I attended the Smiley Charity Film Awards this week and made television’s Kate Humble laugh; I locked eyes with Jodie Kidd (and she didn’t look too alarmed); took note of the wine Professor Green likes to drink; and smiled in the direction of Callum Best and I insist that the smile was returned.
Even before the 2024 Smiley Charity Film Awards got under way last night, I’d had a lovely evening of it.
But my two biggest take-aways from the evening’s proceedings were as follow: Simon Burton, the founder of the Charity Film Awards shoots from the hip and speaks from the heart, and the Loufrani family – owners of the Smiley brand – bring the razzle dazzle.
First, Simon: His command of the stage boasts an energy that is next to none. Should ever you need a compere to whip a crowd up into a keen-eyed eagerness to sit in a darkened cinema and watch some of the most heart-wrenching and impactful charity featurettes on the planet, you need look no further.
Simon speaks passionately about the everyday hero; the storyteller and their ability to mobilise action and change lives. He loves what he does, says what he means, means what he says, and clearly loves saying it.
So, when his voice broke with emotion as he told the room that ‘by helping someone, you help everyone’, you got the instant measure of the man – driven by the desire to truly transform the lives of those who need it.
Nicholas Loufrani, the ceo of Smiley, meanwhile, is the man with the money. How much money? Well, as the Awards’ host, comedian Ellie Taylor astutely highlighted, enough to kit-out every single guest with a bag of popcorn and a packet of sweets from the Central London cinema foyer and keep us plied with refreshments for the duration… so we’re talking big bucks.
But Nicholas – together with his father and the creator of the Smiley Company, Franklin Loufrani – have brought to the Charity Film Awards another thing, quite unique too. A Smiley Vision.
In the three years since the Charity Film Awards officially became known as the Smiley Charity Film Awards, it’s become a sell-out event. In a room that caters for 800, it’s now almost impossible to hear much else over the ruffle and munch of popcorn, slurp of Smiley-branded wine, and whoop and cheer for each finalist and category winner with every seat in the house now accounted for.
The Smiley Charity Film Awards also experienced a record number of submissions this year. “Somewhere around the 3,000 mark,” we are told by an excitable Simon Burton, a man giddy at the scale of what the event he founded almost a decade ago has now become.
The Smiley Charity Film Awards has – to date – given these submitted and shortlisted films a wild boost in global views, now reaching “anywhere between 20,000 and half a million” additional views, Simon tells us. We munch popcorn and nod. That’s an impressive reach.
This is a partnership that is clearly working. The Smiley Charity Film Awards really are now a thing: to celebrate, to share on social media, and if you’re a celebrity- to be spotted at. Even before proceedings got underway I’d encountered Jodie Kidd at the Oscar’s Bar; made Kate Humble laugh (admittedly at the expense of my colleague – a risk I was willing to take); shared a look of recognition with Callum Best; and clocked Professor Green sat sipping the rosé version of the Smiley-branded wine.
For an area of film-making that has spent far too long in the shadowy corner, Smiley has turned out an astonishing feat of razzle dazzle for the charity sector. And what’s more, this is an audience that cares.
No, more than that. This is an audience that truly encourages and celebrates the success of their peers. Such was the positivity that at one point, one voice from a row near the front shouted out to a category winner – a charity that provides education and rehabilitation for former prisoners – ‘you’re doing brilliant work!’
The full list of Smiley Charity Film Awards winners can be viewed here, by the way.
So it was, as Simon Burton stood centre stage, delivering a passionate opening speech about the magnitude that this event – his event – has now become, it was with a lump in the throat of my own that I sent a message to my colleague, five seats down the aisle from me, hand in her own bag of popcorn.
‘This is the power of brand licensing’ it read.
‘I know,’ came the reply.
Franklin and Nicholas have given the Charity Film Awards a platform beyond its wildest dreams. The kind where Natasha Kaplinsky, Lemn Sissay, and even Professor Green hand out awards to the talented storytellers driving real impact, transforming lives, and making the world a little bit better each day.
And that’s what’s at the heart of it all, still. And we’re all for giving that a little of the razzle dazzle it deserves.