'Courageous' Cops Win Film Award

The cop drama ‘Courageous’ has scooped the prize for Most Inspiring Movie of 2011, at what has been dubbed ‘The Christian Oscars.’

The makers of the smash hit film, which grossed $9 million in its opening weekend, walked away with the $100,000 prize money, at the 20th Annual Movieguide® Faith and Values Gala at the Universal Hilton, in Hollywood, California.

Judges picked it out of a list of films which included Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winning: ‘Of Gods And Men’, and the Disney hit ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.’

Courageous, which was produced by a church based film ministry, and starred a cast of unknown actors, is an action drama about four policemen, who struggle to deal with difficult work and family crises.

The action-packed film, rated PG-13 for ‘some violence and drug use’ cost $2 million to make. Although it got a mixed reception from critics, American movie goers flocked to it.

And the Courageous cops weren’t the only winners at the star studded event, which was hosted by Superman Actor Dean Cain.

The BBC Two film ‘KJB: The Book That Changed The World’ which starred John Rhys Davies, won the $100,000 Epiphany Prize for Most Inspiring TV Program of 2011.

The Movieguide awards are intended to support and promote family-friendly movies. Movieguide’s founder, Dr. Ted Baehr told the assembled audience, that not only do such films make the most edifying viewing, they also make the most money.

The most family-friendly movies averaged more than $40.7 million per movie in 2011 in America and Canada, but that the least family-friendly movies with the most offensive, obscene, or anti-family and immoral content averaged only about $19.8 million, he claimed.

He said: “The evidence is abundantly clear, moviegoers greatly prefer family-friendly movies.”

“Most people want to see good conquer evil, truth triumph over falsehood, justice prevail over injustice, liberty conquer tyranny, and beauty overcome ugliness.

“They also would like to take their whole family, including their grandparents, to the movies more often.”

Other winners on the night were actor Alex Kendrick, for his ‘Most Inspiring Performance’ in Courageous, and Hugo, the animated film directed by Martin Scorsese which scooped the ‘Best Movie for Families.’