And the winner is …!

The 81st annual Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday, and as always there are plenty of religious issues to provide a substantive backdrop to the red-carpet glam.

Films have long grappled with questions of ultimate meaning, and this year’s crop is no exception. Whether it’s the more overtly religious Doubt, based on John Patrick Shanley’s Broadway production, or the “life is beautiful” fantasy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, there’s a lot of potential here for out-of-the-box stories. Frost/Nixon explores moral ambiguity, and The Wrestler is a redemption tale both for the main character and for its real-life actor, Mickey Rourke.

Here are a few other observations:

• The most overtly Christian movie of the year may have been Fireproof, the drama of a firefighter, his failing marriage and his discovery of faith in God. The film’s themes are understandably Christian, as this was the second production from Sherwood Pictures, the film company of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., whose first film, Facing the Giants, won unexpected acclaim in 2006. Fireproof was the highest-grossing independent film of 2008, and once again the supporting cast was made up of volunteers from the church.
• Other films engaged Christian themes, though in more ambiguous tones. Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood’s latest movie to ponder the place of violence in America, was left off all the Oscar lists—but that makes the film an especially attractive topic for journalists searching for overlooked stories, and for religious themes in films that never consciously invoke a particular dogma. For example, Eastwood’s grouchy protagonist Walt Kowalski, a foul-mouthed, beer-chugging, church-abstaining bigot, is an unlikely man of virtue. But—spoiler alert!—that’s exactly what he becomes.
• Doubt, which received five nominations, includes a sermon by Father Flynn on how a community can be bound together by doubt as well as by certainty. Use that as a launching point for a story on the role of doubt in belief, and whether the two can coexist. Read a review on the movie and this subject in the Journal of Religion and Film. Also check out the book by Jennifer Michael Hecht, Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation From Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson.
• Much has been written about Heath Ledger’s remarkable performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight, and the late actor may very well win Best Supporting Actor. But the movie also has much to say about truth, justice and the nature of heroism. Can we have pure ideals in a world filled with terrorists and torture? Read Rodney Clapp’s review in The Christian Century.
• Slumdog Millionaire is the favorite to win Best Picture. The rags-to-riches love story was nominated for 10 Oscars. And according to a review in EthicsDaily.com, Slumdog is the archetypal American narrative, despite its setting in Mumbai, India. Moreover, the hero of the year’s biggest movie is a Muslim.
• Sean Penn has a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of the openly gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, who was gunned down by a man portrayed in the film Milk as a devout Catholic. The film opened in the wake of California’s Proposition 8 battle, and the religious and political resonances are hard to miss.

Remember that ReligionLink has a number of past editions that cover various aspects of faith and film.

Also, the Christian-oriented Movieguide ministry held its annual Faith & Values Awards Gala last week in Beverly Hills, Calif. Fireproof took home a $100,000 Epiphany Prize, one of the top monetary awards of the evening. Other films honored included WALL-E, Iron Man and Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.