Animated Campaign for Simon on the Streets Wins at Charity Film Awards 2025
Project Objectives
Simon on the Streets is an independent Leeds-based charity that provides practical and emotional support to homeless individuals across West Yorkshire. As an independent charity, they rely heavily on public donations to fund their outreach programmes, which they deliver day and night in their effort to break the cycle of homelessness.
Faced with an increasingly challenging economic climate, the charity approached Reel Film to collaborate on a video campaign that would broaden their brand awareness, strengthen their voice and secure more donations for the charity.
Our Solution
Simon on the Streets was eager to highlight the positive impact of their services through one of their case studies, but was hesitant to put any of the people the charity had supported on camera. In the interest of protecting the anonymity of the individuals whom the charity had helped, we proposed creating an animated video that replaced the names and identities of real people with animated characters.
This particular video project told the story of Amy, from initially distrusting the Simon on the Streets outreach team to eventually accepting their support and securing permanent accommodation. By using stylised animations and a region-appropriate narrator, we were able to give real insights into Amy’s journey without exposing her true identity.
The animation was received incredibly well, resulting in thousands of pounds of donations and a nomination at the Smiley Charity Film Awards 2025, where it went on to win the Silver Award.
“The whole team wants to say a massive thank you to everyone at Reel Film for the work they did. The fact that we are now finalists in the Charity Film Awards is a credit to the skill and expertise of the Reel Film team, who managed to capture the importance of the work we do and shine a light on the issues of homelessness”
