Megan Mylan, who graduated from the Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1992, won Best Documentary Short Subject at the Academy Awards Feb. 22 for her film “Smile Pinki,” which focuses on two children born with cleft palates who live in poor, rural India.

In parts of poverty-stricken India, children with clefts face a lifetime of being shamed and ostracized. Mylan follows the journey of Pinki Kumari Sonkar and Ghutara Chauhan as they meet a social worker recruiting patients to go to a hospital providing free cleft surgery. The children leave the hospital with new smiles and the promise of normal lives.

At the Academy Awards, Mylan accepted the Oscar and then called out to Pinki sitting in the audience, saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, for letting me tell your inspiring story.”

The work of the hospital featured in the film was made possible by The Smile Train, the world’s leading cleft charity with thousands of partners in 75 of the world’s poorest countries. The hospital is in Banaras in the state of Uttar Pradesh -- one of the poorest states in India with some of the country's worst health indicators.

"I feel very strongly that this is not just an award for my work, it is a celebration of their humanity, the wonderful work that Dr. Subodh (Kumar Singh)'s  team does ... the great work of The Smile Train and the tender relationship Pinki and her father have," Mylan said in an e-mail to Georgetown Magazine. " It is also an award for a crew of people who love our craft and contributed their talents to making this film special."

Mylan, who was a humanities and international affairs major at Georgetown, went on to receive a master’s in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of California-Berkeley. She also directed, with Jon Shenk, the Emmy-nominated documentary on two refugees from Africa coming to America, “Lost Boys of Sudan.”

The filmmaker came to Georgetown for her 15th reunion in 2007 at the behest of Bernard Cook, associate dean of the College, to talk about “Lost Boys.”

“Megan Mylan makes movies that engage global crises from human vantage points,” he said. “She uses documentary as a method to learn and to communicate about the world. In the process, she is able to tell stories which move and motivate viewers to social action.”

Mylan writes that Georgetown "was without a doubt a life defining experience.  It opened up my curiosity in the world, my interest in people making a positive impact in the world and a sense of how broad your life options are.  The caliber of student and faculty took my dreaming to a higher level." 

In a recent interview with the International Documentary Association (IDA), Mylan said she became interested in documentary filmmaking when she was living in Rio de Janeiro and doing fundraising for Ashoka, a nonprofit network of social entrepreneurs. “I had an ‘a-ha' moment and realized I could still travel, meet incredible people, share their stories and make a social impact while making movies,” she told IDA.

Mylan started working for Ashoka right after graduation.

"Georgetown and SFS had left me with very high standards for what role I saw for a middle-class American working on other countries' development," Mylan writes. "Ashoka's model of empowering smart, local innovators and giving them the freedom to realize their powerful development strategies drew me in."

When asked by the IDA what inspired her to make “Smile Pinki,” she said “As a filmmaker who focuses on social-issue documentaries, it’s rare that I get into a film knowing we’re likely to have a happy ending. I was excited to tell the story of this beautiful hospital and a team of doctors and social workers treating their patients with such compassion and quality care and making a positive impact.”

The film, she explains in her e-mail, already has made a difference.

"The film has already had a great positive impact on Pinki and her village with paving of roads, upgraded housing being constructed, a new roof on the school, new water pumps, job security for her father and a scholarship for Pinki," Mylan writes.  "For the hospital it will mean more support for their work and probably more patients as word gets out that this devastating birth defect can be easily cured for free.  The film and the Oscar win is also having a great impact for the broader work of the Smile Train, which supports not only the hospital in the film, but hospitals that support and train local doctors in developing countries all around the world."

Her next project is a film on the struggle for racial equality in Brazil.