Christian Film & Television Commission
Wedesday, Feb 23, 2005

The Christian Film & Television Commission will present its 13th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values MOVIEGUIDE® Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry Thursday night, Feb. 24, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The Awards will feature the prestigious $50,000 John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prizes for Inspiring Movies and TV.

This year's Epiphany Prize nominees include, in alphabetical order:

AMERICA'S HEART AND SOUL, I AM DAVID, LADDER 49, THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, and THE RECKONING for movies.

A CHRISTMAS CAROL, DOC: HAPPY TRAILS, LOVE'S ENDURING PROMISE, PATRICK, THE QUESTION OF GOD, and REDEMPTION: THE STAN TOOKIE WILLIAMS STORY for television.

The Awards Gala will also feature awards for the Ten Best Family Movies, the Ten Best Movies for Mature Audiences and the Grace Awards for the Most Inspiring Performances in Movies and TV.

This year's acting nominees include Jim Caviezel, Jamie Foxx, Kelsey Grammer, and Don Cheadle. Some of the movie nominees include Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST, THE TERMINAL starring Tom Hanks, SHREK 2 and PRINCESS DIARIES 2 starring Julie Andrews and Mike Myers, SPIDER-MAN 2, THE INCREDIBLES, and LADDER 49 starring John Travolta.

This year, the Awards Gala will be broadcast live over the Internet, via www.firstcutlive.tv or www.movieguide.org.

During the show, Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission, a Christian advocacy group in Hollywood, and the Awards Gala, will present an overview of his 2005 Annual Report to the Entertainment Industry. The report is a statistical analysis of the content and box office of the major movies in 2004, to see what kinds of movies were the most popular and made the most money.

This year, the report will include a nine-year study of the content and box office of the major movies, from 1996 to 2004.

The MOVIEGUIDE® Awards continues to present a symbol of excellence and merit to the movies, television productions, producers, directors, writers, studio executives, and creative talent that best extol moral/biblical values and Christian principles in the pursuit of entertainment.

The Christian Film & Television Commission was founded in 1978 by Dr. Ted Baehr. An internationally noted educator, producer and media scholar, Dr. Baehr's initiative has devoted itself to redeeming the values of the entertainment industry according to biblical principles, influencing top executives and creative artists to adopt higher moral and spiritual values in their productions.

Since the Commission made its presence in Hollywood known, the number of movies with positive moral content has increased from 68 such films in 1991 to 189 in 2004 – an increase of 178 percent.

Even more amazingly, the number of movies with spiritually uplifting, redemptive and positive Christian content increased from a mere 27 movies to 128 in the same time period – an incredible 374 percent rise. In 1985, when Dr. Baehr started MOVIEGUIDE®, there were less than five such movies. The number of movies marketed to families has also grown since 1985, from about 6 percent to about 40 percent.

MOVIEGUIDE®, the Commission's official report card on the entertainment industry, has grown from its founding in 1985 to become an internationally seen weekly television program, both a daily and a weekly radio broadcast, an Internet newsletter, and an internationally syndicated publishers edition.

Noted Dr. Baehr: "A recent study by MOVIEGUIDE® reported beyond a shadow of a doubt that movies with strong Christian-centered redemptive and moral content, year in and year out, earn much more money on average at the box office and in the video stores than movies with excessive sexual immorality, nudity, violence, vulgarity, and other anti-Christian content and worldviews."

Editor's note: