Rebecca Hall’s Passing was awarded the honor of Best Movie About Women at the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), 2021 awards, along with Best Screen Couple for Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. The film based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 book, Passing, stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson as two light-skinned Black women, one of whom passes for white.
Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog was awarded the honor of Best Movie By a Woman and Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award). Other films honored include Titane won for Best Foreign Film By or About Women and Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It won Best Documentary By or About Women.
2021 Women Film Critics Circle Award Winners
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
Related posts:
