Philomena: United States In Collusion With Catholic Church Child Trafficking Drama On Screen
The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of sixty-five women film critics and scholars from around the country and
internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV
broadcast media. We 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.
LISTEN TO THE WFCC AWARDS 2013 CEREMONY SHOW HERE
WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE 2013
BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
Philomena
RUNNER UP: Mother Of George
BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
Enough Said, Nicole Holofcener
RUNNER UP: Inch' Allah, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
Julie Delpy: Before Midnight
RUNNER UP: Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said
BEST ACTRESS
Judi Dench: Philomena
RUNNER UP: Barbara Sukowa: Hannah Arendt
BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor: 12 Years A Slave
RUNNER UP: Michael B. Jordan: Fruitvale Station
BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
Onata Aprile: What Maisie Knew
RUNNER UP: Waad Mohammed: Wadjda
BEST COMEDIC ACTRESS
Melissa McCarthy: The Heat
RUNNER UP: Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Wadjda
RUNNER UP: Inch' Allah
BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Philomena
RUNNER UP: Girls In The Band
WORST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
The Bling Ring
RUNNER UP: Machete Kills
BEST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
12 years A Slave: Chiwetel Ejiofor
RUNNER UP: Enough Said: James Gandolfini
WORST MALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE
Only God Forgives
RUNNER UP: Out Of The Furnace
BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Stories We Tell
RUNNER UP: Girls In The Band
BEST SCREEN COUPLE
Before Midnight: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke
BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Hellen Mirren in Phil Spector
RUNNER UP: Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
Before Midnight
RUNNER UP: Enough Said
BEST ANIMATED FEMALES
Frozen
RUNNER UP: The Croods
BEST FAMILY FILM
The Wind Rises
RUNNER UP: Black Nativity
WOMEN'S WORK/BEST ENSEMBLE
Ginger & Rosa
RUNNER UP TIE:
Winnie Mandela
August: Osage County
*SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS*
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
EMMA
THOMPSON: For her eclecticism in switching from period films to fantasy
genre, to contemporary settings. And embodying all kinds of women with
raw and pure interpretations.
ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
CHARLIZE THERON: For her work for The
Global Fund, and for starting the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach
Project. Which educates young people about HIV/AIDS
COURAGE IN
FILMMAKING
LAURA POITRAS: For bringing the Edward Snowden NSA
revelations to light, driven into exile in Germany for doing so, and
currently making a documentary about it.
*ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: A film that most passionately opposes violence against women
Augustine
RUNNER UP: Lovelace
*JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America
12 Years A Slave
RUNNER UP: Go For Sisters
*KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Winnie Mandela
RUNNER UP: Wadjda
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 SONG: Would You Bleed For Love. Jennifer Hudson, Winnie Mandela
MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR AWARD:
*Kristin Scott Thomas
Only God Forgives
JUST KIDDING AWARD: Best Male Images In A Movie: Last Vegas
*WFCC HALL OF SHAME*
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!
Blue is the Warmest Color: It's so obvious a dude with a fetish
directed this, it's not only unappealing, it's creepy. His
overcompensating hubris isn't worth the praise this is receiving.
The Canyons: Women depicted as powerless and manipulative. Plus, the acting is horrid.
Captain Phillips: The whole might of the USA coming down on 3
starving Somalis?! Repulsive. When the obscenely beefy SEALS arrived and
the audience started to cheer, I felt I was watching a 'macho' director
brainwash audience members into blindly accepting the worst stereotypes
of jingoistic male behavior.
Dallas Buyers Club: Shame on Dallas Buyers Club for completely
ignoring the LGBT as a group who drove the fight against AIDS to the
forefront. The only time gays were mentioned was to let Matthew
McConaughey's homophobic redneck character get a laugh at the expense of
Jared Leto's transsexual character. The film made it seem as if the
whole AIDS community stood on the shoulders of Ron Woodruff when in
fact, groups like Act Up were starting the war for proper testing and
more drugs way before Ron entered into the picture. It completely
demeaned the backdrop Dallas Buyers Club was utilizing for their own
characterizing "hero" agenda. Also the film took an extreme opinion
against the AZT drug in favor for a plot line when in fact it was
helping some patients. The only saving grace was Jared Leto's fantastic
performance but unfortunately it wasn't enough.
Enough Already: Why is it that when actresses and even screen
goddesses hit a certain age, they're all cast as nags, loons and shrews. No
matter how accomplished any of these films may be, the tally of older
actress shrewish nags on board is really high this year, as usual.
Including Oprah Winfrey in The Butler, Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts in
August: Osage County, Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine,
June Squibb in Nebraska, Kristin Scott Thomas in Only God Forgives, and
Julianne Moore in Carrie. Refreshing exceptions being Judi Dench in
Philomena, Yolonda Ross in Go For Sisters, and Mary Steenburgen in Last
Vegas.
Gravity: The women in this group make meaningful choices each year
so they speak for me in these areas, the lone exception being Sandra
Bullock's performance in Gravity. She's a fine actress, but I found the
character to be whiny, cowardly, and full of the wrong stuff - a damsel
in distress who needed a man (even if it was just her imagination) to
pull her out of danger. I can hardly believe they'd send someone so
panicky into space. Give me Sigourney Weaver any day.
Les Salauds [Bastards]: All of the women in this film are depicted as complicit in
their own oppression and exploitation. Though it’s a patriarchal system
that they exist within, they refuse to fight for themselves or each
other, even when a minor is involved. The indictment then is not of the
men but of the women. I found this problematic and disappointing from
Denis.
Spring Breakers: No depth, little plot and a pitiful depiction of
today's college kids. Gratuitous in nothing more than flesh and
violence. A grossly and dangerously skewed depiction of young women and
their values in today's America.
*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. Or may even
dissent from an awarded nomination. 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.
*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.
*The Women Film Critics Circle*
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