2016 WFCC AWARDS

I wish I could honestly speak up for any and every critics group comprised solely of female journalists, but then the Women Film Critics Circle comes along and... well, you saw for yourself when they announced their nominations, if you were unlucky enough. And here are their award winners. And there you go. As per, some of these have changed since nominations were announced. But still, werk Ava DuVernay!

Best Actress

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Best Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Movie About Women

Hidden Figures

Best Movie by a Woman

13th (Ava DuVernay)

Best Comedic Actress

Kate McKinnon (Ghostbusters)

Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award)

Ava DuVernay (13th)

Women's Work / Best Ensemble

Hidden Figures

Best Documentary by or About Women

13th

Best Foreign Film by or About Women

The Handmaiden

Best Young Actress

Hailee Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen)

Best Female Images

Hidden Figures

Best Male Images

Loving

Worst Female Images

Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising

Worst Male Images

Dirty Grandpa

Special Mention Awards

Best Family Film

Queen of Katwe

Best Animated Female

Moana

Best Female Action Hero

The women of Ghostbusters

Best Screen Couple

Loving

Best Equality of the Sexes

Loving

Best Line

'I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us' (Jackie)

Courage in Filmmaking

Ava DuVernay (13th)

Courage in Acting (Taking on unconventional roles that radically redefine the images of women on screen)

Rebecca Hall (Christine)

Adrienne Shelley Award (For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women)

American Honey

The Invisible Woman Award (Performance by a woman whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored)

The women of Hidden Figures

Josephine Baker Award (For best expressing the woman of colour experience in America)

Hidden Figures

Karen Morley Award (For best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity)

Hidden Figures

Acting and Activism Award

Emma Watson: UN Goodwill Ambassador, tells the UN General Assembly that universities need to be a safe space against campus sexual and racial assault, for women and people of colour

Lifetime Achievement Award

Annette Bening: For taking on roles that go against the grain of conventional female 'objective' beauty

Mommie Dearest Worst Screen Mom of the Year Award

Laura Linney (Nocturnal Animals)

WFCC Hall of Shame: Women Dating Their Rapists in Movies

Elle

2016 PGA DOCUMENTARY NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The Producers Guild of America is one of those daft institutions that likes to get in there early with its year-end nominations, at least for documentaries. They've overlooked Ava DuVernay's acclaimed 13th, which may be for distribution reasons, or it may be a surprise snub - the PGA is known for that in this category. On the 10th of January, the lists for all films and for animated films will be announced, and the award winners will be revealed for all categories at the ceremony on the 29th of January. Official nominee credits TBA.

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures

Dancer

The Eagle Huntress

Life, Animated

O.J.: Made in America

Tower

REVIEW - 13TH (AVA DUVERNAY)

The history of the United States: framed by education as an alternative, subversive history, reframed by Ava DuVernay as the country's only true history, as legitimate an experience as that of the privileged, those who concocted that education, and far more profound. 13th is a blistering dagger through the heart of blind hope, reminding the oppressed of the permanence of the threat against them and the validity of their discontent, and informing the oppressors of their victims' awareness of their malicious actions. DuVernay must hurtle through her history for the sheer size of it, thus to ever make her point as clearly and forcefully as it demands, but 13th's early sections are diligent in their detail, and necessary in establishing the foundations for the film's principal arguments, themselves already painfully apparent by this stage, and in proposing that this vile legacy be refashioned as the defining characteristic of America's past and present attitudes toward race, rather than as a debatable adjunct. Her approach is gently combative, refusing to imply that change is in effect, not insisting upon a celebration of black identity by restricting her purview to black voices but by expanding it further than expected, wilfully letting contemporary conservatives hang themselves with their own bigoted cords. And for all that they may protest those inferences drawn from 13th's unambiguous suggestion that racism lies behind even the most seemingly benign of sociopolitical policies in the U.S., DuVernay allows them to express it anew, in pathetically defensive to-camera responses that wither in comparison to the bold, unapologetic criticisms put forth by the majority of her interviewees. So, while 13th may be, in essence, a simple CliffsNotes examination of the racism at the core of American identity, it's a particularly compelling and intelligent summary.

TRAILER FOR AVA DUVERNAY'S 13TH

The online film community was rather taken aback by the announcement of Ava DuVernay's documentary 13th as the opening night film for the 2016 New York Film Festival. Little knowledge of her new project had been disseminated, with most focused on her OWN show Queen Sugar and her upcoming Disney film A Wrinkle in Time - surely enough work for one person! But her film about the US' treatment of its black citizens in the light of the 13th amendment to the U.S. Constitution looks to be one of the best of the year, documentary or otherwise, particularly with this impactful trailer. Netflix will open 13th online in the US and the UK alike on the 7th of October, and will also handle its US theatrical release on the same date; the ever-reliable Dogwoof will oversee its British release, also on the 7th. It's also showing in the London Film Festival, following its NYFF world premiere.