On Friday, February 10, at the 25th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, Movieguide® will be giving awards and grants to a wide range of excellent redemptive, family movies. The Movieguide Awards Gala is a beautiful, classy, family-friendly show with the best of entertainment and honors for the best in redemptive, family movies and television. For the Best Movies for Families, the following have been nominated: Finding Dory, The Jungle Book (2016), Miracles from Heaven, Pete’s Dragon (2016), Queen of Katwe, The Secret Life of Pets, Sing, Trolls, The Young Messiah, and Zootopia.
Movieguide Awards nominations for Best Movie for Mature Audiences include: Ben-Hur (2016), Captain America: Civil War, Eddie the Eagle, The Finest Hours, God’s Not Dead 2, Hacksaw Ridge, Hail Caesar, Risen, The Silence, and Sully.
Movieguide Epiphany Award nominations, for best and most inspiring movie and television programs include the following: Ben-Hur (2016);, God’s Not Dead 2; Hacksaw Ridge; Hail Caesar; Miracles from Heaven; Risen; The Silence; The Young Messiah; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Season 3: Episodes 20-22: Emancipation, Absolution, Ascension; The Bridge (Part 2); Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors (Circle of Love); Operation Christmas; The Passion (New Orleans); Pocahontas (Dove of Peace); and A Time to Dance.
Movieguide Bradley Foundation Faith and Freedom Awards nominations include: Captain America (Civil War) ; God’s Not Dead 2, Hacksaw Ridge, Hail Caesar, Queen of Katwe, Sing, and Sully.
Movieguide nominations for Inspiring Performance Awards for movies and TV include: Ben-Hur (2016), Rodrigo Santoro; God’s Not Dead 2, David A.R. White and Melissa Joan Hart; Hacksaw Ridge, Andrew Garfield; Hail Caesar, Josh Brolin and Robert Pike Daniel; Miracles from Heaven, Jennifer Garner and Kylie Rogers; and Risen, Cliff Curtis and Joseph Fiennes; The Young Messiah, Adam Greaves-Neal; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (Season 3: Episodes 20-22: Emancipation, Absolution, Ascensio), Natalia Cordova-Buckley; The Bridge (Part 2, Faith Ford and Ted McGinley; Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors (Circle of Love), Alyvia Alyn Lind, Gerald McRaney, Dolly Parton; The Passion (New Orleans) Tyler Perry; and A Time to Dance, Devielle Johnson. The Grace Awards are given to the “most inspiring performances in movies and television demonstrating God’s grace and love toward us as human beings.
Further, the $15,000 Kairos Prizes will be given at the Movieguide Awards Gala. Supported by Pure Flix Streaming, the Kairos Pro Prize for Inspiring Screenplays by Established Filmmakers seeks to promote positive change in the motion picture industry. The primary purpose of the prize is to further the influence of moral and spiritual values within the entertainment industry as a whole.
Supported by Pure Flix Streaming and established by Movieguide in 2005, the primary purpose of the Kairos Prize is to further the influence of moral and spiritual values within the film and television industries. Seeking to promote a spiritually uplifting, redemptive worldview, the prize was founded to inspire first-time and beginning screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining, spiritually uplifting scripts that result in a greater increase in either man’s love or understanding of God.
The two winners will be announced at the Gala to the Entertainment Industry at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Sponsored by Pure Flix Streaming and presented annually by Movieguide, the Kairos Prizes award $15,000 to each winner whose work “greatly increases man’s love or understanding of God.”
An annual box office analysis by an advocacy group in Hollywood catering to families has found once again that the most family-friendly movies with the most inspiring, cleanest content earn more money at the box office and on home video.
The 2017 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry by the pro-family advocacy group Movieguide shows that the most family-friendly movies averaged more than $78.77 million per movie in 2016 in America and Canada, but the least family-friendly movies with the most offensive, obscene, or anti-family, immoral content averaged only about $22.58 million.
R-rated movies fared almost as poorly, averaging only $18.45 million per movie.
The study extensively analyzed the content of the top movies released by the major studios in Hollywood earning $800,000 or more, including the major independent studios.
“The evidence is abundantly clear,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide. “Moviegoers greatly prefer family-friendly movies.”
He noted that the Annual Report, now in its 25th year, doesn’t just examine family movies and cartoons for children, but family-friendly movies with the cleanest, most inspiring, and least offensive content.
“Most people want to see Good conquer evil, Truth triumph over falsehood, Justice prevail over injustice, Liberty conquer tyranny, and Beauty overcome ugliness,” he added. “They also would like to take their whole family, including their grandparents, to the movies more often.”
The study also found that movies released in 2016 with no sex, no explicit nudity and no foul language averaged much more money than movies with such content.
The story was similar if you examine the Top 10 Home Video Sales in 2016 as of Nov. 2016 (the most recent date available).
For example, only one of the Top 10 Home Video Sales in 2016, Deadpool, was rated R.” The Top 10 Movies Overseas in 2016 fared just as well, with only one R-rated movie, the Chinese movie, The Mermaid.
The most family-friendly movies included such popular titles as Zootopia, The Jungle Book (2016), Finding Dory, the last Hunger Games movie, The Secret Life of Pets, and The Good Dinosaur, plus less successful titles such as Pete’s Dragon, War Room, Miracles from Heaven, Sing, Risen, God’s Not Dead 2, Queen of Katwe, and The Peanuts Movie.
Dr. Baehr will present these and other highlights from Movieguide’s 2017 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry at the Gala event.
Movieguide has been analyzing the content of movies and comparing box office numbers since 1991. Their 25th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry, are sometimes called “the Christian Oscars.” This year, Actor Terry Crews will bring his formidable strength in comedy to host the Awards, the largest faith and value’s awards show in the country. Movieguide is the go-to source for movie reviews for families, and the Silver Anniversary of the Movieguide Awards will give viewers an opportunity to see the brightest movies from a faith audience perspective.
Last year, an InspireBuzz/NRG survey of parents showed that Movieguide is what 1 in 3 parents use to choose what movie they watch, making it the largest family review service.
The 25th Annual Movieguide Awards will take place at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angles February 10th. A one-hour presentation of the Faith & Values Awards will be telecast Easter Sunday, April 16, on the REELZChannel.
For more information about Movieguide® or CFTVC, visit www.movieguide.org or call (805) 383-2000.
By Diane Howard, Ph.D. (Performance Studies), dianehoward.com