Jesus Film Project
The Jesus Film Project is an organization created in 1981 by Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright to distribute the 1980 film, Jesus, not only in English, but also in many of the world's languages, aiming to make the story of Jesus accessible to people worldwide by providing it in their native languages. The Jesus Film Project is also a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International.
History
Bright wanted to bring a biblically accurate depiction of the life, ministry, and death of Jesus to the big screen, and in 1979, filming began in the Middle East with British Shakespearean actor Brian Deacon in the role of Jesus.When the original American theatrical run of Jesus ended in 1980, Bright asked Paul Eshleman, who was involved in the production, to head the organization. Eshleman remained in the position until 2004, when Jim Green was named as the organization's executive director.
By the end of 2023, the Jesus film was available in 2210 languages, and viewed over 598 million times. This was up from the 2018 figures of being available in 1,724 languages. and had been viewed nearly 375 million times at that time. This has resulted in the Jesus film being recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the "Most Translated Film" in history, revealing the seriousness with which the Jesus Film Project takes their objective to share the gospel with people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
Mission 865
Starting in 2010, Mission 865 is one of the largest ongoing initiatives of the Jesus Film Project. It is an initiative to translate the Jesus film into the native language of each people group with 50,000 or more speakers – and smaller languages as determined, particularly targeting the 10/40 window. This would ensure that 99% of the world would have access to the film in a language they can understand. In 2010, when the project was launched, there were 865 languages that they wished to translate the film into. The goal is to complete these 865 languages by the end of 2025., 612 languages of the targeted 865 had a translated film. As of August 2024, this had increased to 694 languages, representing an almost 78% completion rate.