Adds a Top 25 List of Horror Flicks

Contact: Gregory Wolfe, Image, 206-799-3451, gwolfe@imagejournal.org; www.artsandfaith.com/t100  

SEATTLE, Feb. 15, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Just two weeks before the Oscars, ArtsandFaith.com, a lively online community, has released two lists: its popular Top 100 Films list and a special Top 25 Horror Films list. Showcasing classic films and directors from around the world and spanning cinematic history, both lists are the culmination of years of discussion and debate among the cinephiles of the A&F community.

In his blog post accompanying the 2011 Arts & Faith Top 100 Films list, critic Steven D. Greydanus (DecentFilms.com) quotes Thoreau: "Read not the Times, read the eternities." He adds: the A&F list "won't make the headlines of the Times -- but if you prefer to scrutinize the eternities, you might want to skip the Oscars and check out the Arts & Faith Top 100."

When the A&F Top 100 Films was released last year, it generated a lot of attention, precisely because it wasn't what people expected from a religious group. Moviefone wrote: "What's surprisingly refreshing about the list isn't just what's on it...but what's missing from it" -- overtly pious movies like Fireproof, Facing the Giants, or even old standards like The Ten Commandments.

After seeing the range of films -- many from world cinema -- on last year's list, The Boston Phoenix said: "I challenge anyone to watch any half a dozen of the films on The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films List...and continue to scoff" at what a Christian arts organization came up with.

Moviefone wrote: "I applaud the Arts & Faith members who recognize that faith and culture need not be mutually exclusive. Even if you're not a Christian, their list is Netflix-queue worthy...."

Steven Greydanus notes that this year's list contains some surprises, such as Leo McCarey's Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), a "sensitive meditation on marriage and family in the modern world," plus films by Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles -- and even Japanese anime.

The Top 25 Horror Films list is another example of how the A&F community is shaking up how people look at the role of faith in films. Jeffrey Overstreet's blog post on this list asks: "What do scary movies have in common with faith?" His answer: "[These films] can ask us to move beyond terror into contemplation, where fear of separation from God becomes the beginning of wisdom. Filmmaker David Cronenberg says, 'I think of horror films as art, as films of confrontation. Films that make you confront aspects of your own life that are difficult to face.'"

After this year, the A&F Top 100 Films list will be updated every two years while a different Top 25 list -- based on some fascinating element of genre or theme -- will be released each year just before the Oscars.

Image journal (imagejournal.org), America's leading periodical focusing on contemporary art and literature that grapple with religious questions, hosts ArtsandFaith.com.

Link for blog on the 2011 Top 100 Films

Link for blog on the 2011 Top 25 Horror Films