{"id":13335,"date":"2018-05-15T16:13:38","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T20:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13335"},"modified":"2018-05-15T16:13:38","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T20:13:38","slug":"christian-films-win-big-cannes-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/05\/christian-films-win-big-cannes-festival.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian Films Win Big at Cannes Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lionsgate-I_Can_Only_Imagine\"<\/a>Faith based films normally get a lukewarm reception at best outside of purely Christian festivals and venues, but that may be changing in France. The 2018 Cannes film festival featured a number of films with Christian themes and narratives. Among them were \u201cAn Interview With God,\u201d \u201cSamson,\u201d \u201cGod Bless the Broken Road\u201d and the Wim Wenders\u2019 documentary \u201cPope Francis: A Man of His Word.\u201d These films would typically have been more or less ignored by international buyers, but they have received a surprisingly warm welcome this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Interview With God\u201d stars David Strathairn and Brenton Thwaites and follows \u201can up-and-coming journalist [who] finds his world and faith increasingly challenged when he\u2019s granted the interview of a lifetime\u2013with someone who claims to be God.\u201d The film has found surprising traction with international buyers. Ellen Wander from Film Bridge International is selling the film, and she is in the process of closing deals for the U.K., Australia, the Philippines, German and Latin America. She said that she was skeptical when she was first approached to take on the movie. \u201cI felt reluctant because I thought, \u2018Oh, my god, there really isn\u2019t an evangelical community outside of the United States,\u2019\u201d Wander said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve been getting interest from places like China \u2013 I never would have thought that \u2013 Japan, the U.K., spots that typically don\u2019t respond to these kinds of films.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn Interview With God\u201d is not the only film to receive unexpected international interest. The film \u201cI Can Only Imagine\u201d enjoyed incredible success in the U.S., and Lionsgate has scooped up the rights for China, a country that was once an impossible place for a faith-based film to succeed. Prior to Cannes, the film had made deals to show in Latin America, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, Australia\/New Zealand, South Africa, Korea, Russia and the Middle East. At Cannes, the Lighthouse Alliance secured the rights for the U.K., and Kino Swiat won the bid for rights in Poland. The film is currently in negotiations in Scandinavia and Benelux.<\/p>\n

\u201cBroken Road,\u201d which focuses on a young mother who is widowed after her husband is killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan, has received interest at Cannes. \u201cSamson,\u201d the action-adventure story of the titular Biblical hero, is also doing brisk business. Ron Gell of Pure Flix\/Quality Flix thinks that the genre of \u201cSamson\u201d is part of the reason it has garnered more interest than his previous hit, \u201cGod Is Not Dead.\u201d \u201c[\u2018Samson\u2019] definitely has a wider global appeal [than \u2018God Is Not Dead\u2019] because [\u2018Samson\u2019] is seen not just as a Biblical or faith-based story, or a mainly American story, but as an action-adventure film.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival brass at Cannes is still hesitant when it comes to faith-based films, but the success of this year\u2019s offerings may mean that there will be an increasing number of Christian offerings on the table in coming years. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Faith based films normally get a lukewarm reception at best outside of purely Christian festivals and venues, but that may be changing in France. The 2018 Cannes film festival featured a number of films with Christian themes and narratives. Among them were \u201cAn Interview With God,\u201d \u201cSamson,\u201d \u201cGod Bless the Broken Road\u201d and the Wim…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[750,1027],"class_list":["post-13335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","tag-cannes","tag-christian-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian Films Win Big at Cannes Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christian and faith-based films have been an unexpected success at Cannes where they have normally received a very lukewarm reception.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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