Entries are open now for the annual awards ceremony
Charities are being invited to submit their films and videos to an annual awards ceremony.
After last year’s Charity Film Awards raised the profile of hundreds of organisations, the Smiley Movement announced this month that the awards are opening again to 2021 entries, with a six week window for submissions (deadline 6 August 2021).
The world’s largest campaign for cause-based films joined forces with Smiley Movement this March and is encouraging charities and corporate causes to submit films to compete for public recognition. The event will offer entrants access to the combined platform of Smiley Movement and the awards body, along with widespread media coverage.
“We should celebrate how films are an amazing and positive means to create emotions in us that provoke us to act and make the world a better place. So, the awards are not just about promoting great films but about helping people see those films in new ways,” said the awards’ founder, Simon Burton.
“The whole objective of the Charity Film Awards is to get more views for charities’ campaigns,” explained campaign director for the Charity Film Awards Madeleine Johnson. “If we can gain just one additional view for each organisation then that’s potentially one new supporter and one more individual reaching out to their community.”
Encouraging charities to enter, Nicolas Loufrani, chief executive of Smiley, added: “I hope that Smiley Movement is going to multiply the number of views these great charity films get by at least 10 times, and in doing so that we're going to enable them to get more volunteers and to generate more donations.”
Burton echoed these sentiments: “I'm excited about the fact that the Charity Film Awards is going to benefit from the Smiley Movement’s profile and power, but most of all from Nicolas's passion and the team's passion for doing good.”
Any registered charity, charity media agency or brand with a corporate social responsibility initiative is invited to enter a film in the awards, provided it was created in the last eighteen months. Companies are encouraged to submit films for projects or campaigns that benefit society or the environment.
Charities are categorised based on income generated in the last financial year, a People’s Choice category and overall winner. This creates a level playing field so that smaller organisations are just as likely to receive an award as the larger, more established ones.
Burton explained: “Charities from household names like Unicef, the NSPCC and the British Heart Foundation take part as well as smaller local charities and they all benefit from the power of the awards’ story to create engagement and connect with old and new supporters.”
Johnson added: “It’s not to say that everyone's a winner, but one of our main objectives is to allow as many people as possible to share in the success that the awards offer.”
More than 1,500 films have entered the Charity Film Awards in its five-year history. Over a quarter of a million members of the public have voted and millions of additional views have emerged for the participating organisations.
You can find out more and apply on the awards website.
