Ryan Niemiec

Now in its 10th year, I’m happy to offer you the best of the best positive psychology movies from the past year. I comb through popular, independent, and obscure films to select important films across some of the most important positive psychology themes.

The Positive Psychology News Movie Award series is now in its 9th year of providing the best of the best positive psychology movies. I comb through popular, independent, and obscure films from the previous year in order to share with you these awards across positive psychology themes.

Now in its 8th year, I’m happy to share my observations of the best movies using the science of positive psychology as a lens. In other words, if researchers/practitioners in positive psychology were the ones to give out Oscars for the best films, this is what they might say.

Get ready for the Academy Awards. The Positive Psychology Movie Awards are coming out before the Oscars this year. A PPND tradition since 2009, these awards go to films that offer some of the best portrayals of key themes in positive psychology. Here are the winners.

Get your Netflix queue ready. Fire up the On-Demand services of your cable TV. Because it’s time for an annual PPND tradition since 2009, the positive psychology movie awards! These awards go to films that offer some of the best portrayals of key themes in positive psychology. 2014 was a very strong year for positive psychology movies. Here are the winners:

In practice, people find it surprisingly challenging to come up with new ways to use their signature strengths. Perhaps that’s because we often use our signature strengths without much awareness. For example, have you paid much attention to your use of self-regulation as you brush your teeth? Your level of prudence or kindness while driving?

Here are three tips for using your signature strengths in mindful ways.

If you have only one question to ask someone about their character strengths, make it, “What strengths are most essential to who you are and define you as a person?

Positive psychology films portray the human condition, which is not always pleasant and upbeat. Some positive psychology films are intentionally raw, dark, and emotionally riveting, while others are lighthearted and fun.

This is the fifth time that Ryan Niemiec has looked back at the movies from the previous year and awarded those that shine light on what is vulnerable, authentic, conflicted, and beautiful in the human condition.

I have several hopes in maintaining this annual PPND tradition of giving Positive Psychology Awards to movies made the previous year:

Positive psychology movies teach us something about the human condition, help us face suffering, and shine a light on character strengths. Here I nominate movies for awards for exemplifying authenticity, teamwork, zest, strength paragons, having too much of a single strength, and having constellations of strengths. The article concludes with my nomination for Positive Psychology Best Picture of 2011.

Positive psychology movies are not only the lighthearted films that inspire and elevate us, but also the movies that teach us something about the human condition, help us face suffering, and shine a light on pain and tragedy. You’ll see a mixture of both types of films in my offering of the Positive Psychology Movie Awards for 2011. This is part 1. Come back tomorrow for the awards for character strengths—and the best picture award.

In Part 1, I talked about the leaders’ signature strengths. Today, I’ll focus on insights from leaders in our field about how the VIA Classification intersects with Martin Seligman’s original…