Winners of 56th Annual Christopher Awards Announced

Winners of 56th Annual Christopher Awards Announced

NEW YORK, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty films, TV programs, and books for adults and young people will receive Christopher Awards during the 56th annual Christopher Awards gala in New York on March 10. The Awards, presented annually since 1949, salute media that remind audiences of their self-worth, individuality and power to positively impact our world.

"The Christopher Awards recognize stories about those who surmount challenges with courage, persistence and an unshakable belief," said Dennis W. Heaney, president and CEO of The Christophers. "All exemplify The Christopher credo 'It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.'"

The protagonists in the Christopher Award-winning films -- FINDING NEVERLAND, HOTEL RWANDA, THE INCREDIBLES, and MIRACLE -- sit at a crossroads. Having rested on past laurels, they realize that to make a difference they must challenge detractors and demons and pursue new goals with courage and conviction. The films are directed, respectively, by Marc Foster, Terry George, Brad Bird, and Gavin O'Connor.

The TV & Cable Christopher Award winners document the triumph of the human spirit. Medical breakthroughs are facilitated by a gifted African-American within a racist medical establishment in HBO's SOMETHING THE LORD MADE. ABC NEWS PRIMETIME THURSDAY-A SURVIVOR'S STORY spotlights the impact made by a teacher raped and left for dead; while opportunities embraced by a woman paralyzed in body but not in mind or spirit are evoked in A&E's THE BROOKE ELLISON STORY. The legal and political web faced by new Americans intent on assimilation is the focus of INDEPENDENT LENS: THE NEW AMERICANS from PBS. HBO Family's HAPPY TO BE NAPPY AND OTHER STORIES OF ME celebrates individual differences.

Winning books for adults are The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Jerome Groopman, M.D.; Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson; The Freedom Line by Peter Eisner; I Am a Pencil: A Teacher, His Kids, and Their World of Stories by Sam Swope; Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir by Neely Tucker; and Mao's Last Dancer: A Memoir by Li Cunxin.

Winning books for young people include Never, Ever Shout in a Zoo by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Doug Cushman, The Hungry Coat: A Tale from Turkey written and illustrated by Demi, Shredderman: Secret Identity by Wendelin Van Draanen, illustrated by Brian Biggs, The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts, by Richard Peck, and Thura's Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq, by Thura Al-Windawi.

Special Awards this year are going to CBS TV's "Face the Nation;" Dr. Robert Coles, educator, author, psychiatrist and child advocate; hockey Hall-of-Famer Pat LaFontaine, founder of Companions in Courage, which helps children cope with serious illness; and Sargent Shriver, whose public service career included directing The Peace Corps, Head Start, The Job Corps and other groundbreaking programs.

Source: The Christophers

CONTACT: David Reich, +1-212-573-6000, or Umberto Mignardi, +1-212-759-4050, both for The Christophers

Web site: http://www.christophers.org/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos available at: http://www.christophers.org/awardsmm.html.

------- Profile: Ent