'The Giver' wins Truly Moving Picture Award from Heartland Film

Upcoming major motion picture release "The Giver" (The Weinstein Company/Walden Media) has been recognized with the Truly Moving Picture Award by nonprofit arts organization Heartland Film.

Select theatrically released titles - entertaining films that do much more than just entertain - are honored with the designation throughout the year. Submissions are received directly from studios and producers for consideration.

"The Truly Moving Picture Award jury felt 'The Giver' was a strong film filled with interesting messages," says Heartland Film's artistic director, Tim Irwin. "A provoking conversation starter, the film was a powerful adaptation of Lois Lowry's classic novel. Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites give excellent performances as The Giver and Jonas."

Co-producing partner Walden Media spent more than a decade developing the project. Chief Operating Officer Frank Smith said, "We're excited to introduce 'The Giver' to moviegoers next week, and are proud to add the film to the list of other great book-to-film adaptations we have produced, which have also won the Truly Moving Picture Award, including; 'Holes,' 'Charlotte's Web,' 'Bridge to Terabithea,' 'Because of Winn Dixie,' 'Ramona' and 'The Chronicles of Narnia.' "

The motion picture adaptation of "The Giver" represents the fulfillment of a 20-year dream for actor Jeff Bridges, who also serves as a producer on the production.

"My daughters read the book, but before I had known that they had read the book, I was looking for some material in which to direct my father, Lloyd Bridges," he said. "I also wanted to make a movie that my kids could watch at the time. I was looking through a catalogue of children books, and I came across this wonderful cover of a book, with this old, grizzled kind of guy on the cover, and thought, 'Oh yeah, my dad can play that guy!' "

The haunting story of "The Giver" centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community's memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community's secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes the stakes are higher than imagined - a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all - a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before.

"The Giver" is based on Lois Lowry's beloved young adult novel of the same name, which won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide.

See Truly Moving Picture Award winner "The Giver" in theaters everywhere Aug. 15.