The Oscars are history, but many people are debating which recent films have been the most spiritual; and their debates are fueled by dueling lists prepared by a variety of religious groups that differ over The Blind Side and Avatar.
Christianity Today‘s film critics compiled a list of the 10 most “redeeming” movies of the year — and a list of the best films. The Blind Side was No. 2 on the “Most Redeeming” list but did not make the Top 10 overall best films.
Phil Boatwright, movie critic for the Baptist Press and author of Movies: The Good, The Bad and the Really, Really Bad, has a year-end wrap of the “Best and Worst” movies of 2009. Boatwright pointed to some good movies but felt Hollywood generally “continued its attack on people of faith.”
Beliefnet.com unveiled its annual “Beliefnet Film Awards” on March 1. The Road won Best Spiritual Film, and Precious and Up tied for Best Inspirational Film.
The Web site SpiritualityandPractice.com has several lists of “The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2009,” broken down by documentaries, animated films, feature films and so on. Avatar was a top pick of the site’s founders, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, even though other Christian critics felt the movie glorified pantheism.
Not to be outdone, Image, a journal that studies the intersection of arts and faith, compiled a list of the Top 100 films of all time.
What about you? What are your top recent spiritual films?
