‘Joy’ and ‘Home’ Honored at Faith-Friendly Movie Event

Joy, Home, The 33 and other “uplifting” films were honored Friday at a gala designed to reinforce something Hollywood presumably already knows: Family-friendly movies are not only culturally important but also hugely profitable.

The long-winded name of the event — the 24th Annual Movieguide Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry — featured a performance by country star Trace Adkins and was co-emceed by Joe Mantegna and Duck Dynasty‘s Sadie Robertson.

Attendees included Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, David Oyelowo, Jane Seymour, Ricky Schroeder, Pat Boone, John Schneider and Ted McGinley. The event at the Universal Hilton in Los Angeles was recorded and will air Feb. 22 and again two days later on Reelz Channel.

Joy nabbed the top prize in a category called the Faith & Freedom Award for Movies Promoting Positive American Values. The pic stars Jennifer Lawrence as the real-life woman who invented the Miracle Mop.

The 33 won for Best Movie for Mature Audiences. The PG-13 film tells the real-life story of miners trapped in a collapsed gold and copper mine.

DreamWorks Animation’s Home, about an space alien on the run, won for Best Movie for Families.

Other pics honored in various categories included The War Room and Do You Believe. In television, Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and A.D.: The Bible Continues were winners.

Unlike myriad other awards shows, the Movieguide Gala comes with slideshows and statistics compiled by the organization’s leader, Dr. Ted Baehr and his team, and a lengthy, written report is provided for attendees, which consists largely of hundreds of executives at major film and TV studios.

The most “family friendly” movies earned an average of $73 million at the domestic box office in 2014, while movies “with the most offensive, obscene, anti-family, immoral content” averaged less than $18 million, according to the report.

As for U.S homevideo sales, only one of the Top 10 best-sellers was rated R in 2015 (American Sniper) and internationally also just one of the Top 10 was rated R (Fifty Shades of Grey).

Other mainstream movies praised by the group included Furious 7, The Martian, Jurassic World, Ant-Man, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Paddington, Inside Out and The Peanuts Movie.

“Most people want to see good conquer evil, truth triumph over falsehood, justice prevail over injustice, liberty conquer tyranny and beauty overcome ugliness,” said Baehr. “They also would like to take their whole family, including their grandparents, to the movies more often.”

Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com

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