanding across Cision from there."
Consumer intelligence, closer to everyday decisions
The first release provides four capabilities through Cision MCP:
- Query Management: Build and refine queries around the questions that matter to your business.
- Quick Search: Explore consumer conversations and investigate emerging needs.
- Insights & Summaries: Turn findings into clear summaries that inform the next decision.
- Alerts: Stay informed about changes that may call for a response.
Together, these capabilities help teams explore what consumers are saying, investigate the questions behind emerging conversations and identify changes that deserve attention. Customers can use this additional access route alongside Brandwatch Consumer Research.
"Customers should be able to put our specialist intelligence to work in the environments they choose," said Jeff Mullins, Chief Technology Officer at Cision. "Our shared AI foundation allows us to reuse advances across products and experiences. Cision MCP opens another way to access that expertise today, starting with Brandwatch Consumer Research, while we build towards more connected workflows."
Put connected intelligence to work
Discover Cision Intelligence and what it could mean for your business at cision.com/cision-intelligence/
Existing products remain available, giving customers the choice to continue working in the solutions they use today.
About Cision
Cision is the global leader in consumer and media intelligence, engagement, and communication solutions. We equip PR and corporate communications, marketing, and social media professionals with the tools they need to excel in today's data driven world. Our deep expertise, exclusive data partnerships, and award-winning products, including CisionOne, Brandwatch, Trajaan, and PR Newswire, enable over 75,000 companies and organizations, including 84% of the Fortune 500, to see and be seen, understand and be understood by the audiences that matter most to them.
Media Contact:
Cision Public Relations
CisionPR@cision.com
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Cision Introduces AI-Powered Cision Intelligence to Help Brands See More and Act with Confidence
