The WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARDS 2022

 

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO 

Keke Palmer, Alice

 

 

BEST DIRECTRESS: COURAGE IN FILMMAKING

Olivia Wilde, Don't Worry Darling

 

 

COURAGE IN ACTING  

[Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen]

Danielle Deadwyler, Till 

Anamaria Vartolomei, Happening

WOMEN'S WORK - BEST ENSEMBLE CAST 

The Woman King

 

 

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

Charmaine Bingwa, Emancipation

 

 

BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Film Gems

Amitabh Reza Chowdhury, Rickshaw Girl

Nana Mensah, Queen Of Glory

WOMEN SAVING THEMSELVES AWARD

The Janes

MOMMIE DEAREST WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR 

Blonde, Julianne Nicholson as Gladys

HALL OF SHAME 

'Unique, provocative and stylishly opinionated'...Fasten your seat belts!

[Individual WFCC Member Picks] 

*The Gotham Awards. For removing the category Best Actress, in the further erasing of women.

*Anatomy Citation. “It doesn't matter how much I do, I'm still not going to get paid as much as that guy, because of my vagina." - Jennifer Lawrence speaks out against the continuing literal shortchanging of actresses - regarding Lawrence paid five million dollars less than Leonardo DiCaprio for Don't Look Up, and less than the male cast Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jeremy Renner for American Hustle.

*Cringe Citation. Harvey Weinstein's shameful audiotape recordings. And being reminded of them/him in 'She Said.'

*Too Much Information Citation: Emma Thompson, for Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.

*Blonde. For depicting only the worst fantasies about Marilyn Monroe, and none of her beauty, grace and intelligence.

*More Blonde. A film that re-exploited Marilyn Monroe and made me feel bad for her. She never had a chance in a man's world, and this film exploited her again through the unnecessary explicit scenes. 

*And More Blonde. An overrated actress romping through the film exposing herself. And why the constant showing of embryos, is it to champion pro-lifers.

*Even More Blonde. Completely inaccurate. The portrayal of the actress is shallow and cliched, and the part of the speaking embryo comes across as a disquieting anti-abortionist statement. My review... 

*She Said. A drama about the NY Times investigation into the sex charges against Harvey Weinstein, 'She Said' comes off more as a self-congratulatory promo for the NY Times, than emphasis on its victims. And intimating a kind of damage control there for its own numerous scandals - the weapons of mass destruction hoax, and most recently calling for the release of Julian Assange -  without an apology for the paper's media participation in orchestrating his incarceration.

*The Cannes Film Festival. For disrespecting credentialed Deadline critic and distinguished WFCC member Valerie Complex, treating her with racist implications as an intruder there. On Being Black At Cannes: How Microaggressions Marred My Festival Experience

* Shame On DOC NYC. For announcing then scrubbing the name off their public list, secretly inviting as guest of honor a cinematographer from the Ukraine Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, Dmytro Kozatsky. Who sports Nazi tattoos, and is fond of creating photographs of swastika carved pizzas. While dragging out from the premises a young woman protesting the event.

The Women Film Critics Circle And WFCC Special Jury Award Winner Acceptance Speeches!

 

BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Film Gems

Director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury for Rickshaw Girl

"When I am making films , I never think about how people will perceive it or the awards that may come. The pleasure of making films is in playing with light and shadow, and creating emotion out of it . But whenever an award comes my way, it gives me inspiration for creating more cinema . Rickshawgirl is not just a film for me, it’s my journey to understand and celebrate the multitude of courageous and resilient Bangladeshi girls who fight for a dignified survival everyday. Thank you Jury board for this appreciation. Thank you, my beautiful Naima ,Novera Rahman, my producers and team for riding with me in the Rickshawgirl journey."

Amitabh Reza Chowdhury

Film director

 

 

 

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Directress Gina Prince-Blythwood for The Woman King

"On behalf of our extraordinary ensemble, thank you for honoring us with THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARD 2022 for BEST ENSEMBLE CAST. This is a group of artists who all share the desire to be great, and that fostered an incredible set dynamic. Their passion to honor these real-life warriors, and their love and respect for each other fueled their inspiring work. They showed up for each other and it was profound to witness."

GPB

 

 

 

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Directresses Tina Lessin, Emma Pildes For The Janes

"We give thanks to the Women Film Critics Circle for recognizing “The Janes” with this honor. As women and as filmmakers, the story of Jane reinforced for us the power of decency, sisterhood and resistance. We hope that the film inspires audiences to join the fight to restore equitable access to safe abortion care for tens of millions who have had this fundamental right taken away." –Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes

 

 

 

 

Rae Dawn Chong Receives WFCC Award 2021

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

Danielle Deadwyler as Cathay Williams, The Harder They Fall

Rae Dawn Chong, The Sleeping Negro

 

 

"Thank you WFCC,

This character epitomizes an invisible woman. Thank you for seeing her. I am truly honored. I once was reviewed by Ms. Kael and she was supportive and liked what I had done in a movie, so there is deep symmetry here. I love our movie The Sleep Negro and feel its message and heart are "right on time". THANK YOU from my heart for seeing her. Thank you for giving the invisible woman her due. WE need to be noticed. She needs to be seen."

 

Love,

Rae Dawn Chong

 

And this is the second awarded film this year, in addition to The Unforgivable, about the unlawful eviction of women and their families - in this case the elderly character 'Black Woman' dumped on the street by the sheriff, with only her walker and portable oxygen.

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE SPECIAL PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARDS 2021

 UNIQUE, PROVOCATIVE AND STYLISHLY OPINIONATED….

 

 

'Criticism is the only thing that stands between the audience and advertising.' - Pauline Kael

BEST FEMALE ACTION HERO

Sandra Bullock, The Unforgivable

Sandra Oh, The Chair

 

 

 COURAGE IN FILMMAKING

Julia Ducournau, Titane

Sian Heder, CODA

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

Halle Berry, Bruised

Sandra Bullock, The Unforgivable

WOMEN'S WORK: BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Kathryn Hunter as The Three Witches, The Tragedy Of Macbeth 

King Richard

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

Danielle Deadwyler as Cathay Williams, The Harder They Fall

Rae Dawn Chong, The Sleeping Negro

WOMEN SAVING THEMSELVES AWARD

A Quiet Place Part II

Holler

BEST KEPT SECRET - Overlooked Challenging Gems

Mama Weed, Director Jean-Paul Salomé

Small Time, Directress Niav Conty

 

 

 

              Mama Weed - Isabelle Huppert

 

 

OUTSTANDING SERIES [Television or Streaming]

Lovecraft Country

The Handmaid's Tale

MOMMIE DEAREST - WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR 

Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

HALL OF SHAME [Individual Member Picks]

Free Guy - for giving us a kickass, lead female gamer, only to take her away by making her a manic pixie dream girl who just wants a boyfriend. 

Zola - for turning a true cautionary tale about sex trafficking into a dangerous sex farce for the male gaze.

Benedetta - a film about an early church feminist played as softcore porn

Being the Ricardos  - for taking a beloved female icon and turning her intelligence, talent and work ethic against her as a harping shrew, and the deeply flawed men around her as downtrodden male saviors.

Edgar Wright - for the disappointing third act twist in which the male predators are turned into victims in Last Night in Soho

Hollywood's attempt to cut Scarlett Johansson's payments for her work - and though the actress won the lawsuit, the Hollywood cost cutting trend now is to downsize actors in movies by maximizing documentaries as the cheap alternative - including sensationalistic reality tv style and tabloid docs.

Rita Moreno, writing about and talking about mistreatment as a Puerto Rican .but defending Lin-Manuel's lack of Afro-Latino representation with In the Heights - and becoming a media darling. Yet, because of an irresponsible statement made against the LGBTQ+ community by J.K. Rowling, she has been canceled in spite of all the work she has done for the black community and women's rights. Was this what Dave Chappelle was referring to?

Tribute To Lina Wertmuller, Filmmaker Ahead Of Her Time

 

Italian film director and screenwriter Lina Wertmüller passed away on December 9th. The award winning, pioneering woman filmmaker is best known for Seven Beauties, The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy, and Swept Away...

By Cynthia Parsons McDaniel

I cannot believe how long Lina Wertmuller’s real name,

Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spañol von Braueich is!

 “I know they call me a crazy lady, but I’m only interested in making movies and having people see them,” Said Lina.

 To say she was ahead of her time is the biggest understatement EVER said about a female director.

 How did I end up interviewing her in Rome? Mainly because I was chasing my British boyfriend who had left me in New York to go work in Milan for Gianfranco Ferre. How did I get Lina’s phone number to even request the interview? Who knows? All I know is I was there on her patio with my camera and tape recorder. Then I was on her movie set working!

 Yes she was the first female nominated for an Oscar and yes she covered ruthlessly and magnificently the battle of the sexes. Power sex Women Men! She did a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too That really amused her. She also got an Academy Honorary Award.

 Here is my interview with her below. I was mesmerized by her. By the way I never made it to Milan or the Brit. I had seen Seven Beauties In my Cinema class in London at University. I thought I have to meet her.
 

LINA’S HIT JOB

BY CYNTHIA PARSONS MCDANIEL

Lina Wertmuller: “Any object that has light shining on it, that has been washed and perfumed, loses all of its eroticism.”

Lina Wertmuller is sitting on the terrace of her house high above Rome, designed by husband-architect-production designer Enrico Job. Her latest film, Camorra, is opening tonight in Naples, the very place it was shot. The phones are ringing like crazy (“Ah, Marcello, come stai?” “Ciao, Giancarlo!”) and armfuls of flowers keep passing into the house. The 56-year old director of such films as Seven Beauties, Swept Away and Loveand Anarchy is reveling in the energy — it only seems to speed up her pungent observations on life and love.

Camorra (opening this March in NYC) is a story of the streets, crime and women. The “Camorra” is the Neapolitan equivalent of the Sicilian Mafia, and Wertmuller’s project was decidedly a risky one. The dons aren’t big on unplanned publicity but Naples — a city of crowds, traffic, deals, cement and decadence — was the ideal setting for this murder mystery. Camorra is replete with typical Wertmullerian passion and violence. It’s closer to her earlier work than her more subdued study of marital jealousy (Sotto Sotto) which just ended its New York run. Camorra stars the sultry Andalusian actress Angela Molina, and America’s own Harvey Keitel, among others.

Wertmuller:  “When I fall in love with a story, it’s like falling in love with a person.”

On Camorra’s themes:

“The film is dedicated to the beauty of youth and to its great fragility. For so many centuries, youth has been destroyed by high ideals—country, politics, religion. Young people are always searching for certainty, for better worlds, better paradises, but have always ended up paying a price for it. I wanted to say that it’s hard to be young. And it’s about Naples, which is a very special city to me. Mysterious.”

On Love and Sex:

“Love is from the head and then passes through to the body. Love is the dark object of desire, a hidden object. It’s not obvious. Any object that has light shining on it, that has been washed and perfumed, loses all its eroticism. Nature puts these hidden angles in us, secret paints that someone arrives at with someone else to establish a new system of sight, smell and vision. Love enters my filmmaking because when I fall in love with a story, it’s like falling in love with a person. I want to know others’ stories; my work is never autobiographical. I want to be the eyes for someone else. I’ve accepted who I am, so I can complete a project I feel strongly about. !feel passion for a story.”

On Being A Woman Director:

“In my films I’m a writer and director, and I’ve tried to interpret feminist, anti-feminist, capitalist and anti-capitalist issues as having both leftist and rightist tendencies at some point. I’m a political writer who believes everything often exists at once. I like to pit the capitalist against the proletarian under the veil of symbolism and depict characters who must continually choose between a life of honor and sheer survival. I’m really the first woman director to consistently gain enough backing to produce my own films.”

On the Past and the Future:

“I’m afraid to say that as a result of women wanting freedom, they’ve lost some romanticism: holding hands, kissing. There is no sentiment. There’s no mystery. We need to go back to the traditional rites of lovemaking, like priests and priestesses. Basically, I hate the violence of a masculine society— that was something I dealt with in Sotto Sotto and also in Camorra. But it isn’t easy to change a situation (between men and women) that is thousands of years old.”