WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2021

 

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN

WINNER: Passing

RUNNER-UP: The Lost Daughter

Being the Ricardos

CODA

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN

WINNER: Jane Campion - The Power of the Dog

RUNNER-UP: Sian Heder - CODA

Nora Fingscheidt - The Unforgivable

Rebecca Hall - Passing

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER (Screenwriting Award)

WINNER: Jane Champion - The Power of the Dog

RUNNER-UP: Rebecca Hall - Passing

Charlene Favier, Antoine Lacomblez and Marie Talon - Slalom

Sian Heder - CODA

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER: Kristen Stewart - Spencer

RUNNER-UP: Nicole Kidman - Being the Ricardos

Sandra Bullock - The Unforgivable

Virginie Efira - Benedetta

BEST ACTOR

WINNER: Will Smith - King Richard

RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog

Andrew Garfield - tick, tick… BOOM!

Nicolas Cage - Pig

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN

WINNER: Titane 

RUNNER-UP: Drive My Car

Benedetta

I’m Your Man

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN

WINNER: Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It

RUNNER-UP: Introducing, Selma Blair

Gunda

Lady Buds

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES

WINNER: King Richard

RUNNER-UP (TIE): Being the Ricardos

RUNNER-UP (TIE): The Harder They Fall

Gunpowder Milkshake

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE

WINNER: Mirabel - Encanto

RUNNER-UP: Raya - Raya and the Last Dragon

Abuela Alma - Encanto

Gabi - Vivo

BEST SCREEN COUPLE

WINNER: Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson - Passing

RUNNER-UP (TIE): Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur - CODA

RUNNER-UP (TIE): Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem - Being the Ricardos

Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera - In The Heights 

*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD – For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women

*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 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.

WINNER: Last Night in Soho

RUNNER-UP: Adrienne

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

*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.

WINNER: Passing

RUNNER-UP: Respect

Bruised

Test Pattern

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

*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.

WINNER: Passing

RUNNER-UP: Being the Ricardos

Benedetta

Spencer

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD

Dolly Parton

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Betty White