For more than 50 years the Evangelical Film Jury has recommended an
outstanding film every month. Recommendations are intended to draw the
attention of film programme organizers, cinema managers and media specialists
within and outside the church to ethically relevant and simultaneously
aesthetically demanding films. The Jury also encourages the culturally
interested public to visit the nominated films, which in its opinion are
particularly suited for discussion. To this purpose the monthly film nominations
are rationalized in an information sheet, the magazine "medien praktisch"
also publishes detailed working support. The Jury is an independent body,
its current eight members are nominated in two-year rhythm by committees
and associations from the sphere of the Evangelical Church.
The first nomination of the then "Best film of the month" in November
1951 was Luigi Zampa's "Living in Peace" (Italy 1947). Up to 1972 under
the name "Jury of the Evangelical Film Guild" and subsequently as "Jury
of the Evangelical Film Work" the jurors have now nominated more than 500
feature films and full-length documentaries as "Best film of the month"
and then as "Film of the month".
Although, or perhaps because individual nominations, for example Herbert
Achternbusch's "Das Gespenst" ("The Ghost", FRG 1982) in April 1983, repeatedly triggered
controversies - the recommendation "Film of the month" has developed into
a brandname for committed film work in the last decades.