S&P Awards
The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2014
1,000 Times Good Night
A sensitive drama about the challenges idealists and people of great passion face within the family circle.
International
A Most Violent Year
An immersive drama about a businessman who stays calm in the midst of a dreadful series of setbacks.
Feature
Alive Inside
An extraordinary documentary about the healing power of music as medicine for the soul.
Documentary
Begin Again
A romantic drama that captures and conveys the healing power of music.
Feature
Belle
A costume drama featiuring a beautiful mixed race heroine, an idealistic law student, and older aristocrats whose most cherished traditions are challenged.
Feature
Big Hero 6
A lively and creative animated film about a robot with heart, empathy, compassion, and gentleness.
Animated
Boyhood
One of the best and most memorable films ever made about the art of improvisation as a path of wisdom, creativity, and personal renewal.
Feature
Calvary
An impressive morality play about an Irish Catholic priest forced to suffer for the sins of others.
Feature
Cesar Chavez
The journey of Cesar Chavez from migrant worker to American hero as a nonviolent labor leader and civil rights activist.
Feature
Citizenfour
A shocking documentary about the violation of privacy by the U.S. government's surveillance programs.
Documentary
Code Black
A sobering and idealistic call for more emergency room "mercy medicine" as an alternative to treating only paying patients.
Documentary
Force Majeure
A top-notch Swedish psychodrama about a marriage besieged by the fallout from a scary but harmless avalanche.
International
How to Train Your Dragon 2
An impressive sequel that leaves us cheering for the noble ideal of animals and humans living together in peace and harmony.
Animated
Kill the Messenger
A compelling drama made memorable by a Jeremy Renner's mercurial performance as the passionate investigative journalist Gary Webb.
Feature
Life Itself
A powerful, illuminating, and heart-affecting documentary about the long career of Roger Ebert and his courageous battle with cancer.
Feature
Love Is Strange
A moving drama about an aging gay couple forced to improvise when their life together in love is put in jeopardy.
Feature
Mr. Turner
An extraordinary portrait of the last stages in the life and career of Joseph Mallord William Turner, the painter of light.
Feature
National Gallery
A documentary masterwork by Frederick Wiseman on art, seeing, and reverie at London's greatest art museum.
Documentary
On My Way
A delightful dramedy and road movie with Catherine Deneuve at her best.
International
Only Lovers Left Alive
A creative and touching story about a romantic, wise, and witty vampire couple.
Feature
Selma
A stirring and enlightening movie about civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his crusade for equality.
Feature
Song of the Sea
An Irish folktale about facing our fears, embracing death and human frailty, walking in wonder and returning home as transformed beings.
Animated
St. Vincent
A heart-affecting cinematic parable about the saints among us who enable us to come alive in new ways.
Feature
Still Alice
A caring and compassionate portrait of a linguistics professor stricken with early onset Alzheimer's.
Feature
The Case Against 8
Poignant documentary on five-year battle of LGBT community to gain marriage equality in California.
Documentary
The Circle
An entertaining and edifying portrait of the gay scene in Zurich from the 1950s to 2003.
International
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
A powerful film with fresh insights into love, loss, marriage, and family life.
Feature
The Fault in Our Stars
A poignant and heart-affecting love story about two teenagers with cancer
squaring off against death.
Feature
The French Minister
A witty, face-paced and audacious comedy about French diplomacy, politics, and the peculiarities of power.
International
The Grand Budapest Hotel
A madcap, inventive, and wonder-inducing creation about the arts of living from the inimitable writer and director Wes Anderson.
Feature
The Great Invisible
A hard-hitting documentary about one of the largest man-made environmental disaster in history.
Documentary
The Homesman
A spiritual pioneer drama about the mysteries of the heart and the paradoxes of the human adventure which cannot be explained easily.
Feature
The Imitation Game
An illuminating portrait of the large role secrets can play in our lives.
Feature
The Lego Movie
A spiritually literate animated film for people of all ages that affirms that everyone is special and everything is truly awesome.
Animated
The Lunchbox
An extraordinary Indian movie about love, loss, and yearning.
International
The Salt of the Earth
A monumental documentary on Sebastiao Salgado's reverent photography.
Documentary
The Strange Little Cat
A vivid and wonder-inducing example of everyday spirituality during one day in the life of a family in a Berlin apartment.
International
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
An impressive hallowing of play and laughter as the sources of a lightness of being.
Animated
The Theory of Everything
Touching story about a couple able to weather many challenges thanks to their partnership approach to marriage.
Feature
Thomas Keating: A Rising Tide of Silence
An elegant portrait of the life and ministry of Father Thomas Keating, a towering figure on the global spirituality scene.
Documentary
Timbuktu
A spiritually powerful critique of Islamic fundamentalism and the havoc it causes in Timbuktu in 2012.
International
Two Days, One Night
A triumphant drama by the Dardenne brothers about a heroine who demonstrates grace under pressure.
International
Violette
A triumphant biopicture about an immensely creative bisexual woman who has been called France's greatest unknown writer.
International
Virunga
An inspiring documentary about four people who demonstrate heroism while trying to protect a wildlife sanctuary in the midst of a civil war.
Documentary
