LOS ANGELES, CA (ANS) -- MOVIEGUIDE® on Monday, January 18, 2010, announced 50 semi-finalists for the 5th Annual $50,000 Kairos Prizes for Spiritually Uplifting Screenplays by first-time and beginning screenwriters.

Dan Wooding interviews Ted Baehr at a previous Movieguide® gala

Funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, the Kairos Prize encourages screenwriters to produce compelling, entertaining, spiritually uplifting scripts that result in a greater increase in either man’s love or understanding of God.

“We are greatly encouraged to see a wealth of quality screenplays coming through our doors,” said Dr. Ted Baehr, founder and publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®.

“Anticipating the impending on-screen release of the first-ever Kairos winner from 2006, ‘The Revelator,’ we look forward to finding the next winner to bring wholesome, faith-filled entertainment to the mainstream.”

Finalists will be announced at the beginning of February with the top three winners to be awarded at the 18th Annual MOVIEGUIDE® Faith & Values Awards Gala and Report to the Entertainment Industry Tuesday, Feb. 23, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif (www.movieguideawards.com).

A news release said that in addition to the $50,000 in prize money, the largest of its kind in the United States, the top three winners will have their scripts read by top studio executives, including executives at The Walt Disney Company, Sony, Warner Bros., and 20th Century Fox. Since the first prize presentation in 2005, many of the winners have been optioned or have been signed by major agencies.

Along with the upcoming release of “The Revelator,” there are also several other winning scripts that are currently circling to go into production.

For a full list of semi-finalists and more information, visit www.kairosprize.com.

The John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org) serves as a philanthropic catalyst for research relating to what scientists and philosophers call the Big Questions. It supports work at the world's top universities in such fields as theoretical physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and social science relating to love, forgiveness, creativity, purpose, and the nature and origin of religious belief. It also seeks to stimulate new thinking about wealth creation in the developing world, character education in schools and universities, and programs for cultivating the talents of gifted children.

Movieguide® (www.movieguide.org) is a publication of Good News Communications, Inc. and the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry. It is an international non-profit organization dedicated to “redeeming the values of the entertainment industry by influencing industry executives and by informing and equipping the public about the influence of the entertainment media.”

For further information, please contact Jameson Cunningham or Dan Wilson with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at jcunningham@sbpublicaffairs.com or dwilson@sbpublicaffairs.com

Dan Wooding, 69, is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for 46 years. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC., and now hosts the weekly “Front Page Radio” show on KWVE in Southern California and which is also carried on the Calvary Radio Network throughout the United States. The program is also aired in Great Britain on Calvary Chapel Radio UK. Wooding is the author of some 43 books. Two of the latest include his autobiography, “From Tabloid to Truth”, which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, press this link. Wooding, who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, also recently released “God’s Ambassadors in Japan” which is available at amazon.com.