Movieguide® has been actively involved with Hollywood and independent studios for over 25 years to advocate for family-friendly, redemptive movies. It has served America’s 81 million families and 60 million faith-driven U.S. moviegoers. Each year, Movieguide® hosts a gala awards event to honor, encourage, and facilitate the best in family-values movies.
In communication to supporters, Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide® (The Family Guide to Movies and Entertainment and the Christian Film & Television Commission®), announced details for the next Movieguide® Awards Gala. “Home and Heart” is the theme for next year’s 24th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry.
The event is planned for Friday, February 5, 2016 at the Universal Hilton Hotel near the heart of Hollywood. “There’s no place like home,” Dr. Baehr said, quoting the famous line from MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. “Great movies are great stories well told, with inspiring, morally uplifting messages, that appeal to the heart, the center of one’s values, passion and soul … Box office numbers and statistical surveys show that moviegoers prefer family-friendly movies and entertainment with faith and values,” he added.
Dr. Ted Baehr hosts the Movieguide Awards Gala; Photo Courtesy of PR Web.
The upcoming Movieguide® awards gala’s highlight will be the presentation of the two $100,000 Epiphany Prizes for Inspiring Movies & TV. These prizes honor the best movie and the best television program in 2015 that “greatly increases man’s love or understanding of God.” Movieguide® will also present $50,000 Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by First-Time or Beginning Screenwriters. The Kairos prizes honor the three best scripts from beginning screenwriters that “greatly increase man’s love or understanding of God.” Both the Epiphany and the Kairos Prizes are provided by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
Also, thanks to the Templeton Foundation, the Movieguide® Awards Gala has added another screenwriting competition, the $50,000 Chronos Prizes for Inspiring Screenplays by Established Filmmakers, now in its third year. Those interested in these three awards can find criteria and submission forms at epiphanyprize.com, kairosprize.com, and chronosprize.com respectively.
Roma Downey received a Grace Award for her role in ‘The Bible;’ Photo courtesy of LightWorkers Media Inc.
Another big award planned for the evening is the Grace Awards for Inspiring Performances in Movies & TV. They are given for the best performances by an actor or actress that exemplify “God’s grace toward us as human beings.” Actors who won the Grace Awards this past year include Roma Downey for “The Bible,” AJ Michalka and James Denton of Grace Unplugged, and “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson for his performance on an episode of Tim Allen’s comedy series “Last Man Standing.”
Crystal Teddy Bears will be given to the best family movies and the best movies for mature audiences of the year. One winner will be selected for the top position in each field. Finally, special awards will be given to winners of the Faith & Freedom Awards for Promoting Positive American Values in Movies & TV.
Other previous winners at the Gala include Les Misérables, Up, Finding Nemo, God’s Not Dead, The Passion of the Christ, Marvel’s The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Unbroken, Heaven is for Real, Spider-Man 2, The Giver, Divergent, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Fireproof, Amazing Grace, “Touched by an Angel,” “7th Heaven,” “JAG,” “The Bible,” Robert Duvall, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Caviezel, Chuck Norris, and Shirley Jones.
Les Miserables is one of the more notable award winners in the Gala’s history; Photo Courtesy of Working Title Films.
At the Gala, Dr. Baehr will present highlights from Movieguide®’s Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry. Each year, this report studies how well family movies and movies with moral, spiritually uplifting and redemptive content have done at the box office and on home video compared to other kinds of movies.
Author of The Culture-Wise Family and many other books, Dr. Baehr is chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission® (CFTVC) ministry and its family guide to movies, Movieguide®. CFTVC and Movieguide® are international, non-profit ministries dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”
More information is available at movieguide.org or by calling 1-888-248-6689.
Written by Diane Howard, Ph.D. (Performance Studies) – dianehoward.com
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