The Arts & Faith website has sponsored a jury every year since 2014 to recommend films to Christian audiences. The reasons a critic might think a film is particularly suited for a faith audience are varied,, so be sure to check out the juror’s statements by clicking the appropriate link(s) below.
- The Banshees of Inisherin
- After Yang
- Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
- Everything Everywhere All at Once
- Avatar: The Way of Water
- Cyrano
- Decision to Leave
- Living
- Women Talking
- Armageddon Time
This year’s jury: Aren Bergstrom; Prisca Bird; Peter T. Chattaway; Evan Cogswell; Steven D. Greydanus; Gareth Higgins; Noel T. Manning, II; Thomas Manning; Kenneth R. Morefield.
Juror’s Honorable Mentions:
Good Night Oppy — The sheer size of the universe in comparison to the amount we know about it can trigger a panoply of emotions: fear, awe, wonder, excitement, depression, and exhilaration are among them. The drive to explore, to know, far from being antithetical to the life of faith is deep calling out to deep. Through the eyes of a machine, we have seen lands that no human in history has visited. Oppy also serves as an avatar of our own fragile bodies wedded to our unquenchably curious spirits. — Kenneth R. Morefield
Broker — What makes a family? This seems to be the overarching question of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s career. His films ponder the answer in the form of dysfunctional families bonded by blood or love or both. In Kore-eda’s latest, two black market brokers (Sang Kang-ho and Gang Dong-won) arrange the sale of a woman’s (Lee Ji-eun) unwanted baby. They journey across Korea to prospective parents, learning more about each other along the way, but with such familiarity comes a surprising love of the bonds they’ve formed. What started as an illegal transaction has created an accidental family. Broker is a testament to how thankfulness and forgiveness, both of oneself and others, are the foundations of any healthy family, no matter how unconventional. — Aren Bergstrom
Tár — Evan Cogswell
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent — Thomas Manning
Thor: Love and Thunder — Noel T. Manning, II
Thirteen Lives — Prisca Bird