Teenagers honoured by BAFTA for anti-smoking film

Pat Coughtrey , News Editor Tuesday, July 10, 2012
2:36 PM

Inspirational teenagers were honoured at BAFTA after scooping prizes in a prestigious anti-smoking film competition.

The nationwide competition supported by Archant London, publishers of the Post, was held by the Deborah Hutton Campaign through their Cut Films project.

Set up in memory of Deborah Hutton, who was health editor at Vogue for 20 years, the organisation is a peer-to-peer smoking prevention charity.

The respected journalist started smoking as a teenager and though she went on to give up and lead a healthy lifestyle she died from lung cancer aged 49 in 2004.

The National Cut Films Awards 2012 saw school and college students from across the country produce two-minute films aimed at stopping their friends from smoking. Three London schools were among those honoured at the awards ceremony last Thursday. (5)

Charlie Stebbings, charity founder and Deborah’s husband, said: “It is important we recognise their work. The message from these young film-makers is quite simply ‘don’t smoke’ and that’s really important.”

Presenting awards to several schools were T4 presenter Will Best and Alex Rider author and award winning writer, Anthony Horowitz. Michael Adkins, acting editor for the Post, handed over a special Archant Award.

After awarding the overall honour to Lambeth College student, Chloe Wilson, 19, who produced a short film called Liquid, Mr Horowitz said: “I knew Deborah Hutton from university and it’s fabulous to keep her name alive and make some sense of her untimely death.”

He added: “I come to BAFTA all the time and watch films by Danny Boyle and Steven Spielberg. And now your work has been on the same screen and franky it thoroughly deserves to be.”

After the awards ceremony TV presenter, comedian and writer Clive Anderson held a live auction, raising £52,000 for the charity,

Director of The Deborah Hutton Campaign and Cut Films, Emma Wrafter said: “The sheer amount of talent from the 2012 filmmakers has been staggering. The young people who entered have really thought about the impact of smoking particularly on their peer group and this is reflected in the standard of films we have this year.”

The campaign works in partnership with government, local authorities, schools and youth groups to deliver targeted smoking interventions.

Each year 100,000 people in the UK die from smoking related diseases.

The National Cut Films Competition 2013 is now open. Closing date is April 19. 2013. Visit http://www.cutfilms.org.