About the Sandford St Martin Awards
The Sandford St Martin Awards are the UK’s most prestigious broadcast awards for radio, TV and online programmes and content that explore religious, spiritual or ethical themes. They are the only awards that welcome entries about any and all faiths.
Traditionally hosted every June at Lambeth Palace, the Awards ceremony brings together leading figures from the media industry with representatives of the UK’s diverse belief communities to celebrate some of the best of UK broadcasting.
The Trust welcomes submissions from news, current affairs, factual, the arts, music, drama and comedy – as well as from teams producing specifically ‘religious’ commissions.
To be eligible for the Awards, entries must be broadcast content made by a UK or ROI based broadcasting organisation or production house, and have been first publicly broadcast, screened or published to a UK audience during the previous calendar year.
To find out more about the categories and the eligibility criteria visit our Sandford St Martin 2022 Awards page.
If you need inspiration, then you can review our archive of our winners, watch Stormzy receive his award, or, you can listen to any of our keynote addresses by Neil MacGregor, Joan Bakewell, Lyse Doucet or the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Sandford St Martin Trust awards 2019, Lambeth Palace, London 13th June 2019, Natasha Hirst Photography
2021 Award Winners and shortlisted programmes
For the second year in a row, COVID meant our annual awards had to be administered and presented online. And, as the pandemic has lingered, never more has the demand for high quality broadcasting and journalism that informs, educates and supports community been so acute. As an organisation whose remit is to support broadcasters, we’ve found this year, more than ever, broadcasting has supported us.
Our Chair, the Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Ripon said:
“During a year when so many of us have been stuck in one place, the vital social role played by programmes and content, like those entered into our 2021 Awards, has never been more clear. Your work has introduced audiences to new people and new vistas but also given us the space to share and engage in a wider public conversation about values and what it’s like to be alive today. Inspired by that, we hope our awards will do something similar: connecting us after a long period of having been apart.”
It has been another extraordinary year and we’ve experienced some extraordinary broadcasting. You can find out more about the 2021 finalists and winning entries here or watch our online awards presentation here. Or, special for 2021 and designed as a tool for broadcasters to get to know each other and each other’s work, visit our Broadcasters Directory which includes details of all 2021’s eligible entries .
Awards archive
After more than three decades in the business, the Sandford St Martin Trust holds a unique record of recognising and celebrating the best broadcasting about religion, ethics and morality from across the UK. Our winners include some of the best programmes broadcast in the UK and come from all different genres – as well as “traditional” religious programming. You can read more about them in our Awards Archive.