Alliance of Women Film Journalists

2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2012 | 2013

BEST FILM
Pan’s Labyrinth – Guillermo del Toro

BEST DRAMA BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Little Children – Todd Field

BEST COMEDY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Little Miss Sunshine – Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

BEST SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY A WOMAN
Half Nelson – Anna Boden

BEST DOCUMENTARY BY OR ABOUT WOMEN
Jesus Camp – Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE
Dame Helen Mirren – The Queen

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS OR ACTOR IN SUPPORT OF A FEMALE PROTAGONIST OR FEMALE PERSPECTIVE
Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE FOR A YOUNG ACTRESS
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Little Miss Sunshine

HANGING IN THERE FOR THE BEST PERSISTENCE
Deepa Mehta – Water

BEST OF THE FESTS
In Recognition of the outstanding films that premiered and were seen at festivals during 2006, but have not yet found their way into distribution.

Apart from That — Randy Walker and Jennifer Shainin
This quirky, experimental first feature explores themes of
loneliness, relationship and the desire for love and acceptance.
Using an amateur cast, the filmmakers scheduled shooting two days on, one day off, so they could rewrite the script as they went along, based on where the actors were taking their roles. (Seen at Sundance)
Cats of Mirikatani – Linda Hattendorf
A wonderful documentary about how a courageous filmmaker
managed to change her subject’s life for the better. (Seen at
Tribeca Film Festival)
Cinnamon – Kevin Jerome Everson
This experimental blend of documentary and narrative filmmaking
presents the story of a female drag racer whose family are all involved in the exhilarating sport. (Seen at Sundance)
Falling – Barbara Albert
Working improvisationally with actors, Albert follows a group of 30-something Austrian women who reunite 14 years after their schooldays at their teacher’s funeral, and confront their unrealized dreams and burdensome adult lives. Albert’s portrait of the difficulties women face is realistic, yet optimistic. (Seen at New York Film Festival)
Just Like The Son – Morgan J. Freeman
A sweet, simple story about a troubled teen who opens his heart to a young, neglected boy. (Seen at Tribeca Film Festival)

Shadow of Afghanistan – Suzanne Bauman and Jim Burroughs
It took 20 years to complete this documentary chronicling developments in Afghanistan, from Eisenhower’s 1959 friendly visit, through Soviet invasion and expulsion, the ensuing civil war, to post-9/11 American bombing and occupation. The film uses extraordinary footage, some shot by slain journalist Lee Shapiro, to present the lives of a beleaguered people. (Seen at Tribeca Film Festival)

Snow Cake – Marc Evans
Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman give wonderful performances in this film, which was flawlessly written by newcomer Angela Pell. (Seen at Tribeca Film Festival)
Son of Man – Mark Dornford-May
An effective and powerful retelling of the Jesus Christ story, transposed to Africa during civil war. It’s intense and violent and familiar and moving, all at once. (Seen at Sundance)

BEST DEPICTION OF NUDITY OR SEXUALITY
Little Children

DON’T STICK YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND AWARD
Jesus Camp – Heidi Ewing and Rachel

2006’s OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT BY A WOMAN IN THE FILM INDUSTRY
For her amazing 2006 trifecta as Susan in Babel, Lena Brandt in The Good German, and
Sheba Hart in Notes On A Scandal, AWFJ officially dubs her Cate the Great, and presents its 2006 Outstanding Achievement Award

Cate Blanchett

THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
For a treasury of extraordinary performances far too numerous to name here, and much too memorable to make it necessary to do so, for her great integrity in choosing and making the very most out of roles big and small, for her ability to melt into the ensemble or seize the spotlight with a single biting line delivery, for having the versatility to be as at home in historical dramas as she is in James Bond pictures, for her commitment to lending her abilities to the part rather than bending the part to her abilities and for being famous not just as a powerhouse performer but also as a woman who’s a delightful colleague, always supportive, ready with restorative humor and generous with handmade needlepoint pillows for those whom she especially favors, it is with a great hurrah that there’s much more to come, that AWFJ presents its 2006 EDA Award for Lifetime Achievement

Dame Judi Dench.

AWFJ AWARD FOR HUMANITARIAN ACTIVISM
For redirecting the spotlight that shines on her so that it illuminates critical problems of child welfare, poverty, pandemic and prevasive violence throughout the world, and for commiting her spirit, time and material resources to their resolution, it is with profound respect and appreciation that AWFJ presents its 2006 EDA Award for Humanitarian activism

Angelina Jolie

AN ACTRESS DEFYING AGE AND AGISM
For making career and life choices that let fans of all ages know that becoming older is much easier and more joyful when it is not encumbered by the prejudices society places upon it, it is with great enthusiasm that AWFJ presents its 2006 EDA Award for Defying Age and Agism

Dame Helen Mirren

ACTRESS MOST IN NEED OF A NEW AGENT
Uma Thurman

MOVIES YOU WANTED TO LOVE BUT JUST COULDN’T
Marie Antoinette

BEST DEPICTION OF NUDITY OR SEXUALITY
Little Children

AWFJ HALL OF SHAME AWARDS

A Good Year
Basic Instinct 2
Beerfest
Black Dahlia
Little Man
My Super-Ex Girlfriend
You, Me and Dupree
and
Mel Gibson, who has been awarded his place in the AWFJ Hall of Shame in recognition of the sexism he displayed when, according to police reports, he called a female officer ‘sugar tits,’ during his more famously anti-Semitic rant. We wish to assure Mr. Gibson that we heard the full scope of his rage that evening– not just the Jewish part.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) IS a not-for-profit association of professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media. Our purpose is to support work by and about women– both in front of and behind the cameras– though intra-group promotional activities, outreach programs and by presenting awards in recognition of outstanding accomplishments (the best and worst) by and about women in the movies.

Be Sociable, Share!

Posted in Awards Watch, Scoreboards - Critics Awards | Comments Off on Alliance of Women Film Journalists

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon