The 2021 Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) Winners

By Matt Neglia 

The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) have announced their winners representing the best in film for 2021.

Click below to see the winners.

BEST MOVIE ABOUT WOMEN
WINNER: Passing
RUNNER-UP: The Lost Daughter, Being the Ricardos & CODA

BEST MOVIE BY A WOMAN
WINNER: Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
RUNNER-UP: Sian Heder – CODA, Nora Fingscheidt – The Unforgivable & Rebecca Hall – Passing

BEST WOMAN STORYTELLER (Screenwriting Award)
WINNER: Jane Champion – The Power of the Dog
RUNNER-UP: Rebecca Hall – Passing, Charlene Favier, Antoine Lacomblez and Marie Talon – Slalom & Sian Heder – CODA

BEST ACTRESS
WINNER: Kristen Stewart – Spencer
RUNNER-UP: Nicole Kidman – Being the Ricardos, Sandra Bullock – The Unforgivable & Virginie Efira – Benedetta

BEST ACTOR
WINNER: Will Smith – King Richard
RUNNER-UP: Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog, Andrew Garfield – tick, tick… BOOM! & Nicolas Cage – Pig

BEST FOREIGN FILM BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
WINNER: Titane 
RUNNER-UP: Drive My Car, Benedetta & I’m Your Man

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

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

BEST ANIMATED FEMALE
WINNER: Mirabel – Encanto
RUNNER-UP: Raya – Raya and the Last Dragon, Abuela Alma – Encanto & Gabi – Vivo

BEST SCREEN COUPLE
WINNER: Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson – Passing
RUNNER-UP (TIE): Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur – CODA, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem – Being the Ricardos & Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera – In The Heights

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 colour 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, Bruised & Test Pattern

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, Benedetta & Spencer

ACTING AND ACTIVISM AWARD
Dolly Parton

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Betty White

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

OUTSTANDING SERIES [Television or Streaming]
Lovecraft Country
The Handmaid’s Tale

MOMMIE DEAREST – WORST SCREEN MOM OF THE YEAR 
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter

​You can follow Matt and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars and Film on Twitter at @NextBestPicture