How can we teach screen production students to engage new audiences for impact? Through this theoretical and interactive presentation, I hope to stipulate debate about the role of film schools in pursuing sustainable development goals. First, I will offer the concept of film schools as anchor institutions; large organizations with a mission to positively impact the wellbeing of their surrounding community. Secondly, I will interrogate the notion of audiences in a pervasive media world; away from passive recipients of messages to active participants in the production and dissemination of meaning; the ‘mass audience’ (large scale, anonymous, dispersed) of the 20th century gives way to a re-discovery of ‘group audiences’ (small, familiar, localized, interactive), allowing for social interventions through interaction between creators and citizens. With those theoretical concepts established, I will introduce the ‘GFS SDG Engagement Map’ as a simple example and conversation starter for how film schools might meaningfully teach their students to engage with new audiences and the SDGs. Finally, and most importantly, I hope to stipulate an interactive discussion on how our discipline might play a key role in addressing societal development goals in a joint effort between private, public and social sector audiences.