Kairos Prize® Announces Semi-Finalists for 2022-2023 Competition
By Movieguide® Staff
The Kairos Prize®, sponsored by The Timothy Plan and Movieguide® is pleased to announce the top 10 semi-finalists for the 2022-2023 competition.
“This year’s scripts were some of the strongest we’ve seen in years,” said Movieguide® CEO Robby Baehr. “It’s incredible to see God working through the pages of these screenplays, and we hope that our industry judges will continue to be inspired by these uplifting, redemptive scripts.”
The semi-finalist screenplays will all be sent to industry leaders for evaluation for the $15,000 grand prize winner. The top 3 scriptwriters will be invited to the Movieguide® Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry on Feb. 10, 2023, where the grand prize winner will be announced.
The semi-finalists are as follows, in no particular order:
Gravel Road
When a washed-up old aristocrat faces a thug with compassion, he unwittingly engages the most meaningful ride of his life.
The Blessing/A Father’s Blessing
A former Marine and washed-up boxer believe his life is cursed, gets back into the ring to try to win a $25,000 purse to prove to his wife and son that he is not a loser. With the help of his estranged alcoholic father, he gets more than just a trophy he gets a blessing from his Heavenly Father and earthly Father he did not know he needed.
The Long Way Home
Based on a true story… A proud man from the Deep South embarks on a journey with his deathly ill wife and their seven kids in an attempt to escape abject poverty. As Christmas approaches, class prejudice, brutal health setbacks and poverty, challenges their faith in God and any hope for a Merry Christmas.
A Christmas Donut
Rachel and Miles find love, God, and donuts, as they rally the locals to save a beloved donut shop from a dastardly developer.
Wonderfully Made
A strong-willed young midwife working with the Amish comes to understand both the peace – and the power – of living life by letting go.
Posterity
When a biographer from the Almighty’s Department for Posterity is assigned to interview a ordinary Joe, she finds it nearly impossible avoid breaking the main rule: “Don’t get personally involved.”
Wide as the Western Sky
When an aspiring young country-western singer vows to honor his faith above his career, he encounters frustrating delays and opposition that threaten to destroy his dreams. A modern-day reflection of the life of Abraham.
Hope From the Ashes: A 9/11 Story
A Union laborer searching for bodies at Ground Zero finds a seventeen-foot steel cross impaled in the rubble that once was the World Trade Center. Some battles are won while others are lost as he embarks on a journey to save the cross.
Lost and Found
A conman poses as a minister in a small town in order to rob the local church, and finds that his impact on the town people is starting to change his own beliefs.
Mia’s Child
After a devastating earthquake, a woman’s faith helps her through the loss of a child and securing the adoption of a lonely boy from India.
In its 17 years, the Kairos Prize® has seen multiple semifinalist scripts and winners make it through production. Most recently, RESISTANCE: 1942 debuted in theaters earlier this fall.
“[The Kairos Prize®] helped us launch careers and make this movie,” says Matthew Hill, who wrote and directed RESISTANCE: 1492 along with Landon Johnson. “There aren’t very many awards like this, that celebrate this kind of work.”
Johnson added: “It’s well funded. If people are willing to actually put resources behind something, it tells you that it’s meaningful.
“[The Kairos Prize®] is not just a piece of paper hanging on the wall. Someone actually said, ‘I think we should be encouraging this next crop of people to come and develop this skill, and become storytellers that can bring a biblical worldview out into the world through film.’ Being able to do that signals to us that there is a market that actually needs people to strive and then you know, it gives us a very clear aim,” Johnson concluded.
