Christian Film-makers Find Their Audience

Posted on February 26, 2009 at 8:00 am

NPR has an excellent column by Barbara Bradley Hagerty about the increasing success of faith-inspired films. The San Antonio (Texas) Independent Christian Film Festival in January attracted more than 2000 audience members. And “Fireproof” has made more money than “Slumdog Millionaire,” produced for $500,000 and earning $33 million.

Instead of just complaining about sex and violence, Phillips says, Christians must make films that reflect their own values. He says he started the film festival five years ago when he realized that Christians were losing the hearts and minds of the young.

“What is the single biggest influence on our families?” he asks. “I wish I could tell you the biggest single influence were churches, but that regretfully is not the case. The truth of the matter is, it is the media the people take in which are shaping and forming ideas.”

If Christians want to compete in the world of ideas, he says, they have to make great movies. This festival is putting up a $101,000 top prize — the largest in the United States, and larger than Cannes or Sundance — to help them get there. Phillips says this is only the beginning.

The winner of that award is a movie called “The Widow’s Might,” a timely story about a community support for a woman who lost her home to a foreclosure. It was written and directed by its star, 19-year-old John Robert Moore.
This is all enormously encouraging. I hope that the combination of spiritual and financial returns from producing films with messages of faith, hope, compassion, and integrity will inspire the production of more films for people of faith.

Epiphany’s Most Inspiring Film Award Winners

Posted on February 14, 2009 at 6:00 pm

Epiphany has announced the winners of its most inspiring film awards.

Fireproof,” from Samuel Goldwyn Films and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, has won the $100,000 Epiphany Prize for “Most Inspiring Movie of 2008,” sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, a philanthropic organization dedicated to exploring life’s biggest questions.

The $100,000 Epiphany Prize for “Most Inspiring TV Program of 2008” was presented to “The Christmas Choir,” telecast by The Hallmark Channel.

Baehr also presented his prestigious “Crystal Teddy Award” for the “Best Movie for Families to “WALL-E,” from Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures. “The Best Movie for Mature Audiences” was given to “Ironman,” from Paramount Pictures

The “Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance in Movies or TV in 2008” was given to Adriana Barraza for “Henry Poole is Here.”

The “Faith and Freedom Award for Promoting Positive American Values in Motion Pictures” was awarded to “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” from Rocky Mountain Pictures. The winner for TV was a tie between “John Adams,” from HBO, and “The Medal: Celebrating our Nation’s Highest Honor,” from 45 North Communications.

The $50,000 “Kairos Prizes” for “Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by Beginning Screenwriters,” also sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, were awarded to:

Â· “A Matter of Time” by Christina D. Denton of Martinsville, Va. — $25,000
Â· “Touched” by Rusty Whitener of Pulaski, Va. — $15,000
Â· “Moody Field” by Darcy Faylor of Greenville, S.C. — $10,000

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Fireproof

Posted on September 24, 2008 at 4:57 pm

The faith-based film Fireproof, starring Kirk Cameron, is enjoying impressive advance ticket sales this week according to Harry Medved of Fandango. It is the story of a firefighter who finds that his most difficult challenge is finding a way to give his wife the love and intimacy necessary to keep their relationship strong. It is not until he turns to God for help that he begins to find a way to let her know how much she means to him.

It opens in more than 800 theaters this Friday, small in Hollywood terms but an extraordinary achievement for a film that cost only $500,000 and was made mostly by amateurs from a film-making ministry in Albany, Georgia. “No one is expecting it will rule the box office,” Medved told me, “but it has made an impressive beginning.”

Church-based “action squads” have been buying tickets in bulk, a powerful reminder to Hollywood that an under served audience will respond positively to a film like this, even without a lot of ad support. “It’s a great couples’ movie,” said Medved. “When’s the last time a movie improved your marriage? We get a lot of movies about falling in love or about temptations away from marriage but this is a film about making a marriage work.” Couples can learn from this film about how to give fully of themselves for a strong and lasting relationship, no matter what their religious beliefs.

“For moviegoers who plan to see a smaller release on opening weekend, online ticketing is the way to go,” says Fandango Chief Operating Officer Rick Butler, who adds that advance ticket sales for “Fireproof” continue to be “healthy.”