Children’s Film Foundation “CHIFFY” Awards

The CHIFFY Award was introduced in 1968 for the best Children’s Film Foundation (CFF) film of the year.

The CFF was the major supplier of films for children’s Saturday matinees, and its films won more than 40 major awards at international film festivals.

While academies and committees of film experts judged such awards, the CHIFFY was different.

It was judged by the film audiences – in this case, the children who saw the films, the Saturday morning audiences themselves, and specifically the ABC audiences, called ABC Minors.

The idea of an award for children’s films was the brainchild of Reginald Helley, Controller of children’s matinees in 185 ABC cinemas.

100,000 ABC Minors voted for their three top CFF films of 1968:

• Runaway Railway, produced by George H. Brown in 1965
• Johnny On The Run, produced and directed by Lewis Gilbert in 1953
• Rockets In The Dunes, produced by Ralph May in 1960.

These films were not new, but came round again and again, and all were seen during 1968, making them eligible for the inaugural awards.

Mr Helley organised a national competition for ABC Minors to design (and make, if possible) three awards for the producers of the top three films.

A judging panel chose three from 75 entries.

The judges were Bill Thom (secretary of the CFF), Miss I. Josephs (children’s writer), Ken Costigan (Kine Weekly), Sidney Newman (Today’s Cinema), Norman Taylor (ABC Film Review) and John Wilkins (Warner-Patho).

The winning designs were:

• First: A golden eagle on a film-draped tripod (pictured above right) designed and made by 12-year-old Barbara Hughes, a Minor at the ABC Wolverhampton.
• Second: A plasticine model of two children sitting side by side in cinema seats (pictured above), designed and made by 13-year-old Karen Weaver, a Minor at the ABC Canterbury.
• Third: A golden statuette of a small child clad in film and wearing a CFF crown (pictured at right), designed by Monitors (Senior Minors) at the ABC Barnsley and made by the manager.

These statues became the CHIFFIES, awarded annually. CFF secretary Bill Thom came up with the name CHIFFY, based on the Children’s Film Foundation telegraphic address.

The first awards – for the three films listed above – were presented to the film producers at a special Children’s Film Premiere of the latest CFF feature, Headline Hunters, at the ABC Turnpike Lane, London.

Barbara and Karen, who designed the awards, were interviewed on television by Eamonn Andrews and spent a day at Elstree Studios.