The CW’s Christmas Gift: Family Films as the Next Entertainment Trend
Pacific Business Special Report
Hollywood Close-Up
After three years of hard work, and increasing anticipation from advocates of family entertainment
around the world, the Family Film Awards (FFA) will be broadcast on The CW, the giant entertainment channel in the United States, during Prime Time (8:00-10:00 pm) on December 26th, 2022.
Many in the entertainment industry are comparing this event to the American concept of a Spring Festival; they believe that it will change the American conception of “home viewing” in the post-pandemic era for the better. A new Hollywood game-changer has emerged: films that represent our best aspirations, shown in a domestic setting, and watched by parents and children in “active togetherness” rather than “passive togetherness.”
The Family Film Awards have emerged on the world’s biggest holiday—Christmas—with an audience to match. Over the next month, the Awards will be syndicated on 100 major U.S. television stations. It will be broadcast on the world’s largest online entertainment platforms—including Netflix, Apple, HBO Max, and Hulu—reaching more than 300 million viewers directly, and more than a billion indirectly.
Such exposure establishes the Family Film Awards as a huge event in international entertainment and comes after three years of pandemic-related slowdowns and lockdowns.
The Focus is now on Family.
The world finally has a family-themed film award based on professional standards of evaluation—an event to celebrate. Three years ago, we had no idea that a global epidemic would hit out of nowhere, preventing us from interacting socially and leaving loved ones and relatives looking at each other across barriers, both physical and social. We have seen repeated outbreaks of disease, conflict, economic stagnation, and inflation. Many have been displaced. Others have lost their homes.
In addition, the prevailing quality of public discourse has deteriorated from the time when the
The Family Film Awards was first introduced to a US audience. The Awards were established in 1996 with the support of President Clinton; however, Hollywood already had the star-studded Oscars, as well as the Golden Globes, the Emmys and the Grammys. An Awards show that celebrated Family had arrived at a time when family entertainment was waning in popularity, and its subsequent impact was negligible.
Given these circumstances, the insightful Chinese entrepreneur, Ms. Ma Xiaoqiu, saw how the zeitgeist was changing. Three years ago, she decided to purchase the Event and invest in the re-creation of the
American Family Film Awards. Today, we see people longing for a return to the concepts of place and home, both as members of a particular family and members of a world family. The right time has finally arrived.
A Disaster can make a nation as well as destroy one. Perhaps the catastrophe of the epidemic has awakened in each of us an innate sense of sincerity and bonding. Fame and profit are not, and should not be, the ultimate goal of living in this world. The heroine in the script of “Never Say Die” experiences a series of hardships, and almost became homeless, but the instinct to create a home environment for her daughter raised her up, and she never looked back. In this way, Ms. Ma finally stood at the pinnacle of success in a male-dominated business and capital markets. She became the Chair of the Board of Directors of four listed companies in Hong Kong. A unique view of how to do business in the service of humanistic values led to a rewarding life for her, her colleagues and her family.
Now she has taken a largely defunct film awards show and made it into an international Hollywood brand.
Traditionally, the family has been understood to be a unit of society based on marriage, birth, and adoption. That understanding has evolved into diverse communities, including same-sex and opposite-sex marriages, as well as other cultural aspects of integration. The concept of family is expanding. In the light of the past three years, people need a new, re-defined concept of family that can weather such storms in the future.
Home – it is a precious and cherished reality for many. Yet for decades, the most prominent films
have often been themed around violence and conflict, stereotypical good guys, bad guys, and win-lose battles. A hunger exists for the return of films such as “Forrest Gump,” which reflect a deep regard for parents, relatives, and children. In theaters, when the white feather floats into the blue
sky to the music of a quartet, the audience breaks into applause and genuine emotion. No wonder Tom Hanks was awarded the first Family Film Award in 1996. At that time, he said: “It’s not easy to make a good movie; it’s even harder to make a family film that the whole family will enjoy.”
Indeed, this year’s Family Film Awards foreshadow a direction for entertainment in
- A new standard is about to return, giving new hope for friends of quality film-making in the entertainment world. Producers and investors know the value of investing in films that celebrate human relationships in a complicated world. No huge amounts of cash burned in special effects and gaudy distractions!
The Family Film Awards sends Greetings to audiences around the world. These Awards represent the re-birth of films about human beings and their relationships.
For 2023, the Focus is on the Family once more.
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