2006
MOVIEGUIDE® AWARDS
PROVE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS ALIVE AND WELL IN HOLLYWOOD
More than 25 Pro-Family Movies, TV Programs and Acting
Performances
Full of Positive Christian Content Are Feted at 14th Annual Event
By Dan Wooding
and Tom Snyder
Saturday,
March 4, 2006
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.
Watch that website and the ANS website at www.assistnews.net for more
news and highlights of the Gala.
Dan Wooding is an award winning
British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife
Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to
Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS).
He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in
Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of
which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published
by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com.
danjuma1@aol.com. (Photo of Dan Wooding: Raul Gonzalez) |
|
|