Big Syn Institute and London’s Piccadilly Lights invited shorts (up to 5 min max) or 59 sec social media videos to be screened on Piccadilly Lights as part of the Big Syn International Film Festival. The finalists are receiving public votes on our Instagram and the Jury will select the winner/s amongst the most like films.
Winning films will be screened in full at the Piccadilly Lights in November this year.
These are stories or opinions of change, resilience and adaptability covering all major global or local issues such as climate change, poverty, cost of living crisis, war, injustice, discrimination, disability, mental health, and many more.
Donations help us keep entries free for UK’s marginalised filmmakers, charities and filmmakers from Ukraine.
It also helps us keep the screenings free of cost for millions of viewers from across the world.
Jadwiga Ligeza
Tied Down is an embroidered stop-motion animation using old scraps of fabric found in the home attic and charity shops.
It tells a story of leaving home and creating your world from scratch.
While it celebrates the thrill of new beginnings, it also acknowledges the comfort found in familiar bittersweet memories
Brain Ekoh
Growing up, impoverished, Eric reminisces his home country while also reflecting on his seemingly endless yearning to live his unattainable dreams.
Coram
Glow in the Dark is a short campaign film that re-imagines the narrative of youth homelessness by focusing on hope and resilience rather than just hardship. A collaboration between Coram and Coalesce Studios, the film was co-produced with Coram’s Voices in Action young ambassadors, a team of young people with lived experience of homelessness who campaign for change and promote young people’s housing rights.
After a six-month process that began with a “day in the life” concept, the film’s focus shifted to the remarkable ambitions of these young people—from aspiring lawyers to fashion designers—and their tenacity in working toward their dreams despite major obstacles. The film then envisions a better future where these young dreamers receive the support they need to succeed, while also highlighting the young ambassadors’ current advocacy work. Glow in the Dark is a powerful call to action, urging society to address the hidden youth homelessness epidemic and back the potential of Britain’s young homeless dreamers.
Friends of the Earth
In this short film we juxtaposed business jargon with scenes of a rainforest being destroyed to make way for corporate activity. We wanted to make the environmental harms in the supply chains of many UK companies very tangible and visible – much of this damage is typically ‘hidden’ to consumers as it happens overseas. Our creative idea was to depict an imagined CEO using expressions like “cost-cutting measures” and “it’s just business” to mask or justify activities like buying palm oil from destroyed forests that are home to precious species or financing the soy trade that forces communities from their land. The film ends with a resounding call to action: we want people to join us in demanding a new law requiring UK companies to avoid harm to people and the planet, and holding them to account if they fail.
British Red Cross
When Storm Babet caused flooding in rural Scotland, our emergency response staff and volunteers were ready to help people impacted. And in the storm’s aftermath, we were dedicated to supporting communities as they started to recover and rebuild.
When storms and floods strike across the UK, our teams spring into action with practical support, basic essentials, and a helping hand when it’s really needed.
The British Red Cross is here for people in the UK in their hardest moments.
Project Maji
Waters of Hope is a moving short film that captures the essence of a decade-long journey toward clean water and restored dignity in rural Africa. Drawn from the feature documentary Drop by Drop, this trailer offers a glimpse into the lives transformed by Project Maji, an organization bringing safe, sustainable water solutions to underserved communities across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.
Through vivid imagery and emotionally charged moments, Waters of Hope reflects both the struggles of water scarcity and the triumph of human resilience. From women and children walking miles with heavy buckets to children now drinking freely from clean taps, the film reveals how access to safe water reshapes futures, empowers communities, and restores hope.
Anchored in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Waters of Hope is more than a story of water, it is a visual testament to perseverance, innovation, and the collective power to create lasting change, one drop at a time.
Bingqian Gao
unWRECKed is a story of change, resilience, and creating beauty from destruction. Blending underwater imagery with personal narrative, this short film explores the journey of transformation and reinvention by drawing a parallel between the transformation of underwater wrecks and overcoming adversity in life.
The story is rooted in the filmmaker’s personal journey – from a traumatic corporate experience to finding peace in freediving and nature. Through the lens of water, movement and vibrant marine life, unWRECKed invites the audience to consider their connection with the
nature, self, and community, and view adversity as an opportunity for reinvention and creation.
Child Bereavement UK’s animated film ‘Room for an elephant’ forms part of the charity’s comprehensive range of bereavement support resources and illustrates a specially written poem narrated by a young person. Inspired by the style of teen graphic novels, the film explores how taboos and awkwardness around talking about death and dying can prevent people from being supportive. Sadly, this reluctance to mention the ‘elephant in the room’ can result in bereaved young people feeling lonely and isolated. Child Bereavement UK hopes the film will help raise awareness of the difficulties of living with grief and encourage greater compassion and understanding.
Tom Hooker, Nathan Erasmus
The Littlest Hoglet is a short story about the importance of gardens in providing homes and resources for hedgehogs, which are vulnerable to extinction.
It highlights how building a “hedgehog highway” in our gardens not only offers an enjoyable activity for humans but also serves as a critical lifeline for hedgehogs. These small passages enable hedgehogs to access various habitats that offer essential food, water, and shelter, supporting their survival and conservation.
The Littlest Hoglet was made possible thanks to kind legacies left to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Produced by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Liquona. Special thanks to Chris Packham for narrating.
Link to change
CHIVA
Safe With Me tells the story of two young people who make a connection at an annual summer camp for children and young people growing up living with HIV.
The film explores themes of HIV-related stigma that can negatively impact individuals and families living with HIV.
The story is based on real life experiences of young people who have attended Chiva’s annual camp, Freedom 2 Be, which brings together up to 100 children and young people from the UK and Ireland who are growing up with HIV.
Follow Mila’s story as she grows in confidence through discovering a community where she can feel safe to speak freely about her HIV and access vital information about how to live well with it.
Youth Cancer Trust provides FREE therapeutic wellbeing holidays and online support for young people (over 18 and diagnosed before the age of 30) living with and beyond cancer from the UK and Ireland.
Our Time Charity
Our mission is to ensure that all young people growing up with a parent with mental illness, receive support. You can help to raise awareness of this issue by sharing our films with friends and colleagues.
Chen Ma
In this world of silence, there are three types of people. A dark character who possesses a golden mouth, green characters with fly swatters and little white characters who take care of the captured mouths. From day and night countless mouths were disposed into a black hole, how will the little white character respond to this? Will it start to defend its own mouth or will it keep silent?
Acacia
4 fathers share their emotional journeys to parenthood reflecting on their mental health struggles
Faltrego
“Draw Our Future” is a poignant animated film that brings the story of the orangutan, and the forests they call home, to life through evocative charcoal illustrations and a tender, child-like narrated poem. Inspired by behavioural insights and emotional storytelling, the animation highlights the devastating loss of Indonesia’s rainforests and the urgent need to protect what remains.
Through simple, powerful imagery, the film shows how a small act, sponsoring just one acre, can have a tangible impact: funding guard posts and patrols to stop illegal logging, maintaining firefighting equipment, and supporting nurseries that restore damaged forest.
Set against the backdrop of Central Kalimantan’s disappearing rainforests, “Draw Our Future” connects viewers emotionally to both the orangutans’ struggle and the planet’s broader fight against climate change. It’s a call to action filled with hope, a reminder that together, we can protect vital habitats, safeguard biodiversity, and help draw a better future for all.
Zero hour
The short film, ‘Toadwatch: What has nature ever done for us?’, targets people who don’t normally think about the importance of nature, and how it fundamentally underpins most aspects of everyday life. Though the CAN Bill covers climate and nature action equally, we led with nature rather than climate in the Toadwatch film because nature is something people have a greater emotional connection to (carbon emissions leave people rather cold, but they get excited about the nature they can see outside their back door or in their local park). Nature is place-based so it feels more tangible. And since the Covid lockdowns, people in the UK have found just how important nature really is, particularly in their local vicinity.
People don’t always think of nature in this way, but nature is the air we breathe, the water we drink and swim in, it’s the soil we grow our food in, the beautiful landscapes we look out on in awe, it’s the peatland and trees and other biodiverse ecosystems which help lock up carbon…the list goes on!
Humour in the climate movement has been vastly under-utilised. Through a homage to Monty Python, we used some classic British silliness and understatement to land our message in the most effective way. The aim of the short film is for it to be a lightbulb moment for people, to realise that nature shouldn’t be taken for granted, that it supports most aspects of everyday life, and therefore is something they should care about protecting.
ONE KIND
Don’t Pet Me is a poetic cutout animation exposing the harsh reality of wild animals kept as exotic pets in Scottish homes. It reveals poor living conditions, unmet dietary and habitat needs, lack of veterinary care, and exploitation on social media. The campaign—led by OneKind, Born Free, and the Scottish SPCA—urges the Scottish Government to introduce a legal permitted list of animals that can be kept as pets, allowing only species whose welfare can be properly supported in domestic settings. This measure aims to put an end to the suffering of wild animals kept in domestic settings.
The Music Man Project
Win Kularathne
The still world is the environment in which we live. It contains environment, animals, plants, rivers, mountains, gardens and shade. The still world is essential to our lives because it is important to protect or love the environment in order for us to breathe, eat, drink water and live a good life in the environment. Among the animals that live in the environment, humans take a high place, where meditative heats are very friendly to the environment. In this short film, a yogi who is close to such an environment shows how the environment is destroyed during his meditation. Ultimately, even a meditative person realizes that he is a part of a very small particle in the entire universe. The still world, full of mind-blowing beauty, makes our mind numb. Furthermore, we must take responsibility to protect the environment and provide a healthy environment for our future generations. It is our duty to care for the environment, identify its resources and protect it. By everyone being active in saving and protecting the environment, the task of saving the environment can be successful.