# Is Jesus the big movie star of 2016?

> A trend of biblical proportions has surprisingly emerged at cinemas. God, Jesus, the Bible and Christianity are all starring this year in a swag of new movies. At least ten are likely to be released on our screens.

1 April 2016 · News

Canonical: https://insights1.uca.org.au/articles/is-jesus-the-big-movie-star-of-2016/

A trend of biblical proportions has surprisingly emerged at cinemas. God, Jesus, the Bible and Christianity are all starring this year in a swag of new movies. At least ten are likely to be released on our screens.

Near the start of 2016, Oscar-winning *Spotlight*, *Risen* and *Hail, Caesar!* brought Jesus and his flawed followers to the big screen. *Spotlight* examined a disturbing case of child sexual abuse being covered up by a church institution, while *Risen* was a novel perspective upon Jesus’ resurrection. *Hail, Caesar!* was different again, making jokes about Christian religion at the same time as it delivered the best on-screen explanation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Also released at cinemas recently, *The Witch* is an unsettling portrait of spiritual warfare — with a lot more Christian content than mainstream chiller *The Conjuring* *2* is expected to bring in June.

With *The Young Messiah* also expected to reach our cinemas this year – telling an imagined life story of Jesus as a boy – we might chalk up 2016 as the year of Christian-themed movies. And don’t think this trend is going to die off anytime soon.

Martin Scorsese has been making a movie about Christian missionaries called *Silence*, and Hugh Jackman’s working on playing the apostle Paul on the big screen.

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