S&P Awards
The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2001
A Beautiful Mind
The incredible story of a brilliant Nobel Prize-winning mathematician whose wife helps him hatch his heart during a protracted struggle with schizophrenia.
Feature
A. I. Artificial Intelligence
A complex, elusive, spellbinding, and visionary film that tutors us in the spiritual practice of ensouling the world of things in the name of love and through the faculty of our imagination.
Feature
Amelie
An immensely entertaining French film about an imaginative young woman who has a wonderful capacity for doing acts of kindness.
Foreign
Baran
A soul-stirring Iranian film depicting the alchemical process whereby an enemy can be transformed into a loved one.
Foreign
Behind the Sun
A totally absorbing Brazilian drama about the loving and self-sacrificing act undertaken by a young boy to liberate two feuding families from an endless cycle of revenge and retaliation.
Foreign
Butterfly
An inspiring documentary that serves as an initiation rite into a spiritual relationship with the Earth.
Special Interest
Diamond Men
An immensely appealing story which probes the mutual benefits for two salesmen when they choose to go with the flow of their unlikely friendship.
Feature
Eureka
The healing journey of three survivors of an attack on a municipal bus in Japan, described by its director as a prayer for modern people searching for the courage to go on.
Foreign
Ghost World
A witty look at an adolescent rebel's attempts to be an authentic person in the present day bogus culture of trivial pursuits.
Feature
Himalaya
A beautiful and thematically rich Nepalese film about the many lessons learned by some villagers from the high mountains during their annual yak caravan.
Foreign
In the Bedroom
A daring and unsettling film about a few of the complex and taboo emotions of grief.
Feature
Innocence
A beguiling Australian film about the tender romance between two elderly individuals who remind us that each stage of life has its own kind of love.
Foreign
Iris
An intimate and poignant portrait of the unconventional marriage of philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch and her literary critic husband John Bayley from their first encounter in the 1950s until her …
Feature
Italian for Beginners
A Danish romantic comedy that provides a soul-satisfying anatomy of the different shades of loneliness and the universal yearning for love.
Foreign
Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin
An extraordinary Italian documentary about the agony, suffering, and losses of the Afghan people who have lived in a war zone for 25 years.
Documentary
K-PAX
A well-acted and spirited sci-fi drama with the message that we can all be medicine for one another if we only have eyes to see how.
Feature
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
An extraordinary documentary about an unusual man whose questing spirit is a marvel to behold.
Documentary
L.I.E.
A daring drama about a poetic and vulnerable teen who is nurtured by someone most of us would consider to be abominable.
Feature
Lantana
A richly nuanced psychological drama, circles around the complicated subject of love and offers ample insights into the sources of emotional illiteracy.
Feature
Last Orders
A sterling drama about four Englishmen who make a pilgrimage with the ashes of their departed buddy.
Feature
Life as a House
A soulful drama about the courage and persistence of a very alienated middle-aged man to give birth to himself in the world before leaving it.
Feature
Monster's Ball
A strangely entrancing drama about the redemptive power of love in the life of a Southern racist corrections officer who is imprisoned in anger and hatred.
Feature
Moulin Rouge
An extravagant musical drama with stunning visuals that celebrates l'amour as an emotion that is at once transcendent and transforming.
Feature
Mulholland Drive
A phantasmagorical David Lynch extravaganza set in Hollywood about role-playing, desire, power, and mystery.
Feature
My First Mister
The charming story of an unusual couple which reveals the transforming power of friendship.
Feature
No Man's Land
A vivid film about the insanity of war and the dreadful things it can do to those who drench themselves in hate.
Foreign
Our Song
An extraordinary coming-of-age movie about three girls living in a poverty-stricken neighborhood whose daily wanderings and intimate dramas during the last weeks of summer reveal their deep reserves o…
Feature
Shrek
A witty and heart-warming animated comedy about some lovable losers who prove that inner beauty is the true asset in a world where quick judgments all too often cause untold pain.
Animated
Startup.com
An informative and inventive documentary that gives an an insider's look at the rise-and-fall of an Internet company.
Documentary
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expe…
An engaging documentary about the bone-chilling struggle for survival of an English explorer and his crew of 27 men in the disastrous 1914 Antarctic expedition.
Documentary
The Royal Tenenbaums
A quirky tale which revolves around a prankster father who wants to reconnect with his children and former wife.
Feature
The Shipping News
The graceful and sensitive portrait of the ripening of a weak-willed man after he is nourished by a place and some special people.
Feature
Together
A wonderfully idiosyncratic and totally satisfying Swedish film set in a 1975 commune in Stockholm where openness to others slowly evolves as a spiritual practice.
Foreign
Under the Sun
An enchanting Swedish film about the unusual love affair between a tongue-tied farmer with great nurturing skills and his strikingly beautiful housekeeper.
Foreign
Waking Life
A visionary animated film of deep play that is stylistically innovative and spiritually rich in content.
Animated
