WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS 2007
The Women Film Critics Circle held their annual on-air WFCC Awards Ceremony 2007 on Thursday, December 13th. The Ceremony for the Best and Worst Picks from a woman’s point of view, aired on WBAI Radio in NY 99.5 FM at 11am, and on Web Radio at wbai.org. On hand to present and discuss the awards in-studio and by phone, were WFCC members.
The Women Film Critics Circle is an association of 40 women film critics and scholars from around the country, who are involved in print, radio, online and TV broadcast media. They came together three years ago to form the first women critics organization ever in the country, in the belief that women’s perspectives and voices in film criticism need to be recognized fully. WFCC also prides itself on being the most culturally and racially diverse critics group in the country by far, and best reflecting the diversity of movie audiences.
The Women Film Critics Circle Awards 2007
BEST PICTURE BY A WOMAN **TIE**
*Away From Her: Sarah Polley
*Talk To Me: Kasi Lemmons
BEST PICTURE ABOUT WOMEN
*Juno: Jason Reitman
BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER [Screenwriting Award]
*Juno: Diablo Cody
BEST ACTRESS
*Laura Linney: The Savages
BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
*Amy Adams: Enchanted
BEST ACTOR
*Daniel Day-Lewis: There Will Be Blood
BEST YOUNG ACTRESS
*Saoirse Ronan: Atonement
BEST FEMALE IMAGES IN A MOVIE **TIE**
*Hairspray
*Life Support
BEST FOREIGN FILM: **TIE**
*La Vie En Rose
*Persepolis
BEST MUSIC
*Hairspray: Nikki Blonsky, Queen Latifah
BEST THEATRICALLY UNRELEASED MOVIE BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
*Life Support
**ADRIENNE SHELLY AWARD: For a film that most passionately opposes violence against women:
*Redacted
**JOSEPHINE BAKER AWARD: For best expressing the woman of color experience in America:
*The Great Debaters
**KAREN MORLEY AWARD: For best exemplifying a woman’s place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity:
*A Mighty Heart
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
*Judi Dench
SPECIAL MENTION FOR A FEMALE’S RIGHT TO MALE ROLES IN MOVIES:
*Cate Blanchett: I’m Not There
ACTING AND ACTIVISM
*Angelina Jolie
BEST DOCUMENTARIES:
ABOVE AND BEYOND:
*Redacted [mixed media]
GROUNDBREAKER:
*Strange Culture: Lynn Hershman-Leeson
COURAGE IN FILMMAKING:
*Meeting Resistance: Molly Bingham, co-director
BEST EQUALITY OF THE SEXES **TIE**
*Away From Her
*Becoming Jane
MOST OFFENSIVE MALE CHARACTERS
Crazy Love [Burt Pugach] *****Winning Loser
Norbit [Rasputia] *****Winning Looser
Good Luck Chuck
The Heartbreak Kid
Knocked Up
Revolver
Superbad
Who’s Your Caddy
WFCC TOP TEN HALL OF SHAME
Black Snake Moan***Winning Loser: Female sexual/religious exorcism as therapy while chained to radiator.
Exterminating Angels***Winning Loser: Actresses fill roles as masturbators on cue, for pleasure of director with harrassment rap sheet from previous film. Nothing like a revenge fantasy sequel.
Goya’s Ghosts***Winning Loser: Cleric rape of female as religious therapy while chained nude and falling in love with rapist.
Atonement: Female crying fake rape, aren’t there at least a few of these every year, ditto Red Road and Look.
Captivity: Torture porn, and torture inducing sexual arousal for any guy in the torture chamber vicinity.
Gone Baby Gone: Superbad Mommy Syndrome.
Hairspray/Edna [John Travolta]: Why do men doing women in movies always pick the most grotesque physical personas imaginable. Take a lesson from Cate Blanchett, on how to do it with style. Ditto Norbit/Rasputia.
Lust, Caution: Adam and Eve in Old Shanghai. Female-assisted destruction of a nation while falling in love with torturer/rapist.
Norbit/Rasputia [Eddie Murphy]: See Hairspray above, but with stereotypically shrewish personality to match.
Red Road: See Atonement. But such an elaborate fake rape scheme, that the conniving woman has to nearly rape herself.
BEST ANIMATED FEMALE:
*Enchanted: Elle
BEST FAMILY FILM
*Enchanted
**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 a 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.
**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.
**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.
**The Woman’s Right To Male Roles In Movies Award is intended to challenge that men have not only the most prominent roles in films, but also the most complex and fully drawn out characters. So when an actress can fight for access to such a role, and it may be rewritten for her, it is one of substance, and free of the usual shallow or demonizing female stereotypes.
See also: Movie City News
The Women Film Critics Circle can be reached at: Criticalwomen@gmail.com
WOMEN FILM CRITICS CIRCLE 
I appreciate your list of film awards here and agree with many of them. I don’t appreciate the wall of shame as I think your critics seemed to have missed the point in many of the films in your hall of shame (Black Snake Moan, Atonement, Gone Baby Gone, etc.). Are you saying that the films are bad or poor because there is a female in the film that does something bad? Would Gone Baby Gone be equally as bad in your eyeshad that character been male? Also, I’m pretty sure no one cried “fake rape” in Atonement. It was a false accusation. Not to mention the performances in these films (especially Gone Baby Gone) are Oscar worthy performances by incredibly strong women and in some cases, strong characters as well.
“Lust, Caution”? You must kidding, what smart (American) feminists…you must think you know all women in the world.
[…] See the rest of the winners/losers here. […]
The Golden Rock said this on January 9, 2008 at 5:23 pm |
“Lust Caution” ? I am curious about the reason you put this film on the wall of shame. In that era, women in China were still under the domination of men. Even some of them went to college, still they weren’t encouraged / allowed to participate in any social movements. In this story, from my point of view, these women could be seen as the forerunner of feminism in the oriental culture. Besides, Zhang Ailing (Author of the Original Fiction) took this story as the reflection of her own rommance. The main thesis is about relationship between man and woman at that historical time. Patriotism is just to relieve the conflicts in the distorted relationship between Wong Chia Chi and Mr. Yee. Whom she fell in love with? or why? shouldn’t be evaluated trough the viewpoints of Feminism. “Lust Caution” isn’t a film to preach Chauvinism, nor to oppress Women. It’s just a love story.
To WFCC, I am a Chinese and fully support your decision on the lust.
To Fiona, first, let’s talk about the story. Is it just a love story? What kind of “love story” must be named “lust”? I believe you are a woman, and a woman on the special interest section in a video store. When “patriotism is just to relieve the conflicts in the distorted relationship between Wong Chia Chi and Mr. Yee” whom is a traitor of China in the film, it is no longer a simple love story. It is not very smart for a pure love story toying patriotism. Or, must it? Don’t you agree?
Her (Zhang Ailing, the author of the Original Fiction) romance was with a well known collaborator (aka HanJian in Chinese) of Japanese invasion of China, i.e., a traitor of China. Not surprisingly, Zhang Ailing, the lover of the traitor (Mr. Hu or Mr. Yee in the film) fled China after Japanese was defeated.
In fact, I am a Chinese as well and can’t agree more with your point about Patriotism. However, I still don’t think Patriotism or certain historical events are proper perspectives which should be over-emphasized in Zhang’s story. Just like what I said in my previous message, the main idea of “Lust Cautios” isn’t about Mr. Yee’s notorious reputation or how he betrayed his country. It may be better for viewers to put their focus back to the emotional and sexual connections of men and women. You can see this point from the name of this story ” Lust, Caution.”
As your point about “pure love story”, I never say this is a pure love story. Love can be pure, at the same time, it can also has the lust part. It’s human instinct. Right? Emotion and Sexual, Zhang might just wanna describe how sexual relationship influences a woman’s perspective about a man. She once said,” The way to a woman’s heart is through her vagina. I guess this can explain why she put the word “lust” in the name of this story.
Don’t just see things through the historical points. After all, this film isn’t all about the history. I really appreciate your points of view. They make me reflect on my perspectives about this movie.
P.S. I am a woman. What’s worng with that? btw, I also see movies of genres other than romance. Therefore, can’t say that I am the kind of women who has “special interest section in a video store.”
you wrote “It’s just a love story.” not “a pure love story.” It’s maybe just a lust story.
good bye!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. It’s been brought to our attention by readers, as well as some of our own members, that the category of Hall Of Shame requires some explanation. So we’ve corrected that. Also, here are my own thoughts about films that are offensive to women, in an article with my own best and worst list of the year. Because of the dilemma of films that may indeed be well made but have objectionable content, I’ve created three categories instead of two: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly:
The Year In Movies: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
By Prairie Miller
It’s not that I’m someone who has a tough time making up my mind – which I am – but when it comes to figuring out the Top Ten and Bottom Ten Movies of the year, there are all sorts of annoying gray areas. So if you’ve been mulling going into the field of movie criticism – which by the way doesn’t require a license, but maybe should – beware the pitfalls, between those handfuls of popcorn.
Because there are so many reasons for liking or hating a movie. One big mental roadblock is being knocked out by the acting performances, but evaluating the story as a stinker. Like why blame the actors, just because the movie sucks. Would you heap insults on those fast food workers for dishing up your future coronary of super-sized fries?
So in order to best cover all bases, I’m going to go with three categories, instead of two, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The first two are self-explanatory. And the third category is reserved for movies that may have been impressively put together, but there’s just something offensive about them, I dunno. I may also get really picky, and add a few boutique sub-categories. So here goes, in no particular order…
http://newsblaze.com/story/20071227065313tsop.nb/newsblaze/REVIEWS1/Movie-Reviews.html
fems suck
No-one crys fake rape in Atonement- Lola really was raped. I’m a little confused. I’m also confused as to how Hairspray can both win Best Female Images In A Movie while also being on the Hall of Shame- doesn’t that contradict?
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