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More than 25 Pro-Family Movies, TV Programs and Acting Performances Full of Positive Christian Values Are Feted at 14th Annual Event
By Dan Wooding and Tom Snyder
BEVERLY HILLS, CA (ANS) -- Disney and Walden Media's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, WB's 7th Heaven, ABC TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and PAX TV's Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye won the three biggest honors at the 14th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry, held in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel Thursday night (March 2).
“These award-winning films and television programs, not to mention all of our other nominees and winners, prove that Christian faith and values are alive and well in Hollywood,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE® and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, which sponsoring the Awards Gala.
The glittering event, also dubbed “The Christian Oscars,” was held just days before the 78th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood and attracted more than 150 celebrities, Hollywood executives, producers, writers, and directors and their guests.
The evening began with red carpet media interviews with many of the stars, including Pat Boone and Stephen Collins, as well as many other actors and actresses who were attending the event and who openly shared their faith in Jesus Christ.
The main purpose of the annual event is to honor the studio executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, and actresses making the most morally uplifting, redemptive, inspiring movies and TV programs with positive Christian values and content, and to show Hollywood, and the world, that these kinds of movies and TV programs are among the most financially successful and popular every year.
Since the MOVIEGUIDE® Awards began in 1992, the number of movies with positive Christian content and overt references to the Gospel of Jesus Christ has increased 374 percent (from 10.4 percent of the Top 250 movies produced by Hollywood to 49.3 percent of the Top 250)!
$200,000 in cash prizes were given away at this year's event, including $50,000 to three first-time screenwriters who have written three exciting, spiritually uplifting screenplays with religious themes about God.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the “X-Mas” episode of 7th Heaven took home the two $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prizes for “Most Inspiring Movie” and “Most Inspiring TV Program” of 2005. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye tied for the First Annual $50,000 Ware Foundation Libertas Prize for Promoting Positive American Values.
Crystal Teddy Bear Awards were flying out the door at the special event. Every winning movie and TV program received one for each producer, executive producer, writer, director, and top studio executive responsible for producing it.
In addition, a couple of special Crystal Teddies were handed out. Pat Boone, legendary singing star and actor, received a “Special Lifetime Faith & Values” Crystal Teddy Bear Award for Dedication to Redeeming the Values of the Mass Media of Entertainment. The Crystal Teddy was given to Boone for his “tireless and superior efforts over many years to redeem the values of the mass media and to present the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the mass media.”
Deanne Bray of Sue Thomas not only won the Grace Prize for “Most Inspiring TV Performance,” she also won a special Crystal Teddy for her “winsome, faithful, gracious, and wise efforts to help audiences and entertainers understand God's love for the physically challenged.”
Ulrich Matthes of THE NINTH DAY, a German movie about Christian leaders put into concentration camps by Adolf Hitler and his evil minions, won the Grace Prize for “Most Inspiring Movie Performance.”
David M. Anthony, won the First Bi-Annual $25,000 John Templeton Foundation Kairos Prize for “Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays,” for his script entitled “John, The Revelator.” Heather Hughes took the $15,000 prize for second place for her script “Coincidental Miracles.” Finally, Harrison Graham Moes won $10,000 for third place for his script “Men of Iron.”
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was also chosen “Best Family Movie of 2005,” followed by Madagascar, Dreamer, March of the Penguins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and five other movies. Pride & Prejudice was picked “Best Film for Mature Audiences of 2005,” followed by Batman Begins, Millions, The Interpreter, The Great Raid, and five other movies.
At the event, Dr. Baehr presented his 2006 Report to Hollywood, which proved once again that family-friendly movies with positive Christian values and strong positive references to Jesus Christ and His Gospel make the most money of any other kind of film, especially those movies with a strong Anti-Christian bias or strong immoral content, sex, violence, nudity, and foul language.
For example, movies with strong or very strong Christian worldviews, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Millions, The Ninth Day and Cinderella Man, are making at least three times more money, and sometimes much more, than movies with very strong immoral content or Anti-Christian worldviews.
The Epiphany Prizes are given to the best movies and television program that resulted in a great increase in man's love or understanding of God. The Grace Award is given to the top acting performances in movies and television that best demonstrate God's Grace toward us as human beings.
A list of all the major winners and nominees for the 14th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry is available at the MOVIEGUIDE® website, at www.movieguide.org.
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