(Sandford Awards). In response to the exceptional work and innovation of broadcasters and content-makers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sandford St Martin Awards are launching two new awards for 2021.
Entries and nominations are now being invited for the Trustees’ Corona Content Award for broadcast programmes or reports that explored coronavirus, the pandemic or lockdown through a religious lens, and, the Community Award aimed at broadcast projects that specifically supported religious or belief communities during the pandemic.
Judges will be looking for innovative, impactful and original broadcasting made in response to COVID-19 that directly engages with faith or belief. The Award is for broadcast media in any format (audio or visual), including individual/one-off or multi-episodic projects/series made by professional or non-professional broadcasters.
This could include news reports, factual programming, dramas and entertainment as well as community-originated broadcast celebration and worship, or, the use of online video or audio content to support communities or for training.
Entries are also being accepted in four other categories for broadcast content exploring religious, spiritual or ethical themes. These are Radio/Audio, TV/Video, Journalism and Children’s Broadcasting.
Founded in 1978, the Sandford St Martin Awards are the UK’s most prestigious annual broadcasting awards the only UK awards for content dealing with religion or belief. They are the only national Awards that welcome entries about any and all faiths, and, are open to a wide range of genres – news, current affairs, factual, arts, music, drama and comedy as well as ‘traditional’ religious broadcasting.
Accepting an Award in 2020 for the TV series “Good Omens” the actor Michael Sheen said:
“Everyone is desperately wanting to talk about what it’s like to be a human being, all the time… It’s what connects us to people. It’s what reminds us to be humble, to be open. And if we don’t get to talk about those things because it seems like they’re the big poncey questions only certain kinds of people talk about, in certain kinds of places and certain kinds of ways then we’re all sort of diminished and we starve.”
With reference to the extraordinary times and the sort of content the Awards celebrate Anna McNamee, Executive Director of the Sandford St Martin Trust said:
“At times marked by political or social uncertainty, the need for better and more religiously literate broadcasting is particularly acute. We’re looking to recognise and celebrate broadcasting that reflects how we are living and seeing the world now and how people’s personal beliefs inform and contribute to that experience.”
To find out how to enter or nominate a programme visit: sandfordawards.org.uk.