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The foundation - a project the former British prime minister launched after leaving office - challenged young people to make movies about religion. Entries came in from around the world and were judged by a high-profile panel that included actors Hugh Jackman, Jet Li and Natalie Portman, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Blair himself.
The winners were announced Thursday in London.
They're a diverse group, ranging from Esteban Pedraza's highly personal "People I Know," a technically accomplished introduction to his mother and best friend, to "The Guide," by Shiv Tandan, which appears to be a straightforward tourism video until Tandan reveals a surprise in the last seconds of the film.
They're all part of Blair's aim of bridging barriers between people of different religions, especially young people.
"What I can do is to create programs to bring people of different faiths together," he told CNN just before the winners were announced.
That goal resonates with Tariq Chowdhury, an observant Muslim in Britain.
He set out to show the diversity of faiths in London, but also what links them.
It wasn't always easy.
"When I turned up at one of the largest Hindu temples in London, they see me, I've got a beard, clearly I am person who is Muslim, there is tension there already," he said.
But he managed to explore six religions, and grew himself in the process, he said.
"The journey of making the film was far more incredible than what the film would suggest, and it's sad that I am the only person who went through that," he said.
London has seen bombings in the name of Islam and by the Irish Republican Army - a Catholic group - in Chowdhury's lifetime, but he completely rejects the idea that the violence is motivated by religion.
"To associate those two things is wrong," he said. The thread that unites religions, he argued, is "the instruction toward being kind and compassionate towards everyone, and this is found in the texts of all the six major religions that I featured in my film."
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SOURCE: CNN Belief Blog
