Christian Group Names Its Top Movie Picks

Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” and Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” weren’t among the best-picture Oscar nominees this month. But they made the top 10 list of movies for mature audiences announced by Movieguide Awards, a Christian group that will give out prizes at Universal City on March 18.

Despite the conservative evangelical perspective of the sponsoring Movieguide magazine, the Camarillo-based organization named five Walt Disney Co. movies among its “10 best 1997 films for families, including “Flubber,” “Mr. Magoo” and Disney-affiliated Miramax’s “Mrs. Brown.”

Ted Baehr, who heads the ministry, has not joined boycotts of Disney-related products announced last year by the Southern Baptist Convention and a number of conservative church bodies and evangelical ministries.

But Baehr also reiterated that he will not distance himself from boycott promoters who have objected to what some Southern Baptists have called “anti-Christian” and “gay-friendly” employee policies and content of films and television shows.

“Just because I’m not on this bandwagon doesn’t mean I don’t support their right to be concerned,” Baehr said.

The sixth annual Movieguide Awards, which were held last year in Beverly Hills, will be at the Universal Sheraton Hotel. The dinner event, which draws more than 200 people in the entertainment industry, began in confusion last year when many additional people showed up without reservations, Baehr said.

Winners of the “most inspirational” movie and TV program of 1997, to be announced at the show, will each receive $25,000 Epiphany Prizes, donated by philanthropist John M. Templeton, best known for his annual $1-million Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. The Epiphany winners last year were “The Preacher’s Wife,” starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston, and “Touched by an Angel,” the highly rated show produced by Martha Williamson.

Other movies being honored by Movieguide on March 18 include “Paradise Road,” “Ulee’s Gold” and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” in the mature-audience category and “Anastasia,” “Batman and Robin” and “Leave It to Beaver” in the family category.