I remember sitting in an excited crowd at my first award show. It was a large film festival where thousands of actors and filmmakers had gathered to watch the spectacle unfold on the stage in front of us. Against all odds, I had been nominated for a performance in an indie film I had starred in, which is why I had ponied up the money for a flight, a hotel, and a blazer. In the rustling crowd around me, I could feel the nervous energy not only radiating off my fellow nominees, but my own gut. After an hour of jokes and entertainment from the host and watching winners go on stage to accept their prizes, my category arrived: “Best actor in a leading role.” I felt my stomach tighten as I watched my face flash across the enormous screen behind the host reading the nominees. It was a surreal moment, seeing my face up in front of all those people in recognition for the hard work I had put into bringing my role to life. But my excitement vanished as quickly as my picture on the screen did as the faces of my much more famous and popular fellow nominees appeared. When the winner was announced, it wasn’t my name. I wasn’t surprised. Besides, it was “an honor just to be nominated.”
Awards and award shows are an age-old practice among humans. For thousands of years, humans have gathered together and given metal prizes in front of applauding audiences to those excelling in athletics, science, politics, journalism, literature, art, and more. This practice continues today in a myriad of expressions, none so famous as the award shows in Hollywood that get an entire “season,” where millions gather around their TVs to watch, weigh in, and root for celebrities winning Oscars, Emmys, and Golden Globe awards in the form of small golden figurines. But secular Hollywood isn’t the only group with award shows — Christians have gotten in on the fun as well with now long-running award shows of their own, like the Dove Awards for Christian music and the Movieguide Awards for Christian films. Many Christians see these award shows as a good thing and a way to promote and support the best of Christian art. But others have a more detrimental view of the award shows, stating there is too much room for politics and bias for them to be beneficial, or that they don’t celebrate the best art, only the highest selling. Some have taken their aversion to award shows even further and use a moral and theological reason to not be a part of them — like Christian musical artist Forest Frank, who in 2025, announced he would not be attending the Dove Awards or any awards ceremony to accept an award for music made for Jesus, wanting to avoid worldly recognition. Many saw this as a noble and God-honoring choice. Others, like fellow singer Jelly Roll, saw it as a self-righteous and hypocritical ploy for public morality points, as Forest has made a career and earned substantial amounts of money off of his music about Jesus. Secular award shows have their own critics as well, citing they are far too political and swayed by groups with the most money and are merely popularity contests that rarely actually award the best artists or art.
So, with all the differing opinions on award shows, the questions remain: are they good? Are they bad? Well, as a working actor, author, filmmaker of over fifteen years, who also happens to be a Christian, let me give you a few reasons as to why I believe, Christian or not, we need award shows. First, I will acknowledge that many of the critiques of award shows are valid. Award shows are very often extremely political, prone to bias, and guilty of being popularity contests. But, just because a thing is used the wrong way doesn’t mean it is inherently bad. There are toxic and destructive churches; that doesn’t mean churches are inherently bad. It means some are being used incorrectly. The same is true of award shows. While they can be carried out incorrectly, the central idea of award shows is something good and needed.
Award shows, in their purest form, are communities gathering together and celebrating and supporting the best art. This is a good thing. This is something that is needed if we desire to see better and better art made. In a world of “participation trophies” and mediocre media, award shows have the ability to communally promote the creations that are the most excellent, the most beautiful, and the most true — each of which are attributes of God that we (Christians) are asked to reflect in our lives and creation. Award shows offer artists a standard of excellence worth striving for. But even beyond that, award shows are celebrations. They are times when communities gather around their shared loves and revel in human creation, something we image God when we do.
In 1st Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes: “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!” Chasing after excellence and striving for a worthy reward is actually a biblical concept and one that, if taken seriously, will push us to create better and more beautiful art that ultimately can better reflect God.
So, are there valid critiques of award shows that should be paid attention to? Yes, absolutely. But does that mean that awards and award shows should be gotten rid of? No, absolutely not.
I’ll be enjoying myself next week watching the Oscars. I hope you will, too.
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