A night at the Smiley Charity Film Awards 2025
This is a blog by our Communications and Campaigns Manager, Keeva Baxter.
Last week, Why me? attended the Smiley Charity Film Awards as our short film was selected as a finalist. It was a fantastic event, highlighting the hard work of the charity sector, displayed through an array of powerful short films.
Our 4-minute film, ‘What would you say?’, was created last year to help bring attention to the power of Restorative Justice, through the metaphor of a silenced victim of crime finding their voice. We consulted our group of Ambassadors, who have all been through the restorative process, in the creation of the film. The Ambassadors shared their stories with our film-making team to help shape the script writing and feed back on the concept. Our Ambassador Will also attended the shoot day to support the actors and appeared as an extra in the film; he can be seen as the supporter in the final conference circle.
Our Communications and Campaigns Manager, Keeva Baxter, attended the awards ceremony with our Producer, Simon London. We had a fantastic night, watching a variety of films ranging from Refuge’s examination of the plethora of experiences of survivors of domestic violence to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society’s short film about how to care for local hedgehogs in your own garden.
The event was hosted by Lisa Snowdon, and was attended by a number of celebrities who are committed to charity work, including fashion designer Julien Macdonald and actress Patsy Kensit.
Whilst our film didn’t win, we are delighted that we were finalists and with all of the support we have received. The film has been seen over 7,500 times, meaning that more people affected by crime will be aware of the option of Restorative Justice to support their recovery. Please continue to share the short film, you are welcome to use it in training courses, events and to show prospective service users – we’d love to hear where it reaches.
We are so grateful for the huge team of people that supported the creation of our film, from the actors and crew, to the Criminal Justice Alliance and Media Trust who made it happen. Thank you to the Smiley Charity Film Awards for such a wonderful event and for all of you who have watched, liked, shared and voted!