FFCC Awards: Most Significant Exploration Of Spiritual Issues - 2007

I'm part of The Faith & Film Critics Circle, a pretty nifty conglomeration of film critics who write from the perspective of their Christian faith. Names that get mentioned here often, like Peter Chattaway (Vancouver), Jeffrey Overstreet (Seattle), Steven Greydanus (New York), Matt Page (England), J. Robert Parks (Chicago), Robert Johnston and Catherine Barsotti (Los Angeles), lots of others. Our main activity (apart from posting links to some of our current reviews at our website) is our annual selection of outstanding films and artistic accomplishments from the preceding year. Normally we announce our selections in conjunction with the Academy Awards, but protests from that august body (something about "stealing their thunder"), as well as certain computer maladies experienced by our official vote tallier (yours truly) caused us to delay our announcement until this weekend.

So here they are. After getting over the disappointment of pretty well none of my picks taking top honours (but hey, I've never once in my life voted for a politician who actually got elected, so I'm used to this sort of thing), I have to say this is a pretty darn interesting list. I'm proud of us! (Yeah, deadly sin, blah blah blah, I know...)

(But because my disappointment is not fully abated just yet, I'll also list my own picks for that first category. Not that I know better or anything...)

The envelope please.

FFCC "BEST OF 2006" AWARDS
Announced March 9, 2007

MOST SIGNIFICANT EXPLORATION OF SPIRITUAL ISSUES: The New World
Runner-up: Children of Men
My picks: Son Of Man, Pan's Labyrinth, Sophie Scholl, Ushpizin, L'Enfant, Little Children, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Requiem, Painted Veil, The Death Of Mr Lazarescu, The Notorious Bettie Page

BEST NARRATIVE FILM: New World
Runner-up: L'Enfant

BEST DOCUMENTARY: 49 Up and Jonestown (tie)

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Runner-up: Forrest Whitaker - The Last King of Soctland

BEST ACTRESS: Helen Mirren - The Queen
Runner-up: Q'orianka Kilcher - The New World

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Michael Sheen – The Queen
Runner-up: Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Rinko Kikuchi – Babel
Runner-up: Adrianna Barazza – Babel

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick – New World
Runner-up: Guillermo del Toro -- Pan's Labyrinth

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST: Little Miss Sunshine
Runner-up: The Departed

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Guillermo del Toro - Pan's Labyrinth
Runner-up: Peter Morgan - The Queen

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Guillermo del Toro - Pan's Labyrinth
Runner-up: Peter Morgan - The Queen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Todd Field and Tom Perrotta - Little Children
Runner-up: Iris Yamashita/Paul Haggis - Letters From Iwo Jima

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emanuel Lubezki - The New World
Runner-up: Emanuel Lubezki - Children of Men

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: The Fountain
Runner-up: Javier Navarrete – Pan's Labyrinth

BEST FILM FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY: Lassie
Runner-up: Over The Hedge