Why Popular Faith-Based Films Like ‘The Chosen’ Aren’t Nominated For Oscars
NEW YORK — Are faith-based projects such as “The Chosen” not considered for secular awards because of anti-Christian bias?
Well, it’s complicated.
The faith-based film industry has been around in its modern incarnation for 20 years now — if you count the start with “The Passion of The Christ” in 2004. And yet, as financially successful as the genre has been, Hollywood award shows like the Oscars and the Emmys haven’t recognized any of the films for awards.
For many, this is no mystery since faith-based content is so terrible. Christian films, made by the faith-based industry, have long had a reputation of being bad quality.
And yet, for many, as the faith-based film industry has gotten better, this has become a less compelling explanation. After all, “The Chosen” — the celebrated TV series about the life of Jesus — has been praised by legendary screenwriter Paul Schraeder himself. So while many (or even most) faith-based films continue to be subpar, it doesn’t seem like all of them are. That’s especially true when you compare them to some of the things that do get nominated for Oscars or Emmys each year.
Fans of faith-based movie industry typically reject the “low quality” argument and instead blame Hollywood’s bias against faith in general and Christians in particular. But a bunch of Academy Award nominations were given to faith-based films such as “Hacksaw Ridge” and “Killers of The Flower Moon.” Clearly, there is some openness to at least some faith-heavy projects.
