The Charity Film Awards have been created to celebrate the success of film in fundraising, to increase exposure of charity films and to encourage donations for good causes.
The Smiley Charity Film Awards is open to all registered charities, community interest companies (CICs) and social enterprises within the UK.
The Corporate Cause category is open to brands and corporate organisations.
Anyone can nominate a video on behalf of the charity, CIC, social enterprise, brand or corporate.
This could be the agency that created the film or the organisation itself. If the nomination is from a source other than the organisation itself, the Smiley Charity Film Awards team will contact the organisation for approval before the nomination is accepted.
Films under 5 minutes
The categories are based on the charity's income for the latest financial year. This is to ensure everyone has a chance to win an award regardless of the size of the organisation and budget. These categories are:
0 - £100,000
£100,000 - £1 million
£1 million - £5 million
£5 million - £50 million
£50 million - £100 million
£100 million+
£0 - 5 million
£5 - 20 million
£20 million+
It's essential to check your charity’s income. You can check your charity’s turnover using the below links:
We want the Smiley Charity Film Awards to help promote films for good regardless of the size of the organisation behind the film. Segmenting by income creates a level playing field so that charities are matched against others with similar resources and audiences.
You can enter 1 video in your turnover category.
It is possible to enter 2 videos if you have 1 video that is longer than 5 minutes and 1 that is shorter than 5 minutes - 1 video in your turnover category and 1 in the correct longform category (based on turnover).
However, we strongly recommend only entering 1 film. Please bear in mind if you enter 2 films you will need to work twice as hard to promote them to your supporters for votes.
Standard charity entries are now closed for the 2023 awards. The Corporate Cause and International Impact categories are open until 31 January 2023.
It is free to enter.
The finalists are decided by the results of the public vote.
The shortlist will be announced the week commencing 23 January 2023.
The winners will be decided by our panel of expert judges. The judges will select finalists in each category from the shortlist.
The exact number of finalists will vary depending on category size, votes scored and judges' scores.
The winners of People's Choice in each category are decided solely by public vote.
The public can vote for their favourite charity video by registering to vote during the public voting stage. Those who have registered can vote for as many films as they like, however they can only vote once for each film.
There is no public vote for the Corporate Cause or International Impact category.
To ensure that only 1 vote per film is counted, we ask for some details. This is simply so that we can make sure that the voting process is fair. We will never give voter details to anyone else, but we may contact them when we announce the winners.
Winning entries will be those finalists which, in the opinion and sole discretion of the panel of judges, best meet the judging criteria. We have a large pool of varied professionals within the judging panel to avoid bias.
Any judge, with any personal interest or in any way related to a category will not be able to cast a vote for that category. The judges’ decisions is final and binding in all respects on all entrants. No correspondence will be entered into.
There will be an overall winner award for the very best charity film of the year. This award is based on a combination of judges scores and public voting.
The film that receives the highest number of public votes.
Awarded to the winning film in each category based on judges' scores.
Awarded to film that receives the most votes in each turnover category.
In each turnover category and in each People's Choice turnover category there is also a Silver and Bronze awarded.
A category for films for brands and corporate organisations to enter their CSR or ESG films.
The winners will be announced at a red carpet ceremony at ODEON Luxe Leicester Square, 21 March 2023.
Each finalist charity receives 2 free tickets to attend the ceremony. Additional tickets will be available for purchase.
The Charity Film Awards are sponsored by Smiley, and administered by its nonprofit, Smiley Movement CIC.
Use the contact us page to contact the team.
