A film by Carers UK and British Gas has won the top award at the Charity Film Awards.
The winners of the 14 categories were announced in a virtual ceremony after the organisers were forced to cancel the physical event due to the lockdown.
Carers UK was awarded the top prize for Two Sides of the Story, a short film made to raise awareness on the sense of isolation and loneliness that unpaid carers can often experience.
Compassion in World Farming won the People's Choice Film of the Year award for Dear Humans, which promotes a petition to end caged farming.
Other winners included Blind Veterans, St Mungo’s and British Heart Foundation.
Winners were chosen among 400 entries by a combination of more than 110,000 public votes and panel of judges which included journalists and senior figures in the charity sector. Among them were Evelyn Webster, chief executive of The Guardian US & Australia, Simon Antrobus, chief executive of BBC Children in Need and Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO of Oxfam GB.
The winners of the Charity Film Awards in full are:
- Charity Film of The Year - Carers UK + British Gas
- People's Choice Film of the Year - Compassion in World Farming
- £0 - £10,000 Turnover Category - Sunshine People
- £10,000 - 100,000 Turnover Category - Male Cancer Awareness Campaign
- £100,000 - £500,000 Turnover Category - Scottish Environment LINK
- £500,000 - £5m Turnover Category - Surfers Against Sewage
- £5m - £20m Turnover Category - The Born Free Foundation
- £20m - £50m Turnover Category - Blind Veterans
- £50m - £100m Turnover Category - St Mungo's
- £100m plus Turnover - British Heart Foundation
- Longform Under £5m - CHIVA
- Long Form Over £5m - ShelterBox
- Corporate Cause, People - Valuable 500
- Corporate Cause, Planet - Iceland Foods
All the winning films can be watched on the Charity Film Awards website.
Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won the 2020 Charity Film of the Year Award for our short film Two Sides of the Story which shines a spotlight on the hidden emotional strain that can come with caring for a loved one.
“Our film compares carers’ perceptions of themselves with those their friends have of them: turning out to be very different, and highlighting how difficult it can be to talk to the people closest to you about the impact of caring for someone. We very much hope that by focusing on these carers, their friends and family are encouraged to speak openly with one another about caring and everything that comes with it.”
The Charity Film Awards said that more than 10,000 people watched the virtual ceremony last week. In the statement announcing the online event in March, the organisation said that it is hoping to held a celebratory screening of the winning films once the lockdown is lifted.
Simon Burton, founder of the Charity Film Awards, said: “We were determined to create a meaningful online celebration for the amazing causes that take part in Charity Film Awards and put the ‘virtue into virtual’. The films that won are stunning examples of modern charity communications. The size of our audience and the impact of our social media reach in such challenging circumstances demonstrates they are deserving of a wider audience.”
