Women Film Critics Circle Gives 2017 Awards to Several Movies That Are Receiving Attention As Oscar Hopefuls
It was a year to highlight and celebrate women in film and there were several movies, directors, actresses and more that are worth cheering about.
As such, The Women Film Critics Circle has declared Lady Bird — the mother-daughter story starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf — 2017’s Best Movie About Women.
Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, her film Lady Bird also earned the awards for Best Movie by a Woman and Best Woman Storyteller.
Lady Bird, with stunning performances from Ronan and Metcalf, is a coming-of-age story about a young woman, who is wise beyond her years, yet still inc;lined to make major blunders. She dreams of an exciting college life in New York, a secret she is keeping from her controlling mother. From it’s opening moments to the final frame, Gerwig, a thought-proving actress and director, has found a way to put passion, personality and more into this engaging film.
“In a year that has been marked by women’s solidarity and greater awareness of injustices towards women, it means a lot for our film to be recognized. I’m grateful to the Women Film Critics Circle for all they do to support female voices in film,” said Jolie, in a recent statement to the Women Film Critic’s Circle that was issued through Netflix, her movie’s distributor.The WFCC bestowed its Lifetime Achievement honor on director Agnes Varda.
Frances McDormand earned the accolades for Best Actress and Courage in Acting for her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This movie is a jarring and emotional film, also starring Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, stars McDormand has a grieving mother reeling from the violent, and unresolved murder of her daughter. This stunning actress tempers her drama with a wicked sense of humor, and audiences are often found crying and laughing at the same time.
Film and TV star Allison Janney (Mom and The West Wing) received two awards: one for Best Comedic Actress and Mommie Dearest and the other for Worst Screen Mom of the Year for her work in I, Tonya. Margot Robbie also shines in this movie as the champion athlete turned Hard Copy sensation in this dark, energetic, and also hilarious biopic about figure skater Tonya Harding. The movies traces Tonya’s disaster-prone trajectory from humble beginnings, to unexpected athletic prowess to tabloid infamy. She grew up with an abusive, narcissistic and jealous mother, played with perfection by Janney. Her brilliant, foul-mouthed performance feels all the more outrageous because it is grounded in the truth.
The Josephine Baker Award for “best expressing the woman of color experience in America” went to Mudbound and its director Dee Rees was recognized with the Courage in Film-making title. Mudbound is thes tory of two men who return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi, where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war.
Coco won for Best Family Film and Best Animated Females; Wonder Woman for Best Female Action Hero; Battle of the Sexes won for Best Equality of the Sexes; and characters Emily and Kumail — played by Zoe Kazan and Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick — for Best Screen Couple. Coco is Disney/Pixar’ Animation Studios is beautiful animated movie that focuses on the tale of 12-year-old Miguel, a young boy, who has big dreams. The movie transports us to a brightly-colored world of the beautiful and complicated relationships that come with family. 
Gary Oldman was chosen Best Actor for his performance in Darkest Hour; Brooklynn Prince won the Best Young Actress award for her work in The Florida Project; and Betty Gabriel from Get Out received the Invisible Woman Award for a supporting performance by a woman “whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored.”
The Light of the Moon won the Adrienne Shelly Award for a film that “most passionately opposes violence against women” and the Karen Morley Award for “best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity” was presented to Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.
Bombshell also shared the Best Documentary by or about women distinction with Jane, which focused on t he life and work of the renowned primatology scientist, Jane Goodall, especially on her research about chimpanzees..
The WFCC’s voting also reflected recent events in the entertainment industry in which dozens of executives and artists have been accused of inappropriate behavior by the women who work with and for them.
Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan and “all the women who spoke out against the culture of sexual abuse” receive the group’s Acting and Activism Award.
Harvey Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer repeatedly accused by women of sexual abuse, was inducted into the WFCC Hall of Shame.
For further information about the Women Film Critics Circle, please go to: http://criticalwomen.blogspot.com/2017/12/women-film-critics-circle
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