Animated hedgehogs and a potent Billie Piper drama: the year’s best charity films

When host Lisa Snowdon calls the Charity Film Awards “the Oscars of the charity world”, her comment reflects how dramatically this event has developed in the eight years of their existence. The glitz factor has grown correspondingly, and at last week’s ceremony held at Indigo at the O2 the gongs were presented by luminaries including Patsy Kensit, Patrick Grant, Patsy Palmer and several Love Island graduates.

A bumper 520 films were entered and the public vote was expanded to include most of the categories. The ceremony itself focused on the awards decided by the panel of expert judges, which included my colleague Becky Vick, assistant curator at the BFI National Archive.

The awards are free to enter, which is a rarity for industry awards, and another distinctive feature is that most of the categories are based on the annual turnover of the charities, starting from under £500,000 and peaking at a whopping £500 million plus.

There was a rich variety of approaches to filmmaking on display, as well as an enormous range of charities. At the relatively modest end of the scale I was pleased to see St Albans Community Pantry (turnover less than £100,000) going home with a bronze award for their moving film about the foodbank and food rescue operation project run by a group of volunteers. The film captivatingly conveys a sense of warmth for the local community in support of people facing challenging circumstances.

Another of my favourites was the winner of the £100,000 to £250,000 turnover award, a striking film called FairChecks, which makes a concise and compelling case that people who have served a prison sentence and “done their time” should not then face punitive checks under the criminal records disclosure system. These can deny them access to jobs, volunteering and even travel, which effectively means that they are paying for the same, often relatively minor crime again and again.

The award presented by Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant generated the biggest laughs of the evening. Taking the form of a spoof news report on the faecal attractions of fictional new beach resort Sh*t Beach, it features Nish Kumar and was made by Friends of the Earth. It’s a distinctive and smart approach to highlighting water pollution.

The Charity Film of the Year was decided by a combination of public and jurors’ votes. This year’s winner was a stark, powerful film called Make the World a Refuge, which features a bravura performance by Billie Piper. Made for the domestic abuse organisation Refuge, it explores the different forms that abuse can take and calls on viewers to donate to support the mission expressed in the film’s title.

The People’s Choice awards were announced at the end of the evening. Perhaps unsurprisingly there was little overlap between the People’s Choice awards and those of the judges. A key aim of these awards is to galvanise support for the charities themselves, which are encouraged to vigorously promote their films and maximise their vote.

The enduring popularity of charities supporting animals, especially cute ones, was reflected in the public vote. The overall people’s choice award went to The Littlest Hoglet, a charming, animated film made by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, narrated by Chris Packham. It’s not the first time that hedgehogs have pulled off this vote-winning feat.