OPENING Dec 30, 2024 to Jan 3, 2005 – Margaret Barton-Fumo

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists highlights movies made by and about women. With a vigilant eye toward current releases, we maintain an interactive record of films that are pertinent to our interests. Be they female-made or female-centric productions, they are films that represent a wide range of women’s stories and present complex female characters. As such, they are movies that will most likely be reviewed on AWFJ.org and will qualify for consideration for our annual EDA Awards, celebrating exceptional women working in film behind and in front of the camera. Our members are feature writers, columnists and regular contributors to a variety of media outlets and many of us publish regularly on the festival circuit. Our critical voices are widespread and diverse. We invite you to join us in tracking weekly releases of particular interest. And we welcome information about new films that will help us to keep our records updated and our critics alert. Below is a concise list of new releases set for the week of December 30 – January 5 that are of particular interest. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews:  

Friday, January 3

• Extremely Unique Dynamic – Strand Releasing (Cinemas) – USA – Dramedy co-written and directed by Ivan Leung, Harrison Xu and Katherine Dudas. During their final weekend together, two best friends test the limits of their friendship while making a triple-meta film.

 

• Isabel’s Garden – USA – Drama written and directed by Kit Rich. The life of an ambitious small town TV reporter is upended when the death of her husband tasks her with having to help raise her 15-year-old stepdaughter.

 

• The Monster Beneath Us – Vertical Entertainment (Cinemas) – UK – Horror film written and directed by Sophie Osbourne. Yorkshire, 1898. A grieving woman and her son move back to the unoccupied house of her ex husband, recently found dead, but they discover that they are not alone inside the house.

 

• Vermiglio – Janus Films (Cinemas) – Italy / France / Belgium – Historical drama written and directed by Maura Delpero. 1944, Vermiglio, a remote mountain village. The arrival of Pietro, a deserter, into the family of the local teacher, and his love for the teacher’s eldest daughter, will change the course of everyone’s life.

Film descriptions are adapted from press releases. Titles highlighted in red have links to full reviews. Stay tuned in for next week’s releases! Contact us if we’ve overlooked anything.