I'm writing in a damp grey bleak December as 2003 winds to a close. Although the wrong side of Christmas, it's my pleasure to announce the winners of the Evangelicals Now 2003 Arts & Media Awards, which as you know are the ones that people in the business really want to win.
The EN Award for Most Successful Unfinished Film Trilogy goes to Lord of the Rings, whose completion is currently an eagerly awaited Christmas treat. The only other contender for this award blew its chances royally with a dreadfully indulgent part 2 - I highly recommend The Matrix (part 1) as an excellent discussion starter for youth groups and other gatherings, but you're in for a frustrating evening if you try to make sense of the sequel.
Disastrous excursions into romantic strife, woolly politics and a storyline that lost focus couldn't be redeemed by some of the best-staged spectacles yet seen in the cinema. An American pastor friend made the mistake of seeing it before he'd seen Part 1. Two hours of total incomprehensibility, he told me.
