The surprise box-office hit Facing the Giants, the church-made movie that took in $10 million in theaters, is among the nominees for one of this year's John Templeton Foundation Epiphany Prizes for Inspiring Movie & TV, to be awarded next week.

The football-themed drama made by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., is one of 11 projects up for one of the awards, with winners to be announced Tuesday, Feb. 20, at the 15th Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Nominated for the film prize along with Giants, which saw a successful DVD release last month, is The Nativity Story, the big screen version of the Christmas story. Also in the running are Joyeaux Noel (Merry Christmas), Last Holiday, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, Superman Returns and World Trade Center.

Leading the TV nominees are the documentary Arlington: In Eternal Vigil and the TV movies The Christmas Card, Hidden Places and The Ten Commandments.

The $50,000 Epiphany Prizes are given to the best movie and the best TV show during the previous year that “resulted in a great increase in man's love or understanding of God.”

This year's finalists “have offered incredibly inspiring works that reveal a deeper, spiritually uplifting truth about God,” said Ted Baehr, founder of Movieguide, a family guide to movies and entertainment, and the Christian Film & Television Commission, which sponsor the Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala.

• Prev
• Next