Smiley Charity Film Awards celebrates pictures with purpose with Olivia Colman film among winners

Olivia Colman has bagged another award. This time, though, it’s not for playing a promiscuous monarch or a dogged detective. Her voice can be heard while watching Change the Ending, a heart-rending animation for Alzheimers Research UK that’s just swept the top award at the 2024 Smiley Charity Film Awards.

Telling the story of a prince and princess who have happily-ever-after disrupted by dementia, the film from Alzheimer’s Research UK scooped up the Grand Prix Charity Film of the Year at the seventh edition of the awards on Wednesday (20 March) evening.

Normally a venue more used to film premieres, the stars of the show at London’s Leicester Square were not preened actors and producers – but charities, who’ve used film to win hearts and minds. Among the 18 winners – of more than 500 entries – were films highlighting animal rights, mental health and breast cancer.

Speaking at the event, poet Lemn Sissay told the Big Issue: “Charities are more important now than they were when I was a teenager.

“The generations that are coming up, they are asking the question: what are you doing for the people that have got less? Much, much more than it used to be in my time.

“The stories we tell about now about what our needs are in society are really important, but need to be told well.”

Ted Lasso star Ellie Taylor hosted the gala, billed as a one-of-a-kind awards – the biggest award ceremony celebrating cause-based filmmaking. Put together by the Smiley Movement, the Big Issue was along as media partner of the event.

Guests including Shirley Ballas, Kimberley Wyatt, Professor Green and Gregg Wallace flocked to the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, London, where the winners were revealed. Prizes covered charities of all shapes and sizes.

For charities relying on the public putting their hands in their pockets, the awards can serve as a vital boost, TV presenter Kate Humble said.

“I have done lots of wildlife and nature programmes, I have worked with tremendous conservationists, been to some incredible reserves. And they are all there because of the charity sector,” she told the Big Issue.

“Hopefully it will mean that when they go out and ask for money again, people will go, ‘Oh, I know about you, I heard about you because of those awards.’”

Norwich FC were the winners of the Big Issue Corporate Cause Award, for a film urging fans to check in on each other’s mental health. Released on World Mental Health Day in October 2023 and set in the stands, the film went viral.

Human rights activist Nada al-Ahdal, who escaped child marriage twice at the age of 12 before setting up a charity to protect others, won the Smiley Champion of Change Award.

Previous winners at the awards include Wales is a National Sanctuary, which showed the human impact of government immigration policies, while the Harry Kane Foundation was also victorious in 2023.

For MasterChef host Gregg Wallace, who presented an award on the night, it’s all about getting the message out: “You can be doing as much good work as you want, but if you don’t have the ability to let people know?”

“I’m happy to support charity. It’s really nice not just to celebrate the good work the charity does, but also to celebrate how they do what they do, through social media, through film. I think that’s great.”