VISIONAIRE SALUTES THE WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE 2021 AWARD WINNERS

By Lisa Collins

In a brave, bold, and beautiful year of cinema, VISIONAIRE salutes the celebrated winners of 2021's Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) Awards!

With provocatively layered, powerfully acted, and artfully told stories unfolding around complications of gender, race, history, and class, this year's absorbing stories not only compel and entertain, but also ignite the screens that they inhabit -- thanks to their array of gifted storytellers! From behind the camera, including: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) featuring VISIONAIRE contributor Kirsten Dunst and Rebecca Hall (Passing); to their collaborators in front of the camera, including: Kristen Stewart (Spencer), Will Smith (King Richard); as well as the (quietly kept!) buzzy screen couple: Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson (Passing). In fact, don't just go on our word -- dive in for yourself, and catch these fetching films as soon as you can!

So, CHEERS to all the exciting movies that somehow managed to get made and/or released during this challenging year! And, CONGRATULATIONS to the winners, nominees, and all the marvelous female forward films spotlighted by WFCC's 2021 Awards! Screen them, stream them -- whatever you do, make it your business to see them!

Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in Passing

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE 2021 AWARDS

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN

WINNER: Passing
RUNNER-UP: The Lost Daughter

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
WINNER: Jane Campion - The Power of the Dog
RUNNER-UP: Sian Heder - CODA

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER (Screenwriting Award)

WINNER: Jane Champion - The Power of the Dog
RUNNER-UP: Rebecca Hall - Passing

BEST ACTRESS

WINNER: Kristen Stewart - Spencer
RUNNER-UP: Nicole Kidman - Being the Ricardos

BEST ACTOR
WINNER: Will Smith - King Richard
RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch - The Power of the Dog

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
WINNER: Titane
RUNNER-UP: Drive My Car

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
WINNER: Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It
RUNNER-UP: Introducing, Selma Blair

BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES
WINNER: King Richard
RUNNER-UP (TIE): Being the Ricardos
RUNNER-UP (TIE): The Harder They Fall

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
WINNER: Mirabel - Encanto
RUNNER-UP: Raya - Raya and the Last Dragon

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

*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

*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

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
Dolly Parton

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Betty White

Sandra Bullock, The Unforgivable

WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE - SPECIAL PAULINE KAEL JURY AWARDS 2021

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

Lisa Collins is a filmmaker and special correspondent for Visionaireworld.

Banner Image: Kirsten Dunst, The Power of The Dog.

Back to all blog posts