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Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in Passing by Rebecca Hall
Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson in Passing by Rebecca Hall. Photo by Edu Grau.

Rebecca Hall’s Passing was awarded the honor of Best Movie About Women at the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC), 2021 awards, along with Best Screen Couple for Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson. The film based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 book, Passing, stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson as two light-skinned Black women, one of whom passes for white.

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog was awarded the honor of Best Movie By a Woman and Best Woman Storyteller (Screenwriting Award). Other films honored include Titane won for Best Foreign Film By or About Women and Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It won Best Documentary By or About Women.

2021 Women Film Critics Circle Award 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

RUNNER-UP (TIE): 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

RUNNER-UP (TIE): 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 color 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

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