Based on the beloved book and directed by Dallas Jenkins, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever follows a small town’s attempt to produce the 75th Annual Christmas Pageant.
The Herdman kids decide to be in the pageant even though they’ve never stepped into the community church. The Herdmans are absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.
Beatrice Schneider as Imogene Herdman, Mason Nelligan as Ralph Herdman, Matthew Lamb as Claude Herdman, Ewan Matthys Wood as Leroy Herdman, Essek Moore as Ollie Herdman and Kynlee Heiman as Gladys Herdman. Photo Credit: Allen Fraser.
But this Christmas, they’re taking over their local church Pageant—and they just might unwittingly teach a shocked community the true meaning of Christmas.
Beatrice Schneider as Imogene Herdman and Judy Greer as Grace. Photo Credit: Allen Fraser.
The cast includes Judy Greer, Pete Holmes, Elizabeth Tabish, and Lauren Graham.
The # 1 worldwide hit song by Michael Martin Murphey inspired Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse. It’s that tale of the Cherokee ghost horse and a young girl coming to terms with a guilty conscience.
Directed by Eric Parkinson, Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse tells a story of redemption and forgiveness as a young girl deals with her guilt following the tragic death of her parents.
With the family facing financial ruin, the survivors move from Texas to Oklahoma to live with Grandma Bette on her horse farm outside Tahlequah. Emotionally lost and distraught, young Samantha finds peace from the attention she receives from a mysterious wild horse that seems to follow her as she walks home from school each day.
The late Anne Heche plays Diana Jones, and this could be her last acting role.
Eventually, Samantha can contact and ride the horse, and with training help from a champion rodeo cowgirl, she enters competitive rodeo barrel racing and accepts her new situation.
But her guilt remains, as Samantha hides the dark secret that she feels responsible for her parent’s death. She cannot forgive herself.
With the help of a local Cherokee spiritual leader and the town’s local pastor’s wisdom, Samantha realizes a greater truth and a solace to her worries.
Was the horse real? Or was it a spiritual messenger to help guide Samantha? Wildfire combines a tale of native spirituality with Christian doctrine and values to create an enchanting film for all audiences.
Jon Gunn directed Ordinary Angels, based on a remarkable true story that follows Sharon Steves, played by Hilary Swank. She’s a fierce but struggling hairdresser in small-town Kentucky.
Alan Ritchson as Ed in Ordinary Angels. Photo Credit: Allen Fraser
Sharon discovers a renewed sense of purpose when she meets Ed Schmitt, played by Alan Ritchson. He is a widower working hard to support his two daughters.
Starring Oscar winner Hilary Swank
With his youngest daughter waiting for a liver transplant, Sharon sets her mind to helping the family and will move mountains to do it. What unfolds is the inspiring tale of faith, everyday miracles, and ordinary angels.
Sure, it’s a faith-based movie by the Erwin brothers, but the message is clear — miracles happen.
Sean McNamara directs this incredible true story, On A Wing and A Prayer. A family’s faith and survival come head to head as a group of strangers unite in a life-saving race against time.
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McNamara’s other credits include faith-based films Soul Surfer and The Miracle Season. His familiarity with spiritual phenomena brings an inspiring battle against the odds of saving the lives of a family.
Doug, played by Dennis Quaid, has to fly a plane without the knowledge or experience to save himself and his family. He discovers the miracles that simple faith can achieve.
Doug and Terri White, played by Heather Graham, and their two daughters, played by Jessi Case and Abigail Rhyne, lead an ideal life in their small town. They are deeply involved in community and church affairs.
Doug and his brother, played by Brett Rice, look forward to the town’s annual barbecue cook-off, where they handily take home first place, distributing the leftovers to the homeless afterward.
When his brother unexpectedly dies, the grieving family travels to Florida for his funeral. Shaken by his brother’s death, Doug questions his long-held faith, distressing Terri, who urges him to hold fast to their beliefs.
After an emotional service, the family boards a private plane to take them home to Louisiana. But within a few minutes of takeoff, disaster strikes. Their pilot suffers a fatal heart attack.
Despite having no experience flying the twin-engine Beechcraft Super King Air 200, Doug has to take control of the aircraft and try to guide it to a nearby landing strip. Rough weather rolls in as he frantically contacts air traffic control for guidance, with Terri as co-pilot.
They put their faith at the forefront. The couple is unaware that officials on the ground are already sending ambulances and emergency vehicles to the tarmac, anticipating the worst.
With time running out, an aspiring air traffic controller breaks protocol and contacts experienced pilot Corey, played by Jesse Metcalfe.
Corey contacts Doug directly from his Connecticut home and provides step-by-step advice as Doug struggles to save his family from seemingly inevitable tragedy. If anyone is to survive, it’s going to take a miracle.
The Erwin brothers bring another faith-based story inspired by a genuine movement on the screen.
Jon Erwin and Brent McCorkle co-directed Jesus Revolution. The film tells the story of a young Greg Laurie, played by Joel Courtney, being raised by his struggling mother, Charlene, played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley, in the 1970s.
Jonathan Roumie as Lonnie Frisbee and Kelsey Grammer as Chuck Smith in Jesus Revolution. Photo Credit: Dan Anderson.
Laurie and a sea of young people descend on sunny Southern California to redefine truth through all means of liberation. Everything changes when Laurie meets Lonnie Frisbee, played by Jonathan Roumie. Frisbee is a charismatic hippie street preacher, and Pastor Chuck Smith, played by Kelsey Grammer, has thrown open the doors of Smith’s languishing church to a stream of wandering youth.
Jonathan Roumie as Lonnie Frisbee and Kelsey Grammer as Chuck Smith in Jesus Revolution. Photo Credit: Dan Anderson.
What unfolds becomes the most significant spiritual awakening in American history. Rock and roll, radical love, and newfound faith lead to a “Jesus Revolution.”
Grammer nails the role of Pastor Smith. He brings humor to an otherwise strict faith-based opportunity to spread the word of Jesus.
Here, the movie tells the story of how one culture turns one counterculture movement into a revival that changes the world.
Based on the bestselling novel by faith-based novelist Francine Rivers and directed by D. J. Caruso, Redeeming Love is a powerful story of relentless love and perseverance as a young couple’s relationship clashes with the harsh realities of the California Gold Rush of 1850. The story is the retelling of Hosea and Gomer from the biblical account in the Old Testament.
Angel, played by Abigail Cowen, expects only pain from those around her. Sold into prostitution as a child, Angel survives with hatred towards herself and the men who use her. She meets Michael Hosea, played by Tom Lewis, a farmer who believes God wants Angel to be his wife. Dire circumstances force Angel to accept his proposal, but her wounded heart mends when Michael defies her bitter expectations.
As Angel encounters a love unlike anything she has ever experienced, feelings of unworthiness and shame cause her to run from a life she doesn’t think she deserves. As Michael sets out to find her, Angel discovers no brokenness that love can’t heal.
Cowan’s screen credits include I Still Believe, another faith-based movie.
Directed by the Erwin brothers, American Underdog follows Kurt Warner, played by Zachary Levi. He went from being a stock boy at a grocery store to being a two-time NFL MVP, Super Bowl champion, and Hall of Fame quarterback.
Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner in American Underdog. Photo Credit: Michael Kubeisy/Lionsgate
Warner’s story is about years of challenges and setbacks that could have derailed his aspirations to become an NFL player. Just when his dreams seemed all but out of reach, it is only with the support of his wife, Brenda, played by Anna Paquin, and the encouragement of his family, coaches, and teammates that Warner perseveres and finds the strength to show the world the champion that he already is.
Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner and Anna Paquin as Brenda Warner in American Underdog. Photo Credit: Michael Kubeisy/Lionsgate
It’s billed as an uplifting story showing that anything is possible with faith, family and determination.
Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner and Dennis Quaid as Dick Vermeil in American Underdog. Photo Credit: Michael Kubeisy/Lionsgate
The cast also includes Dennis Quaid, who plays Dick Vermeil.
Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner in American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story. Photo Credit: Michael Kubeisy/Lionsgate
Zachary Levi as Kurt Warner in American Underdog: The Kurt Warner Story. Photo Credit: Michael Kubeisy/Lionsgate
Directed by Preston Whitemore, Dutch is about Bernard James, Jr. The story follows Dutch as the player with any means necessary to dominate the streets and beyond. He uses any angle and any woman to turn an African drug Lord’s stolen heroin business into the East Coast’s most feared drug empire. He’s gained enemies along the way as the vow to take him down, including a Mafia heir, DA and conscience-stricken former friend.
But none of his enemies can stop what they can’t see. With his life on the line and the face of the enemy in everyone he sees, Dutch plays the game and scores a winning hand in the face of all that betrayed him.
But, as always, there is one woman Dutch can’t resist who will shake his ice-cold control to its core. And it will be the one betrayal he never sees coming that will put more than he ever imagined at risk.
The cast includes Lance Gross, Jeremy Meeks, Macy Gray, Gunna, Natasha Marc, Tyrin Turner, Melissa Williams, Malcolm Kelly and Kyle Massey.
Directed by Marco Pontecorvo in modern-day Portugal, Fatima follows an author and noted skeptic, Professor Nichols, played by Harvey Keitel, who visits a convent in Coimbra’s riverside city. He meets with Sister Lúcia, played by Sônia Braga, an elderly nun. She recounts her role in a historical event that took place in 1917.
The conversations between pragmatic academics and the severe spiritual self-discipline illuminate a decades-old mystery and set the stage for an inspiring story that has fascinated millions for over a century.
An angel visited 10-year-old Lúcia, played by Stephanie Gil, while wandering in a cave close to home in Aljustrel, on the outskirts of Fátima, Portugal, and showed her a vision of a battlefield.
World War I is raging across Europe and claiming the lives of many young men in Lúcia’s village. In the vision, Lúcia sees her brother, Manuel, played by João Arrais, a soldier at the front, caught in an explosion. Later, while tending her family’s flock of sheep, Lúcia and her younger cousins Jacinta, played by Alejandra Howard, and another apparition, the Virgin Mary, played by Joana Ribeiro, visited Francisco, played by Jorge Lamelas. As she calls herself the “Lady of the Rosary,” she tells the children they must pray and suffer to end the deadly conflict. She also tells them she will return to the same spot every month for six months.
Like many in the town, Lúcia’s devout mother, Maria, played by Lúcia Moniz, doesn’t believe the children’s story and chastises Lúcia for lying. But as the mayor, Artur, played by Goran Višnjić, and Church officials try to convince the youngsters to recant their story, the sighting spreads.
Pilgrims from across the country flock to Fátima, hoping to have their prayers answered, but only the children can see or hear the apparitions. As more people come, the pressure mounts on the newly installed secularist government officials to refute the children’s testimony. Artur eventually resorts to imprisoning Lúcia and her cousins, hoping to have them declared insane. But the psychiatrist he enlists to examine them finds no evidence to support that claim, and the Artur lets them free.
On the day of Mary’s last visit to Fátima, tens of thousands of believers arrive, hoping to witness a miracle that will convince them of her existence. They still talk about what the girls experienced to this day, and the site remains one of the world’s most popular destinations for Catholic pilgrims.
The screenplay is an uplifting story about the power of faith based on real-life events by Pontecorvo, Valerio D’Annunzioo, and Barbara Nicolosi.
Written and directed by Andrew Heckler, Burden is a true story about Michael “Mike” Burden, played by Garrett Hedlund, an ardent young South Carolina Ku Klux Klan member.
He rose to the rank of Grand Dragon – and walked away from all of it with the help of his new love and an unlikely ally, the African American religious leader and social activist Reverend David Kennedy, played by Forest Whitaker.
Mike Burden, rejected by his own racist family and raised by Klan leader Tom Griffin, played by Tom Wilkinson, becomes a pillar of the KKK and proponent of the divisive Redneck Shop, a Klan memorabilia store.
But then Mike meets and falls in love with Judy Harbeson, played by Andrea Risborough, a single mother deeply opposed to the Klan and Mike’s allegiance to the group.
Cut off from the only family he has ever known, Mike and Judy reach out to the Reverend, Mike’s former mortal enemy. In turn, Reverend Kennedy proves the power and conviction of his faith when he accepts Mike’s disavowal of the Klan and welcomes him into his home and church.
Together, they face down irate and vengeful Klan members and win over Reverend Kennedy’s skeptical parishioners, forming a genuine bond and forging a path toward redemption and forgiveness.
Heckler is known for directing Armageddon and the TV series Ally McBeal. Burden won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the Sundance Film Festival 2018.
The second trailer tells more of the story and journey of this former Klansman and the priest.
The three movie clips show exceptional acting and directing skills.
