VALUES
ART
Religion
NEW
ETHOS
ABOUT OUR AWARDS
In 1995, to mark the 100th anniversary of cinema, the Vatican released a list of great films to acknowledge the importance of the art form and the role it has played in our culture over the course of its 100 years. Now over a decade into the 21st Century, New Ethos wants to continue forward in this manner.
We want our Awards to not only honor the artists and storytellers, but to alert the faithful when a film makes good on its mission of bringing the viewer to a better understanding of the challenges of the human spirit. Our Awards are a resource for Catholics eager to be engaged in the culture.
“…we must hope that the centenary of the cinema will somehow cause the film industry worldwide to reflect on its potential and assume its serious responsibilities.” (From the Address of his holiness John Paul II to the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications, 1995)
The New Ethos Awards are our way of conveying to the entertainment community that they have achieved this potential and fulfilled their responsibility in our contemporary society.
AWARD PROCESS
New Ethos screens upcoming films to determine qualifiers for one of the two awards we give out: our NEW ETHOS SELECTION and our NEW ETHOS EXCELLENCE award.
New Ethos Selection
When the Vatican released its list of 45 important films of the last 100 years, they broke their selections down into three categories: Religion, Values, and Art. New Ethos uses this same rubric in our awards process. A film that excels on some level in one of these categories becomes a New Ethos Selection.
Religion
Selections in the Religion category are stories that in some way stand out for their direct or indirect engagement of matters concerning faith, God, or the Truth of Divine Revelation. These films can represent our broad Judeo-Christian heritage.
Values
Selections in the Values category stand out for their concern with morality, the complexity of the human condition, or the questions of our day to day lives, in a way that elevates the viewer. These films embody universal values and can either affirm a good or look critically upon a defect in us or our world.
Art
Selections in the Art category are films we want to praise for pushing the craft of filmmaking forward. Whether in their writing, direction, or technical fields, these films are significant for their contributions to cinema as an art form and merit recognition for their achievements.
New Ethos Excellence
The highest award New Ethos gives is the Excellence Award. This award is reserved for films that excel not only in the Religion or Values categories, but also represent outstanding achievements in Art. These are films that carry overall excellence in both style and substance. While it is always difficult to predict what work of art will stand the test of time, we believe our Excellence winners are important contributions to our cinematic heritage and can offer continued insight to audiences for generations.
View our Awards on our Awards Page.