For the third year running, the Gan Jing World Kindness Video Awards set out to prove a simple idea: real "cool" is being kind. From October 2025 through April 2026, creators around the world answered the call, sharing acts of kindness big and small.
This year drew our largest and most inspiring field yet — from mega influencers with tens of millions of followers to everyday changemakers, many of whom have practised kindness for years. They brought not just heartfelt ideas, but the drive to act, the consistency to keep going, and the reach to inspire others.
Since launching in 2023, the awards have grown into a global movement — more than 34,000 content from over 6,200 channels across 11 languages and dozens of countries.
After reviewing entries judged on creativity, quality, storytelling, and popularity, we're thrilled to announce this year's winners — whose videos will shine on the iconic Times Square billboard in New York City, where they'll gather this July for a special prize presentation and photo celebration (details coming very soon). 🌟
🥇 Gold Prize
BI Phakathi — The AMAZING Act of Kindness That Changed Everything
Some people talk about kindness; BI Phakathi has spent over two decades living it. The South African philanthropist — known worldwide as "the Good Samaritan," with over 10 million social followers — built his mission on one quiet habit: stopping for the person everyone else walks past. Famously faceless in his videos, he keeps the spotlight on the people he helps.
What earned BI the Gold Prize wasn't a single moment, but a body of work. Across more than 30 entries to #BeKindBeCool, he showed the full range of kindness: a kid selling socks to support a family of ten, a young girl whose unsold fruit finally found a buyer, grandmothers caught off guard by a stranger's generosity, families sleeping in their cars. Different faces, the same message every time: you are seen, and you matter.
In one standout entry, BI meets a man named Nico living by the train tracks, who asks only for a loaf of bread. What follows is a conversation about faith and a father saving every cent for his daughter's Christmas gift — until BI places enough in his hands to make it possible. Moved to tears, Nico says it's the first time anyone has ever done this for him — and that the stranger who'd shown him such grace is no stranger at all: "You're not a stranger. We're all brothers under God."
For embodying the very heart of #BeKindBeCool, BI Phakathi is our 2025-26 Gold Prize winner.
🥈 Silver Prize
New Dynasty Picture (NDP) — Beibei's Wish
Proving that kindness can carry a full story, this 85-minute film is our Silver Prize winner. Based on a true story, Beibei's Wish follows a young girl who should have grown up happy and safe with both her parents — but instead must confront a painful truth about what happened to her family under persecution.
It's a tender, unflinching look at innocence tested by hardship, and at the truth and compassion that endure even in the darkest moments. Where most entries captured kindness in a single act, NDP showed it can sustain an entire narrative — a reminder that empathy, honesty, and hope are worth telling at length. A moving, beautifully crafted tribute to resilience and the human heart.
🥉 Bronze Prize (Winners listed in no particular order)
1. Samia's Life — Asking People to Spin the Kindness Wheel 🎡 (Priceless Reactions!)
An influencer with more than 900K social followers, Samia turns kindness into a game everyone wins. Armed with a "kindness wheel" full of affirmations — you matter, you are brave, you are loved — she invites passersby to spin, then offers each one a genuine compliment, a treat, and a moment to reflect on why it's true. The result is a string of priceless reactions and a simple, joyful reminder that a few kind words can make anyone's day. Kindness, made cool. 🍫
2. Josh Nasar — What's Wrong With Me? 🤣
A TV host, stand-up comedian, and social media personality with over 10 million social followers, Josh proves kindness can come with a punchline. In this comedy compilation, he approaches strangers with gloriously cheesy "dad-joke" pick-up lines — telling one woman she dropped her "crown" because she's a queen, and another that he wishes he were cross-eyed so he could see her twice. The reactions range from baffled to delighted, but the warmth is real: Josh says he's often more surprised than the people he pranks, and that making his viewers happy is what makes him happy. A reminder that a good laugh is its own act of kindness. 😄
3. Finny TV — Kindness Is Cool (Original Song)
Kindness gets its own anthem here. In this bright, sunny music video, Finny TV and friends turn the contest's whole spirit into a catchy original tune, singing that "it's kind of cool to be kind." The lyrics celebrate kindness as something that steadies the mind, makes friends, and is good for the heart — wrapped in an upbeat, feel-good melody made to stick with you all day. An original creation that captures #BeKindBeCool in a single hummable hook. 🎶
4. ADM School of Kindness — 10 Kind Habits for Kind Homeschooling & Our Kind Advent Calendar
Kindness starts at home — and homeschool mom Adel made it a daily practice. Across multiple entries, she guided her three young children through everyday acts of kindness with two heartwarming series: 10 Kind Habits for Kind Homeschooling, with lessons on caring for flowers, helping with schoolwork, and showing love at home, and Our Kind Advent Calendar — one kind act (and one chocolate!) for each day of the season. Gentle, creative, and full of teachable moments, her work shows how kindness is best learned young and lived together. 💕
5. Thuy Linh LE — Kindness at EM Normandie Business School (Paris)
Filmed on the Paris campus of EM Normandie Business School, this entry sits down with teachers and students to explore what kindness means to them. Each speaks in their own native tongue — French, English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and more — and though the languages differ, the message is identical: kindness is the one language everyone already shares. One educator describes a kind classroom as an "alliance between two people," a mutual agreement to move forward together. A thoughtful, global reminder that compassion needs no translation. 🌍
6. Choo Choo Shan — What Kindness Means to You? (Hanoi Train Street Interviews)
Through her Railway Hanoi Café & Community Project, launched on the city's famous train street, content creator Thao turns chance encounters with travelers and locals into conversations about kindness. Her #BeKindBeCool entries range from playful walks with visitors to thoughtful reflections — like two tourists who agree you have to "keep on being consistent with the kindness." Warm, spontaneous, and quietly profound. 🚂
7. Marco in America — Keep Newburgh Beautiful
Sometimes kindness looks like a group of neighbors with trash bags and a shared purpose. Marco follows Maggie, Linda, and the volunteers behind "Keep Newburgh Beautiful," a community event that transforms a neglected street — captured in a striking before-and-after — while doing something even more important: bringing people together. Along the way he meets others pouring their time and energy into the neighborhood, from a program working to end gun violence to one creating opportunities for local kids. It's a moving portrait of what happens when a community decides to care, and a reminder that kindness is contagious when people show up for one another. 🧹
8. Armaddilo_ — Real Stories from a Special-Needs Classroom
From Indonesia, a team of special-needs (SLB) teachers share honest, everyday moments from classroom life across a whole collection of short videos — and the result is kindness in its most patient form. Their shorts cover the full reality of the work: helping children focus, learning manners through traditional wayang puppetry, teaching responsibility and body boundaries, and the simple joy of celebrating a student's birthday. A quietly powerful tribute to the educators who shape young hearts with empathy and dedication. 🧡
🎓 Special Student Group Prize
English & American Literature Students, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education (Vietnam)
This ambitious group reimagined classics like Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, and Vanity Fair through a modern lens — dozens of heartfelt films made with real effort and a genuine love for the craft. In the standout Dandelion, a man named Dubby gives until there's nothing left of himself, arriving at a quiet but vital truth: true kindness must begin at the core, or it cannot survive. For their creativity, sincerity, and collective effort, these students earn our 2025-26 Special Group Prize and a $1,000 award. 📚
🎨 #BeKindBeCool Kindness Art Competition 2025-26 (School Edition)
Alongside the video awards, our School Edition Kindness Art Competition invited students in grades 1–12 to illustrate the theme "Acts of kindness — big or small." We're delighted to share this year's four First Prize winners, one from each grade division. (Read the full Art Competition announcement here.)
🏆 Grades 1–3 — First Prize Student Initials: EM · McKinley Elementary
A student gently comforts a classmate struggling with a math test — a tender reminder that kindness means noticing when someone needs a little support.
🏆 Grades 4–6 — First Prize Student Initials: S.P. · Vera's Art School
A daughter helps her mother cook dinner in a "KIND" shirt and "LOVE" apron — kindness as the everyday love we share at home.
🏆 Grades 7–9 — First Prize Student Initials: A.C. · Vera's Art Studio
A passerby guides a visually impaired pedestrian safely across a busy street at sunset — kindness as quiet, attentive care for a stranger.
🏆 Grades 10–12 — First Prize Student Initials: JW · Burnt Hills–Ballston Lake High School
Two hands reach toward a shared heart, uniting "友善待人" (be kind to others) with the vision of a cleaner, kinder world — #BeKindBeCool, Choose Kindness.
Congratulations to all our young artists! Their work, along with ten streaming-prize recipients per division, will be featured in our July Times Square Billboard Celebration in NYC.
Congratulations to all our winners!
To every creator who shared a moment of kindness this year — thank you for proving that being kind really is the coolest thing of all. This July, winning entries will light up the Times Square billboard in New York City, where winners will gather for a special prize presentation and photo celebration — full details coming very soon.
This year's awards shared a total of $10,000 in prizes across the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Special Group categories.
Winners: please contact [email protected] to claim your prize.
Let's keep the kindness going. #BeKindBeCool 🌟