One of the most important and prominent agendas of 2017 has been the solidarity of women standing together to defend themselves, especially during the recent uprising against sexual misconduct. The revolution has become especially prevalent in Hollywood, as actresses and female filmmakers continue to strive to protect their advancements and achievements in movies.
The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), the first national American association of women critics, supports the protection and accurate representation of women in media. The group voted on the best representations of women in films released this year. It honored the strengths of such movies as Lady Bird and First They Killed My Father.
WFCC is an association of 80 women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media. Launched in 2004, WFCC became the first women critics’ organization in the United States, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully. WFCC also prides itself on being the most culturally and racially diverse critics group in the country by far, and best reflecting the diversity of movie audiences.
The complete list of winners and nominees honored by the WFCC in 2017 is listed below, which the winners marked with asterisks (**) in each category:
BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
A Quiet Passion
**Lady Bird
Sophie And The Rising Sun
The Florida Project
BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Detroit
First They Killed My Father
**Lady Bird
Mudbound
BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
**Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Maggie Greenwald: Sophie And The Rising Sun
Dee Reese, Mudbound
Angela Workman, The Zookeeper’s Wife
BEST ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, Maudie
Sally Hawkins, The Shape Of Water
**Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Cynthia Nixon, A Quiet Passion
BEST ACTOR
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
**Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Seo-Hyun Ahn, Okja
Mckenna Grace, Gifted
**Brooklynn Prince, The Florida Project
Millicent Simmonds, Wonderstruck
BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip
**Allison Janney: I, Tonya
Margo Robbie: I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
A Fantastic Woman
**First They Killed My Father
In The Fade
Thelma
WFCC was honored to receive the following message from Angelina Jolie, who directed, co-wrote and produced First They Killed My Father, about the biographical drama’s win, via a Netflix publicist:
In a year that has been marked by women’s solidarity and greater awareness of injustices towards women, it means a lot for our film to be recognized. I’m grateful to the Women Film Critics Circle for all they do to support female voices in film.
*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
Maudie
**The Light Of The Moon
The Rape Of Recy Taylor
Wind River
*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
Girls Trip
**Mudbound
Step
The Rape Of Recy Taylor
*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Battle Of The Sexes
**Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Mudbound
The Post
COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Sally Hawkins, Maudie
**Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Michelle Rodriguez, The Assignment
Charlize Theron, Atomic Blonde
COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Amma Asante, A United Kingdom
Kathryn Bigelow, Detroit
Angelina Jolie, First The Killed My Father
**Dee Rees, Mudbound
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD [Supporting performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Jessica Chastain, The Zookeeper’s Wife
**Betty Gabriel, Get Out
Sally Hawkins, Maudie
Cynthia Nixon, A Quiet Passion
BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN **TIE
**Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Faces Places
**Jane
Step
WOMEN’S WORK: BEST ENSEMBLE
A Quiet Passion
**Girls Trip
Sophie And The Rising Sun
Wonder Woman
BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO
Atomic Blonde
In The Fade
The Shape of Water
**Wonder Woman
MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Allison Janney: I, Tonya
BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Atomic Blonde
**Battle Of The Sexes
Professor Marston And The Wonder Women
Wonder Woman
BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Maudie
Professor Martson And The Wonder Women
**The Big Sick
The Shape Of Water
BEST ANIMATED FEMALE(S)
**Coco
Loving Vincent
The Breadwinner
Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming
BEST FAMILY FILM
**Coco
Beauty And The Beast
The Breadwinner
Wonder
ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan and all the women who spoke out against the culture of sexual abuse
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Agnes Varda
BEST RISING FEMALE STARS
Izabela Vidovic, Wonder
Peyton Kennedy, American Fable
WFCC HALL OF SHAME
Harvey Weinstein