Tony Blair Faith Foundation

In only a few hours the Faith Shorts 2010 film competition draws to a close at an award ceremony hosted by Adrian Chiles in the centre of London at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The stage is set, the judges from Hugh Jackman to Jet Li have cast their votes and the winners are on their way to London. You can be part of this by joining the live stream at www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/faithshortsLIVE  from 6pm BST.

We first launched the Faith Shorts film competition in March to give young aspiring film makers the chance to express their faith through film. Since then we’ve been overwhelmed by the response we’ve had with entries flooding in from Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Argentina, Canada, Pakistan, UK, New Zealand, Lebanon, USA, Nigeria, Singapore, and the Philippines.

They were drawn from Sikh, Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Humanist backgrounds. The themes of the films have been wide ranging from family loss to overcoming adversity, personal devotion and hope.

Tonight you can tune into watch the videos and the winners speak about what inspired them. The 26 shortlisted entries range from an Indian pupil presenting a challenge to the viewer on child poverty in Delhi slums to young Bosnians of different faiths offering a vision of peace and tolerance set against the divisions that their community has experienced.

And the results really have been extraordinary, Hugh Jackman said, “I had a great time judging and viewing all the films. I think they were all very brave, very personal in nature, very honest and I found them inspiring and touching.” We hope these films will go on to be a powerful tool in breaking down prejudices and promoting understanding.

 Lara Smallman a young jewish woman from London who made her film with Christian, Muslim and Jewish friends summed up the spirit of the competition when she said, “My hope is that the film will be screened at interfaith events across the country, and bring people of different faiths together.” I hope you will tune in tonight to find out why Lara and the other entries have been generating so much excitement