World Wide Pictures Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
World Wide Pictures, an arm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, received the Redemptive Storyteller Award for Lifetime Achievement at the recently completed
Online, December 12, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Virginia Beach, VA World Wide Pictures, an arm of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, received the Redemptive Storyteller Award for Lifetime Achievement at the recently completed, Sixth Annual Redemptive Film Festival ( http://www.redemptivefilms.com/ ) (RFF) held at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Produced by FireWorks International, the Redemptive Film Festival is the world's leading international festival for family friendly films in the redemptive genre. World Wide Pictures received the award for more than five decades of contribution to exemplary redemptive storytelling, specifically in the area of producing and distributing evangelistic films.
RFF, a highly acclaimed festival, has created waves throughout the international film community and has received hundreds of hours of films from about 44 countries on 6 continents. Today there are more than 90,000 web pages that specifically mention the festival. The festival is aimed at providing a forum for filmmakers (professionals or students), to showcase and be rewarded for their work on themes that depict the redemptive purposes of God, either through human beings or supernatural occurrences.
World Wide Pictures has produced more than 200 films since 1953, including some 38 features, which have been widely distributed. In receiving the award on behalf of World Wide Pictures, Mr. Cliff Barrows, veteran member of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and one time president of World Wide Pictures expressed gratefulness for being recognized for the vision and ministry that Evangelist Billy Graham has had for the past 65 years.
Barrows explained that Billy Graham's vision was that of "putting the Christian message in an attractive form and a professional way, so that the unconverted would come into a theatre or neutral auditorium to hear an exciting story and we would be able to present the gospel ( http://www.redemptivefilms.com/ ) in a clear way." He also paid tribute to Bill Brown, president of WWP in its most productive years and acknowledged valued relationships such as those of Ralph Carmichael and Ted Smith who provided the musical scores for many of the WWP films.
According to Dr. Chris Cunningham, Executive Director for the festival, "World Wide Pictures was selected by the nominating committee because they have been telling the greatest redemptive story ever for more than five decades." Though the organization has not been actively producing new films since 2004, they continue to successfully market their films, which are well received around the world. These films have led to more than two million decisions for Christ.
Previous winners of the Redemptive Storyteller Award for Lifetime Achievement are Dr. Linda Seger, The Script Doctor (2010); Dr. Paul Crouch, President and Founder of Trinity Broadcasting Network (2009); The Jesus Film Project (2008); Dr. Ken Wales, veteran filmmaker (2007), and Professor Andrew Quicke, (2006), an educator and author who helped his students to win more than 200 film awards.
For the purposes of this competition, a redemptive film is any film whose main purpose is to depict the act of redeeming, rescuing, or delivering any person from a state of crisis or helplessness. Entries were judged by panels of professionals with years of experience in many aspects of cinema and television. The films were judged in five categories: Student, Professional ( http://www.redemptivefilms.com/ ) , Professional Low Budget (under $30,000), "Distinctly Gospel," a film category created by the Redemptive Film Festival, and Screenplays (Student and Distinctly Gospel). Winners include comedy shorts, short and full length narratives, documentaries, music videos and animation. The show provides clean family fun, free of indecent language, gratuitous violence, sex or nudity to its audiences.
If you'd like more information about this festival, or to schedule an interview with the Executive Director, please call Dr. Chris Cunningham at 757-966-0296 or email him at [email protected].
Contact: Dr. Chris Cunningham
Tel: 757-966-0296
Cell 757-502-3618
E-mail: [email protected]
http://www.redemptivefilms.com/
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Tags: gospel, movie, Movies, Professional, Redemptive Film Festival, student