Carey Mulligan is the star of writer-director Emerald Fennel’s crime thriller “A Promising Young Woman.”
The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) announces its 2020 awards today, March 8, in honor of International Women’s Day. The review group celebrates the best films of and about women, including the outstanding achievements of women, who are historically rarely honored in the film world.
WFCC is an association of 80 women film critics and academics from across America and around the world, who are involved in print, radio, online and television media. The group was formed in 2004 as the premier women’s critics organization in the United States, with the belief that the views and voices of women in film criticism must be fully recognized. WFCC also prides itself on being the most culturally and racially diverse review group in America, and best reflects the diverse audiences for films.
The full list of 2020 winners and nominees honored by the WFCC is presented below:
Best Film About Women:
Winner: ‘A promising young woman’
Finalist: “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
‘Ammonite’
‘pre-war’
Best Female Film:
Winner: “Nomadic country” – Chloé Zhao
Finalist: ‘Promising Young Woman’ – Emerald Fennell
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” – Eliza Hittman
“A Night in Miami” – Regina King
Best Female Storyteller (Screenwriting Award)
Winner: ‘Never Rarely Sometimes Always’ – Eliza Hittman
Finalist: ‘Promising Young Woman’ – Emerald Fennell
“Nomadic country” – Chloé Zhao
“The United States against Billie Holiday” – Parcs Suzan-Lori
Best actress
Winner: Carey Mulligan – “Promising Young Woman”
Finalist (tie): Frances McDormand – ‘Nomadland’
Finalist (tie): Vanessa Kirby – “Pieces of a Woman”
Andra Day – “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”
Best actor
Winner: Chadwick Boseman – ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Runner’s IP: Anthony Hopkins – “The Father”
Riz Ahmed – “The sound of metal”
Tahar Rahim – “The Mauritanian”
Best foreign film of or about women
Winner: ‘La Llorona’
Finalist: “Real mothers”
“The Truth (The Truth)”
“Two of us (Two)”
Best Documentary By or About Women
Winner: “Stuntmen: the untold story of Hollywood”
Finalist: ‘Time’
‘All In’
“I am Greta”
Better gender equality
Winner: ‘Emma’
Finalist: I care a lot
“Malcolm and Marie”
‘Radioactive’
Best Female Animated Feature
Winner: Fei Fei – “On the Moon”
Finalist: Mebh Og MacTire – “Wolfwalkers”
Libba – ‘Soul’
Robyn Goodfellowe – “Wolfwalkers”
Best Screen Couple
Winner: Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan – ‘Ammonite’
Finalist: Tom Hanks and Helena Zengel – “News from the World”
Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti – ‘Palm Springs’
Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier – ‘Two of Us (Deux)’
Adrienne Shelly Award – For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women
Shelly was a promising actress and filmmaker who was brutally strangled in her apartment in 2006 at the age of 40 by a construction worker in the building, after complaining of noise. Her killer tried to cover up her crime by hanging her from a shower holder in her bathroom, to make it look like suicide. He later confessed that he was having a bad day. Shelly, who left a baby girl, had just completed her latest feature film, “Waitress,” which she wrote, directed and starred in, and which was honored at the Sundance Film Festival after her death.
Winner: “Young promising woman”
Finalist: ‘The invisible Man’
“I’m your wife”
‘The assistant’
Joséphine Baker Prize – For better expressing the experience of women of color in America
The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born black, female and poor, and married at the age of 15, to become a legendary artist of international renown, and performed in films such as “Princess Tam Tam”, “Moulin Rouge” and ‘Zou Zou.’ She also survived race riots in East St. Louis, Illinois, and later moved to France to escape American racism.
After heroically participating in the underground French Resistance during World War II, Baker returned to the United States, where she campaigned for racial equality. Her activism led to attacks on her by journalist Walter Winchell, who denounced her as a communist, which led her to wage a battle against him. Baker was instrumental in ending segregation in many theaters and clubs, where she refused to perform unless mainstreaming was implemented.
Winner: ‘Miss Juneteenth’
Finalist: ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’
Antebellum
The quarantine version
Karen Morley Award – For the best example of a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity
Morley was a promising Hollywood star in the 1930s, having appeared in films such as “Mata Hari” and “Our Daily Bread”. She was then kicked out of Hollywood for her leftist political beliefs by the blacklist and for refusing to testify against other actors, while Robert Taylor and Sterling Hayden were informants against her. She also dared to have a child, which was unacceptable to female stars at the time. Morley maintained her militant political activism for the rest of her life and ran for Lieutenant Governor on the American Labor Party ticket in 1954. She died in 2003, unrepentant to the end, at the age of 93 year.
Winner: “The United States against Billie Holiday”
Finalist: ‘Shirley’
“Radium Girls”
‘The Glorias’
Actor and Activism Award
Regina King – The first celebrity to embark on the Time’s Up 4% Challenge, which urges the industry to hire more female directors. The award-winning actress is also committed to having women make up 50% of her film crews.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Julie andrews
Special prices of the jury WFCC Pauline Kael 2020
“Criticism is the only thing that stands between the public and the ad. “-Pauline Kael
Best Female Action Hero
Janelle Monae – “Pre-war”
Jodie Foster – ‘The Mauritanian’
Courage in the cinema
Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman”
Eliza Hittman, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”
Courage in Acing – Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen
Janelle Monae – “Pre-war”
Elizabeth Moss – “The Invisible Man”
Women’s Work – Best overall cast
“Radium Girls”
‘The Glorias’
The Invisible Woman Award – Supporting the performance of a woman whose outstanding impact on the film in a dramatic, social or historical way has been ignored
Cicely Tyson – “A Fall From Grace”
Dianne Wiest – “I care a lot”
Best Kept Secret – Neglected Difficult Gems
‘Ammonite’
‘Swallow’
Prize for women who save themselves
Claire Dunn – “Herself”
Elizabeth Moss – “The Invisible Man”
