The Winners of the 26th Annual MovieGuide® Awards

Each year for the past 26 years, MovieGuide® has held an awards show where they award films and television shows using a completely different set of criteria than most awards shows. While shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes highlight films and television programs based on their artistic merit, MovieGuide® looks at the “moral and spiritual principles as well as… production values… movies that tell a story that is both redemptive and inspiring to their audiences.”

I’m pleased to announce the winners of the 25th Annual MovieGuide® Faith & Falues Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry (gasp) which was held this past weekend at the Hilton Los Angeles / Universal City. You can see the entire list of nominees here.

And the winners are:

The Jeannette Clift George Award for Furthering Entertainment with Faith & Values

Given to Rich Peluso of Affirm Films

Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Movie of 2017

The Star

Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Television Program of 2017

The Long Road Home: Black Sunday, Part 2

The Faith & Freedom Award for Movies

The Faith & Freedom Awards for Promoting Positive American Values are awarded for entertainment value, for craftsmanship, and for creating programming that is uplifting, moral, insightful, compassionate, and that shows America and its people in a positive light.

The Promise

Best Movie for Families

The Boss Baby

Best 2017 Movies for Mature Audiences

Darkest Hour

Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance for Movies

John Corbett for “All Saints”

Christie Peters Grace Award Nominees for TV

Paul Sparks for “The Crown: Veregangenheit”

—

Interestingly, in the past, MovieGuide® has given awards to actors in both the male and female categories. This year, they only gave to performers, regardless of gender. This is an interesting and progressive step for MovieGuide®, although the result was that the women were shut out from receiving awards.

Secondly, this is only the second time an animated movie has won MovieGuide®’s big award, the Epiphany Prize. The last time was 1999’s Prince of Egypt.

And finally, I’ll end this post by asking the three big questions I ask each year:

Dear MovieGuide®:

Who decides the nominees?

Who decides who wins?

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, is it just a coincidence that your award statue is a crystal teddy bear and the founder of MovieGuide®’s name is Ted Baehr?

 

 

Today’s Ironic News: The MovieGuide Awards Get Attacked For Being Too Liberal

In what might just qualify as the most delicious irony of the year so far, the MovieGuide Awards Facebook page is being trolled by supposed far-right conservatives for being another liberal awards show.

To give a bit of background, MovieGuide is an organization that reviews Hollywood content from a conservative Christian, pro-family, pro-American, pro-Capitalist point of view. Every year for the past 25 years, they’ve hosted an awards show that gave out prizes to films like God’s Not Dead, War Room, Duck Dynasty, and The Passion of the Christ.

I mean, these guys are basically the Fox News of awards shows, and now they are being hammered by people making the following comments:

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here, but someone at Far Right HQ apparently didn’t get the memo, and now we’ve got a bad case of internet friendly fire. And considering how many of these comments are being made by people with few or no friends, it might just be some of that famous Russian trolling we’ve been hearing about.

Ah, don’t you just love 2018?

The 2017 MOVIEGUIDE® Awards Nominations

Yes, it’s that magical time of the year, where the six or seven loyal readers of this blog interested in all things MovieGuide® get to find out what films from the past year Dr. Baehr and company have decided deserve their coveted accolades.

While I don’t know exactly how these movies are chosen, I do know that – as opposed to most film awards – the MovieGuide® Awards don’t necessarily have to do with quality filmmaking or acting (although some of the nominees are quality nominees). Rather, the award nominations are based on the films that Dr. B and company decide are best for the family👪 and for America🇺🇸, so for that – those of us who are a part of American🇺🇸 families👪 extend our most grateful gratitude towards the MovieGuide® offices, because – as the great Barry Manilow once crooned – we can’t smile without you, MG®.

So, without further ado, here are the movies that MovieGuide® considers the best of the best:

The 2017 MOVIEGUIDE® Awards Nominations 

Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Movie of 2017

All Saints

Bitter Harvest

The Boss Baby

The Case for Christ

Let There Be Light

The Promise

The Star

Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Television Program of 2017

Blue Bloods: Cutting Losses

The Crown: Veregangenheit

Last Man Standing: Take Me to Church

Little Big Shots: Tiny Dancer

The Long Road Home: Black Sunday, Part 2

Victoria: An Ordinary Woman and The Queen’s Husband

The Faith & Freedom Award for Movies

The Faith & Freedom Awards for Promoting Positive American Values are awarded for entertainment value, for craftsmanship, and for creating programming that is uplifting, moral, insightful, compassionate, and that shows America and its people in a positive light.

Bitter Harvest

The Boss Baby

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

The LEGO Batman Movie

The Promise

Wonder

Best Movie for Families

“The Boss Baby

Cars 3

The Case for Christ

Despicable Me 3

The Emoji Movie

Ferdinand

The LEGO Batman Movie

The Man Who Invented Christmas

Smurfs: The Lost Village

The Star

Best 2017 Movies for Mature Audiences

All Saints

Bitter Harvest

Darkest Hour

Dunkirk

Justice League

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The Promise

Thor: Ragnarok

Wonder

Wonder Woman

Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance for Movies

Erika Christensen for “The Case for Christ”

John Corbett for “All Saints”

Oscar Isaac for “The Promise”

Kevin Sorbo for “Let There Be Light”

Sam Sorbo for “Let There Be Light”

Terrence Stamp for “Bitter Harvest”

Dan Stevens for “The Man Who Invented Christmas”

Mike Vogel for “The Case for Christ”

Christie Peters Grace Award Nominees for TV

Tim Allen for “Last Man Standing: Take Me to Church”

Len Cariou for “Blue Bloods: Cutting Losses”

Jenna Coleman for “Victoria: An Ordinary Woman and The Queen’s Husband”

Bill Engvall for “Last Man Standing: Take Me to Church”

Claire Foy for “The Crown: Veregangenheit”

Steve Harvey for “Little Big Shots: Tiny Dancer”

Tom Hughes for “Victoria: An Ordinary Woman and The Queen’s Husband”

Michael Kelly for “The Long Road Home: Black Sunday, Part 2”

Tom Selleck for “Blue Bloods: Cutting Losses”

Paul Sparks for “The Crown: Veregangenheit”

—

The MovieGuide® Awards are scheduled for February 2, 2018 at the Universal Hilton Hotel. It’s usually televised a couple of weeks later, but right now that information is not available.

And if anyone from MovieGuide® happens to read this (and I write this every year, yet to hear back from the MovieGuide® folks) I’d love to find out a couple of things from you: first, what is the process for selecting the nominees and deciding the winners? Second, why don’t you air the show live?

 

The Winners of the 25th Annual MovieGuide® Awards

Each year for the past 25 years, MovieGuide® has held an awards show where they award films and television shows using a completely different set of criteria than most awards shows. While shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes highlight films and television programs based on their artistic merit, MovieGuide® looks at the “moral and spiritual principles as well as… production values… movies that tell a story that is both redemptive and inspiring to their audiences.”

I’m pleased to announce the winners of the 25th Annual MovieGuide® Faith & Falues Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry (gasp) which was held this past weekend at the Hilton Los Angeles / Universal City.

Once again, the results have not been easy to track down, and have been pieced together by scouring the social media accounts of people who were in attendance.

The 2016 MOVIEGUIDE® Awards Winners

Lifetime Achievement Award

Pat Robertson

The Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Movies & TV

The Epiphany Prize for Inspiring Movies & TV is awarded to popular, entertaining movies and television programs that are wholesome, spiritually uplifting, inspirational, redemptive and moral.

The Most Inspiring Movie of 2016

The Young Messiah

The Most Inspiring Television Program of 2016

Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors

—

Bradley Foundation Faith & Freedom Award

The Faith & Freedom Awards for Promoting Positive American Values are awarded for entertainment value, for craftsmanship, and for creating programming that is uplifting, moral, insightful, compassionate, and that shows America and its people in a positive light.

For Movies:

Hacksaw Ridge

For Television:

Operation Christmas

—

Best Movie for Families

Miracles from Heaven

Best Movie for Mature Audiences

God’s Not Dead 2

—

Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance for Movies

Awarded annually to an actor or actress in a motion picture or television program who exemplifies God’s grace and mercy toward us as human beings through their outstanding performance.

Actress:

Melissa Joan Hart, God’s Not Dead 2

Actor:

Adam Greaves-Neal, The Young Messiah

Grace Award for Most Inspiring Performance for TV

Actress:

Faith Ford, The Bridge

Actor:

Devielle Johnson, A Time to Dance

—

And if I can take a moment to editorialize just a bit…

I feel like it’s important to note that while it’s not publicized on the MovieGuide® website, apparently box office also has something to do with the nomination process. Watch this video to hear MovieGuide® founder Ted Baehr say that there were so many worthy films this year that poor box office results might have kept some films from receiving a nomination. I find this odd considering that Ben-Hur, which only made about $26 million domestic, was nominated.

But this just highlights an issue I have with this awards show. While it’s certainly fine that MovieGuide® chooses to look at entertainment through a different lens than typical awards shows, their process for deciding nominees and winners is pretty opaque.

And so I’ll end this post by asking the three big questions:

Dear MovieGuide®:

Who decides the nominees?

Who decides who wins?

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, is it just a coincidence that your award statue is a crystal teddy bear and the founder of MovieGuide®’s name is Ted Baehr?

http://www.movieguideawards.com/gallery

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thimblerig out.

The Movieguide Awards Results

It took a bit of sleuthing, but the results of the 24th Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry are in!

So, without further ado, and without any further understanding or clarity about who makes the decision of who wins these awards, I give you:

The Winners of the 24th Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry (and the link to where I found out that they’d won):

The Most Inspiring Performance for Television:

Alyvia Alyn Lind, Gerald McRaney, and Jennifer Nettles, Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors

The Most Inspiring Performance for Movies:

Karen Abercrombie, War Room

The Best Movie for Mature Audiences:

The 33

The Best Movie for Families:

Home

The Bradley Foundation Faith & Freedom Award:

Joy

And the two biggest prizes of the evening…

Where you get a nice plaque and $100,000 for winning…

The $100,000 Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring TV Program of 2015:

Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors

The $100,000 Epiphany Prize to the Most Inspiring Movie of 2015:

War Room

Fun fact, this makes the third movie for the Kendricks to win the big prize at Movieguide, out of their five movies. I’d say they are officially the team to beat when it comes to the Movieguide Awards.

To see the festivities in all of their glory, you can watch on Feb. 22 and again two days later on the Reelz Channel.

By the way, does anyone know how one could get their hands on this report that Movieguide releases? Also, if anyone at Movieguide would be gracious enough to explain to me the process of how the winners are selected, I would love to write an article about it.