Even with the advancements of women’s achievements in films in recent years, women as a whole are still not as well represented as men in the media. But the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), the first national American association of women critics, supports the accurate representation of women in media. The group voted on the best and worst representations of both women and men in movies released this year. It honored the strengths of such films as ‘Selma’ and ‘Still Alice,’ while also pointing out the shame of such sequels as ‘Horrible Bosses 2’ and ‘Dumb and Dumber To.’
The complete list of winners honored by the WFCC in 2014 is listed below:
Best Movie About Women:
‘Still Alice’
Best Movie by a Woman:
Ava Duvernay, ‘Selma’
Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award):
Rebecca Lenkiewicz (Co-screenwriter), ‘Ida’
Best Actress:
Julianne Moore, ‘Still Alice’
Best Actor:
Eddie Redmayne, ‘The Theory Of Everything’
Best Young Actress:
Mira Grosin, ‘We Are The Best’
Best Comedic Actress:
Jenny Slate, ‘Obvious Child’
Best Foreign Film by or About Women:
‘Two Days, One Night’
Best Female Images in a Movie:
‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1’
Worst Female Images in a Movie:
‘Horrible Bosses 2’
Best Male Images in a Movie:
‘Love Is Strange’
Worst Male Images in a Movie:
‘Dumb And Dumber To’
Best Documentary by or About Women:
‘Citizenfour’
Best Screen Couple:
‘The Skeleton Twins’
Best Theatrically Unreleased Movie by or About Women:
‘Girlhood’
Best Equality of the Sexes:
Tie: ‘Life Itself’ and ‘The Skeleton Twins’
Best Animated Female:
Winnie, ‘Boxtrolls’
Best Family Film:
‘Big Hero 6’
Women’s Work/Best Ensemble:
‘The Homesman’
*Special Mention Awards*
Courage in Filmmaking:
Laura Poitras: For bringing the Edward Snowden NSA revelations to light in ‘Citizenfour,’ and driven into exile in Germany for doing so.
Adrienne Shelly Award: (A film that most passionately opposes violence against women):
‘Frontera’
‘Private Violence’
Josephine Baker Award: (For best expressing the woman of color experience in America):
‘Anita: Speaking Truth to Power’
Karen Morley Award: (For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity):
‘Belle’
Acting and Activism Award:
Rosario Dawson: For her work with The Lower East Side Girls Club; the environmental group Global Cool; the ONE Campaign; Oxfam; Amnesty International; Voto Latino; V-Day, a global non-profit movement that raises funds for women’s anti-violence groups; RESPECT! Campaign, a movement aimed at preventing domestic violence; and countless other organizations.
Lifetime Achievement Award:
Oprah Winfrey
Courage in Acting (Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen):
Julianne Moore, ‘Still Alice’
Best Female Action Star:
Oprah Winfrey, ‘Selma’
The Invisible Woman Award: (Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored):
Felicity Jones, ‘The Theory of Everything’
Woman’s Right to Males Roles in Movies:
Jessica Chastain, ‘Interstellar’
Mommie Dearest Worst Screen Mom of the Year Award:A
Tie: Charlotte Gainsbourg and Uma Thurman, ‘Nymphomaniac’
Written by: Karen Benardello