‘Shawshank,’ Two TV Movies Take Top Humanitas Prizes : Screenwriters: Scripts for ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘A Place for Annie’ and ‘The Burning Season’ are lauded for their moral tone.

The writers of “The Shawshank Redemption” and the TV movies “A Place for Annie” and “The Burning Season” won the major awards at the 21st annual Humanitas Prizes for film and TV scripts that enrich the public.

Frank Darabont was awarded $25,000 for his screenplay for “The Shawshank Redemption,” which the judges praised for “its ringing affirmation of the centrality of hope in human life.”

Prizes of $25,000 also went to Cathleen Young and Lee Guthrie for their ABC movie “A Place for Annie,” about a nurse who takes in an abandoned HIV-positive baby, and to William Mastrosimone and Michael Tolkin for their HBO movie “The Burning Season,” about Chico Mendes, the rain forest activist who was murdered in Brazil.

The Humanitas Prizes were handed out Thursday by the Pacific Palisades-based Human Family Educational and Cultural Institute. The cash awards are intended to encourage writers to elevate the moral tone of their work.

Other winners were:

* Christopher Keyser and Amy Lippman for a Thanksgiving episode of the Fox drama “Party of Five,” which the judges cited for its “luminous declaration that we can forgive other people only when we have first gotten in touch with our own need for forgiveness.” They got $15,000.

* David Richardson for an episode of NBC’s comedy “The John Larroquette Show” in which an apparition of Jesus appeared at the bus station where the characters work. The judges praised it as a witty exploration of the need to know that “life is meaningful and we are not alone.” He got $15,000.

* Pamela Douglas for “Between Mother and Daughter,” a CBS children’s special that dealt with a teen-ager’s reaction to learning that her mother had breast cancer. She got $10,000.

* Ntozake Shange for “Whitewash,” an animated program for HBO about a little girl who decides how best to respond to a racial attack. She got $10,000.

* Bill Moyers and Judith Davidson Moyers for their PBS documentary “What Can We Do About Violence?,” which the judges said provided a “challenging look at the causes and costs of violence in our society.” No cash is given in the documentary category.