wfn.org | 2000 Wilbur Awards announced for religious-themed media

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Note #6475 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

5-April-2001
01117

2000 Wilbur Awards announced for religious-themed media 

"Chocolat" and "West Wing" are chosen as best movie, television show  

by Eric Shafer
Office of Communication
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 

MINNEAPOLIS - "Chocolat" and "The West Wing" are the unanimous Best Film and
Television Drama selections of the Religion Communicators Council (RCC) in
its 50th annual Wilbur Awards competition.

	RCC gives the Wilbur Awards to outstanding media entries that feature
religious issues, values and themes. This year's winners will be honored at
an April 28 banquet here during RCC's annual convention.

	Miramax Films' "Chocolat" is a comic fable set in the fictional French
village of Lansquenet in the 1950s.  Academy Award nominee Juliette Binoche
stars as Vianne Rocher, a chocolate maker who comes to the town with her
daughter Anouk, played by Victoire Thivisol.  The film focuses on the issue
of religious tolerance.

	Warner Brothers' "The West Wing" will be awarded the Wilbur for "Take This
Sabbath Day," an episode of the hit NBC series which focused on the death
penalty from Jewish and Christian perspectives.

	The other winners in television categories include ABC News 20/20 for a
segment called "The Search for Mary" (national news), the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation's "Man Alive - Transformations, Dancing in the
Spirit" (national documentary), WVEC-TV, Norfolk, Va. for "Keeping the
Faith" (local news), and WTTW-TV Chicago for "A Justice That Heals" (local
documentary).

	The television film "Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace" will also receive Wilbur
recognition.

	For the second year in a row, WGBH radio, Boston, will be awarded a Wilbur
for their radio program "Sound & Spirit."  Another repeat Wilbur winner is
author Jonathan Kozol for his latest book, Ordinary Resurrections - Children
in the Years of Hope (Crown Publishers).

	Other writing awards will be presented to Larry Witham of The Washington
Times for his work, "Seeking the Spirit: America's Churches in the 21st
Century."  Newsweek magazine's Ken Woodward, another past Wilbur recipient,
will be honored for his cover story  "Visions of Jesus."

	The Dallas Morning News will take home the Wilbur for Best Religion Section
for the fourth time in the past five years.

	Writer Liz Szabo and photographer Vicki Cronis will receive the Wilbur for
their story "One Man's Mission: A Church Struggles to Integrate" in The
Virginian Pilot of Norfolk, Va.
	This year's list of 16 Wilbur winners is rounded out by Jerry Johnston's
"Ideally Speaking" columns in the Salt Lake City Deseret News, John Berry's
photography for "The Footsteps of Jesus" in the Syracuse Newspapers,
Syracuse, N.Y. and Ed Gamble's editorial cartoons in the Jacksonville
Florida Times?Union.

	Wilbur Award recipients are given a stained-glass trophy.  The awards are
named for Marvin C. Wilbur, a pioneer in the field of religious public
relations.

	Wilbur Awards banquet tickets are still available.  For more information
visit the RCC Web site at www.religioncommunicators.org or contact the Rev.
Eric C. Shafer, chair of the Wilbur Awards, at 773?380?2960 or
eshafer@elca.org.

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