#OscarsSoConfused:
The Academy Awards Takes Some Cues from the Movieguide® Awards, But Fail in Others
By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher
This past Tuesday the Academy Award nominations were revealed, and to many people’s surprise, a few uplifting crowd pleasers were included in the lineup. In fact, the Academy seems to have taken a page out of Movieguide®’s 25th Annual Faith & Values Awards Gala, set for Friday, Feb. 10 in Los Angeles.
After last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy, the Academy shook up its membership, trying to “diversify” their members. Interestingly, among this year’s the Best Picture nominees, a couple uplifting, faith-friendly movies, HIDDEN FIGURES and HACKSAW RIDGE were nominated, the latter of which is also nominated for the Epiphany Award for Most Spiritually Uplifting Movie at the 25th Annual Movieguide® Awards.
Also, nominated for Best Picture were ARRIVAL, LA LA LAND and LION. Though not Movieguide® Award nominees, these movies also were well-made and had some strong uplifting messages and exhilarating moments.
Sadly, though, the Academy still chose to nominate obscure politically correct movies such as the sexual-identity themed movie MOONLIGHT, which garnered eight nominations; the Buddhist, atheist sermon KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, which was nominated for Best Animated Movie; offensive movies like ELLE and CAPTAIN FANTASTIC; and, the deeply dark and depressing MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, which promotes teenage sexual promiscuity. Also, in the Best Animated Movie category, the wonderful Pixar movie FINDING DORY, which is easily one of the best movies of the year, was completely snubbed by the Oscars®.
In contrast to the confused mixed messages sent by the Oscars®, consider some of the other inspiring, uplifting, well-made movies, besides Mel Gibson’s HACKSAW RIDGE, vying for Movieguide® Awards at this year’s Movieguide® Gala: MIRACLES FROM HEAVEN, RISEN, CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, FINDING DORY, SING, SULLY, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, ZOOTOPIA, GOD’S NOT DEAD 2, and EDDIE THE EAGLE
Clearly, the Academy Awards still has much room to grow.
While many can expect this year’s Oscar ceremony to be full of crude jokes and politically correct speeches and monologues, families can rely on the Movieguide® Awards to present an entertaining, wholesome show celebrating the year’s most wholesome, entertaining, inspiring, and high quality movies.
This year’s Movieguide® Awards (www.movieguideawards.com) will take place Friday, Feb. 10, 2017 at the Universal Hilton Hotel near the heart of Hollywood in Los Angeles.
An entertaining, inspiring one-hour version of the MOVIEGUIDE® TV Program will air Easter Sunday April 16 on the REELZChannel (check your local listings).
Note: Ben Kayser and Tom Snyder also contributed to this story.
