2nd March, 2005

DAN WOODING
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ won the big honors at the 13th Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry, held in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton on 24th February.

The glittering ceremony, also dubbed “The Christian Oscars”, was held just days before Sunday’s 77th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood.

The Passion took home the $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring Movie. The “Happy Trails” episode of PAX-TV’s series Doc won the $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring TV Program.

The Epiphany Prize is given to the movie and television program that “greatly increases man’s love and understanding of God.”

This is Jamie Foxx’s year, apparently, because not only was he up for two Oscar nominations (he won best actor for Ray), he also took the Grace Award for Most Inspiring Television Performance of 2004, for Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story.

Jim Caviezel of The Passion won the Grace Award for Most Inspiring Movie Performance of 2004 for his portrayal of Jesus Christ. As he came on stage to receive the award, he received a huge round of applause from his Hollywood peers at the event.

Disney and its partner, Pixar, took the award for Best Family Movie for The Incredibles. They also won the award last year for Finding Nemo.

Disney also won the award for Best Movie Documentary, for America's Heart and Soul.

Spiderman 2 won the award for Best Movie for Mature Audiences.

An award for Best TV Documentary went to The Question of God, a documentary about psychologist Sigmund Freud and British Christian author C.S. Lewis, who wrote books defending the truth of Christianity.

Finally, the Rev David Mainse, a Canadian pioneer of Christian television in his country, received a Special Lifetime Faith & Values Crystal Teddy Bear Award for Dedication to Redeeming the Values of the Entertainment Media, for his “tireless and superior efforts over many years to redeem the values of the media in Canada and to present the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide and chairman of the Christian Film & Television Commission, gave his Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry at the Awards Gala. According to Dr. Baehr, the detailed box office statistics in his report proves that moviegoers all over the world prefer clean, morally uplifting movies with strong Christian values.

For more information, go to www.movieguide.org.

- ASSIST NEWS SERVICE, www.assistnews.net.