Linda Stirling Unmasked: The Black Whip




AGORA
: Dragged from her chariot by a mob of fanatical vigilante Christian monks, the revered astronomer was stripped naked, skinned to her bones with sharp oyster shells, stoned and burned alive as possibly the first executed witch in history. A kind of purge that was apparently big business back then.


CRITICAL WOMEN HEADLINES

12/18/16

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2016

The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its 2O16 awards 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 80 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
 Hidden Figures

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
13TH

            AVA DUVERNAY, DIRECTOR OF 13TH

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
13TH, Ava DuVernay

BEST ACTRESS
Natalie Portman, Jackie

BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge Of Seventeen

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
The Handmaiden

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
13TH

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Hidden Figures

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Neighbors 2

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Loving

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE

Dirty Grandpa

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE

Hidden Figures

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Ava DuVernay, 13TH

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Rebecca Hall, Christine

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
American Honey

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America

Hidden Figures

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Hidden Figures

*THE INVISIBLE WOMAN AWARD: [Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored]
The women of Hidden Figures

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Loving

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO

The women of Ghostbusters


MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Anne Sutton, Nocturnal Animals

 BEST LINE IN A MOVIE
:
"I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us." - Jackie

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD:

Emma Watson: UN Goodwill Ambassador, tells the UN General Assembly that universities need to be a safe space against campus sexual and racial assault, for women and people of color.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Annette Bening:  For taking on roles that go against the grain of conventional female 'objective' beauty.

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Loving

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Moana
 
BEST FAMILY FILM
Queen Of Katwe

WFCC Hall Of Shame
Women Dating Their Rapists In Movies:
Elle


**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 shower rack 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.

CONTACT: Criticalwomen@gmail.com

12/15/16

The Women Film Critics Circle Nomination Award Picks For 2016

Hidden Figures and Loving Sweep The Nominations  

The Women Film Critics Circle has announced its 2O16 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 80 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 FEMALE ACTION HERO NOMINEE: The Women Of Free State Of Jones
  
BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Certain Women
Christine
Hidden Figures
20th Century Women

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Certain Women
Queen Of Katwe
The Dressmaker
13TH

                           AVA DUVERNAY, DIRECTOR OF 13TH

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt
Equity, Amy Fox
Maggie's Plan, Rebecca Miller
13TH, Ava Duvernay

BEST ACTRESS
Rebecca Hall, Christine
Taraji P.  Henson, Hidden Figures
Ruth Negga, Loving
Natalie Portman, Jackie


                REBECCA HALL IS CHRISTINE


BEST ACTOR
Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Joel Edgerton, Loving
Matthew McConaughey, Free State Of Jones
Christopher Plummer, Remember

BEST YOUNG ACTRESS

Sasha Lane, American Honey
Royalty Hightower, The Fits
Madina Nalwanga, Queen Of Katwe
Hailee Steinfeld, The Edge Of Seventeen

BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Judy Davis, The Dressmaker
Sally Field, Hello My Name is Doris
Greta Gerwig, Maggie's Plan
Kate McKinnon, Ghostbusters

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Julieta
The Handmaiden
Things To Come
Toni Erdmann

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Audrie & Daisy
Miss Sarah Jones
The Eagle Huntress
13TH

BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Certain Women
Hidden Figures
Loving
Queen Of Katwe

WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Elle
Neighbors 2
Nocturnal Animals [The obese naked women dancing]
Zoolander 2

BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Free State Of Jones
Loving
Paterson
Snowden

WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE

Dirty Grandpa
Frank & Lola
Weiner
Zoolander 2

WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE

Ghostbusters
Hidden Figures
The Dressmaker
20th Century Women

SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

COURAGE IN FILMMAKING
Ava Duvernay, 13TH
Janet Grillo, Jack Of The Red Hearts
Meera Menon, Equity
Kelly Reichardt, Certain Women

COURAGE IN ACTING [Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]
Annette Bening, 20th Century Women
Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Rebecca Hall, Christine
Zoe Saldana, Nina

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against womenAmerican Honey
Audrie & Daisy
Colonia
The Uncondemned

*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America

Hidden Figures
Loving
Moonlight
Nina

*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Christine
Hidden Figures
Loving
Things To Come

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

Lily Gladstone, Certain Women
Rebecca Hall, Christine
The women of Hidden Figures
Theresa Saldana, Nina

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Allied
Loving
Paterson
Snowden

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO

Emma Watson, Colonia
The women of Free State Of Jones
The women of Ghostbusters
Wonder Woman: Gal Gadot in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Mila Kunis, Bad Moms
Laura Linney, Nocturnal Animals
Emma Thompson, Barney Thomson
Renée Zellweger, The Whole Truth

 BEST LINE IN A MOVIE
:
"I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us." - Jackie

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD:

SHAILENE WOODLEY MUGSHOT: STANDING WITH THE WATER PROTECTORS OF STANDING ROCK

Geena Davis: She has put in many decades of political service to feminist causes and has never held back even when speaking out could potentially harm her career. Her screen roles reinforce her beliefs. The Geena Davis Institute does research and advocacy.

Jane Fonda: For a lifetime of activism both on screen and off. 

Emma Watson: UN Goodwill Ambassador, tells the UN General Assembly that universities need to be a safe space against campus sexual and racial assault, for women and people of color.

Shailene Woodley: For standing with the Water Protectors at Standing Rock and jailed for her activism there.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Julie Andrews
Annette Bening
Martha Coolidge
Viola Davis

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Allied
Hidden Figures
Loving
Paterson

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
Finding Dory
Moana
The BFG
Your Name  

BEST FAMILY FILM
Hidden Figures
Kubo
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Queen Of Katwe

WFCC Hall Of Shame
Women Dating Their Rapists In Movies:
Elle
Frank & Lola
Sunset Song


CONTACT: Criticalwomen@gmail.com