Retaining a dissipation-free state while carrying large electrical currents is a challenge that needs to be solved to enable commercial applications of high-temperature superconductivity. Here, we show that the controlled combination of two effective pinning centres (randomly distributed nanoparticles and self-assembled columnar defects) is possible and effective. By simply changing the temperature or growth rate during pulsed-laser deposition of BaZrO3-doped YBa2Cu3O7 films, we can vary the ratio of these defects, tuning the field and angular critical-current (I-c) performance to maximize Ic. We show that the defects' microstructure is governed by the growth kinetics and that the best results are obtained with a mixture of splayed columnar defects and random nanoparticles. The very high I-c arises from a complex vortex pinning landscape where columnar defects provide large pinning energy, while splay and nanoparticles inhibit flux creep. This knowledge is used to produce thick films with remarkable I-c(H) and nearly isotropic angle dependence.