What do Akira Kurosawa, M. Night Shyamalan, Denzel Washington, Ken Burns, Jason Reitman, Cardinal Avery Dulles, Rod Serling, Bishop Fulton Sheen, David Mamet, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Heaton, Will Smith, Bob Dole, Clint Eastwood, and Big Bird all have in common?They have all been honored by The Christophers for outstanding work in media and communications.
When he won a Christopher Award for his work on the 2002 CBS News special, "9/11," writer/editor and Catholic Deacon Greg Kandra counted the prize as especially meaningful. Although the documentary had also brought him an Emmy and a Peabody Award, "Of all of them, the Christopher means the most to me, because it speaks most directly to the higher calling of working in the media—the effort to act as a candle in the darkness and be, somehow, a tiny beacon of hope."
Christopher Awards producer Tony Rossi with Shannon Hickey, founder of Mychal's Message ministry and recipient of the 2011 James Keller Award which recognizes young people who are changing the world for the better.
"It comes down to the power of storytelling," says Christopher Awards Producer Tony Rossi. "Whether they're fiction or non-fiction, stories have the power to make us think in ways that preaching doesn't. Stories don't necessarily tell us how to think or act. Instead, they show us the results of thinking or acting a certain way and let us make up our own minds."
Recognizing excellence in Film, Television and Books for both children and adults, The Christophers presented their 62nd Annual Awards on May 19, 2011 in categories covering both fiction and non-fiction. Honorees in attendance included director Tom Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler of the Academy Award-winning The King's Speech. Attendees were addressed by two special award winners whose lives also tell great stories: Shannon Hickey—the 21-year-old Foundress of Mychal's Message and recipient of the James Keller Award in recognition of her ministry to the homeless; and Christopher Leadership Award winner Captain Scotty Smiley—the U.S. Army's first blind active-duty officer and the current commander of the Warrior Transition Unit for ailing or wounded soldiers at West Point.
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