The Women Film Critics Circle Award Nominations 2013

          DANAI GURIRA, MOTHER OF GEORGE  

The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its 2O13 unique nominations for the best movies this year by and about women. And outstanding achievements by women, who get to be rarely honored historically in the film world.

The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of 64 women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media.

They came together in 2004 to form 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.

Critical Women On Film, a presentation of The Women Film Critics Circle, is their journal of discussion and theory. And a gathering of women's voices expressing a fresh and differently experienced perspective from the primarily male dominated film criticism world.

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Mother Of George
Philomena
The Sapphires
Winnie Mandela

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Enough Said: Nicole Holofcener
Girls In The Band: Judy Chaikin
Hannah Arendt: Margarethe von Trotta
Inch Allah: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Julie Delpy: Before Midnight
Nicole Holofcener: Enough Said
Darci Picoult: Mother Of George
Alice Winocour: Augustine

BEST ACTRESS
Judi Dench: Philomena
Danai Gurira: Mother Of George
Jennifer Hudson: Winnie Mandela
Barbara Sukowa: Hannah Arendt

BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor: 12 Years A Slave
James Gandolfini: Enough Said
Michael B. Jordan: Fruitvale Station
Joseph Gordon Levitt: Don Jon

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Dianna Agron: The Family
Onata Aprile: What Maisie Knew
Elle Fanning: Ginger & Rosa
Waad Mohammed: Wadjda

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Lake Bell: In A World
Greta Gerwig: Frances Ha
Scarlett Johansson: Don Jon
Melissa McCarthy: The Heat

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Augustine
Hannah Arendt
Inch Allah
Wadjda

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Girls In The Band
Just Like A Woman
Philomena
Sunlight Jr.

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
The Bling Ring
Machete Kills
Sharon Stone, Lovelace
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
12 years A Slave: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Don Jon: Joseph Gordon Levitt
Enough Said: James Gandolfini
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom: Idris Elba

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
The Fifth Estate
Oldboy
Only God Forgives
Out Of The Furnace

BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Fabulous Fashionistas
Phil Spector: Helen Mirren
Pussy Riot
Raltat

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Before Midnight
Enough Said
The Hot Flashes
Wadjda

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Frozen [Kristen Bell as Anna]

BEST FAMILY FILM
The Wind Rises

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE
Ginger & Rosa
The Hot Flashes
Just Like A Woman
The Sapphires
Winnie Mandela

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

*COURAGE IN FILMMAKING: Laura Poitras. For bringing the Edward Snowden NSA revelations to light and driven into exile in Germany for doing so. And currently making a documentary about it.

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
Augustine
Lovelace
Wadjda

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
12 Years A Slave
Go for Sisters

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Augustine
Wadjda
Winnie Mandela

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Soko: Augustine

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD: [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
Sandra Bullock: Gravity

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Free Angela Davis And All Political Prisoners
Girls in the Band
Stories We Tell
Sweet Dreams

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Kristen Thomas: Only God Forgives

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Before Midnight: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke

BEST SONG: Jennifer Hudson, Winnie Mandela: 'Would You Bleed For Love'

*WFCC HALL OF SHAME*

*Please Note: The WFCC Top Ten Hall Of Shame represents the 'don't tell me to shut up' sidebar contribution of individual members, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the entire Circle. Also, members may be objecting to particular characters in a film, and not the entire movie. Clarification: If an aspect of the movie is intentionally negative to make a point, rather than offensive, that is not under consideration for this category.

The Canyons: Women depicted as powerless and manipulative. Plus, the acting's horrid.

Blue is the Warmest Color: I went in knowing almost nothing except general buzz but I hated the sex scenes which were way too long and midway thru I couldn't wait to flee the theater. Coming out I read how many takes Kechiche required and I was thoroughly repulsed. Who was this for? Then I read the graphic novel and discovered that critical plot points were deleted. Like the fact that Adele's parents find her in bed with Emma which is why she has to move out-and I was enraged. A three hour movie and Kechiche is so busy salivating over his actresses that he can't bother telling a coherent story! Hype for this film makes me nauseous.

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: Adrienne Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of forty by a construction worker in the building, after she complained about noise. Her killer tried to cover up his crime by hanging her from a shower20rack in her bathroom, to make it look like a suicide. He later confessed that he was having a "bad day." Shelly, who left behind a baby daughter, had just completed her film Waitress, which she also starred in, and which was honored at Sundance after her death.

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and marriage at age fifteen, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer, starring in the films Princess Tam Tam, Moulin Rouge and Zou Zou. She also survived the race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois as a child, and later expatriated to France to escape US racism. After participating heroically in the underground French Resistance during WWII, Baker returned to the US where she was a crusader for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks against her by reporter Walter Winchell who denounced her as a communist, leading her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless integration was implemented.

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: Karen Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, in such films as Mata Hari and Our Daily Bread. She was driven out of Hollywood for her leftist political convictions by the Blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. And also for daring to have a child and become a mother, unacceptable for female stars in those days. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life, running for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She passed away in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93.

HE SAID, SHE SAID...Female Sexuality On Screen - Bettie Page and Philomena

 SHE SAID....Philomena

'...A winding, emotionally grueling and eloquently told tale of one woman's immense heartbreak, it approaches its delicate subject matter with the boldness of a soldier but the grace of a dancer, balancing the harshness with so much hope for humanity. Judi Dench is to thank for such a nuanced, forthright performance as the titular lead. She stays away from the maudlin by gifting her nervous Philomena with authentic (and developing) courage, a journey we totally buy because Dench's depiction doesn't doesn't condescend nor rely on shorthand...'

CONTINUE TO READ HERE

Jhoanna Robledo writes for Common Sense Media, and is a member of the Women Film Critics Circle.


HE SAID....Bettie Page Reveals All

'...This amazing film shows the controversial Bettie Page as many things to many people: a sexual icon, a pin-up queen, the girl next door, an iconic model, a fashion designer, a cartoon character (similar to Bettie Boop), an actress, an aspiring Christian missionary in Haiti, a nudist, a girlfriend, a wife and a victim.  But as controversial as she was, the fascination of her still lingers on...'

CONTINUE TO READ HERE

Gerald Wright
National Association of Black Journalists
HDfest.com
Film Showcase   

Go for Sisters: Thriller or Female Buddy Movie?

By Penelope Andrew
Huffington Post

'...I knew the work of all the actors, except Yolonda Ross, even though she's been on HBO's Treme and won a Gotham Award for the film Stranger Inside. Her performance is what ultimately makes this a successful, female buddy film, Fontayne has evolved into a woman, who has no more use for guns, booze, drugs, men or prison, but leaves plenty of room in her life for friendship.'

CONTINUE TO READ HUFFINGTON POST ARTICLE HERE 

*Penelope Andrew is a writer/editor with a special interest in film, culture, the arts and social justice issues. She is also a certified psychoanalytic psychotherapist and practices in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Universal Press Syndicate, The Hellenic Voice, and The New Manhattan Review. She is member of The Women Film Critics Circle.

The Fifth Estate: Disney/ABC Media Empire David And Goliath Demonization Of Assange

It would seem unusual to label a dramatic feature a biopic, when the content is based solely on the accusations of an admitted adversary with a vendetta against the subject in question. But once again, The Fifth Estate, an unabashed demonization of the sinister state secrets whistleblowing website Wikileaks and its head hacker extraordinaire Julian Assange, is all about what Hollywood does best - the one side to every story school of moviemaking. Or is it?

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Features of Arts Express: Expression In The Arts are hosted by Prairie Miller, and air nationally on the Pacifica National Radio Network and WBAI/Affiliate Stations, including WPRR Public Reality Radio. And if you'd like to Express yourself too, you can write to: ArtsExpressradio@gmail.com 

Mediastan Movie Review: Ferreting Out The Presstitutes

By Prairie Miller

Sometimes it can be said that a documentary is exemplary for not accomplishing what is set out to do. And the Julian Assange Wikileaks production Mediastan may have succeeded in not doing just that. As those Wikileaks foot soldiers fail in their mission to find remote and presumably uncorrupted media organizations courageous enough to publish the damning cables leaked by far more courageous whistleblowers than these press outlets prove to be.

Increasingly doomed to extinction on the endangered list, so to speak, is mainstream journalism. The victim of a tug of war between the corporations gobbling up the pitiful remains, and incestuously connected powerful political interests - too often one and the same - journalism has given rise in the wake of this fate to its deplorable mutation - presstitutes.

CONTINUE TO READ REVIEW HERE

Features of Arts Express: Expression In The Arts are hosted by Prairie Miller, and air nationally on the Pacifica National Radio Network and WBAI/Affiliate Stations, including WPRR Public Reality Radio. And if you'd like to Express yourself too, you can write to: ArtsExpressradio@gmail.com