The Women Film Critics Circle announced its 2021 award winners on 13 December 2021.
Despite some much-delayed blockbusters finally being released in 2021, there were plenty of smaller films by women that shone. Check out our winners and runners-up below.
The WFCC awards are given for the best movies over the past year by and about women – and outstanding achievements by women.
The WFCC came together in 2004 to form the first women critics’ organisation in the United States, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognised fully. Its members (yes, I am one) are women film critics and scholars from around the country and internationally, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media.
Scroll down for the winners and runners-up (and big thanks to those members who take on the task of managing the nominations and voting process, and more, to bring us these awards each year). You can find out more about our 2021 awards, including responses from winners, on the WFCC Facebook page here.
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 Campion – 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 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. 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
The daughter of a laundress and a musician, Baker overcame being born Black, female and poor, and marriage at 15, to become an internationally acclaimed legendary performer. 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. 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 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 (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.
WINNER: Passing
RUNNER-UP: Being the Ricardos
ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
Dolly Parton
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Betty White
You can find out more about our 2021 awards, including responses from winners, on the WFCC Facebook page here.
Until next year!
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