Female Film Critics 24/375
A woman mourns the loss of her husband, only to realize that her own life is far from over in director Aurélie Saada’s poignant French drama Rose. Starring Françoise Fabian as Rose Goldberg, the film is a thought-provoking take on family dynamics, a woman rediscovering her individuality after spending decades as a wife and mother, and what it means to grow up and become truly independent, no matter what age you happen to be.
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In recent years, the presentation of movie awards has grown into an industry unto itself. And, awards season has expanded in duration to include more than the entire year. It starts in January with awards buzz erupting out of Sundance Film Festival — even before the previous year’s awards season has culminated with the Oscars gala presentation that’s staged in early March. It’s a struggle to keep up with the countless award-eligible movies that are are released throughout the year or seen at film festivals, and awards voters list, discuss and advocate for the titles they think are award-worthy. But the biggest rush release of high profile potential awards contenders occurs in the Fall, accompanied by invitations to special screenings, distribution of FYC screeners, scripts, music scores and other collateral — not to mention swag — to give awards voters lead time to see films before they make their nominations. The infusion of new titles can cut consideration of earlier releases as contenders and indie films without award campaign budgets all but disappear from view. At the height of the season, viewing potential nominees becomes a temporary full time job for awards voters, including AWFJ members. At AWFJ, determining our EDA Awards nominees involves the elimination of titles in order to reach consensus. But even after consensus is reached, everyone has personal favorites that may or may not have landed on the list of nominees. This week, Team MOTW members recommend their favorite award contenders for your watch list.
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Team #MOTW looks back at the films we featured during 2024 and highlights our favorites. There are many things about 2024 that we want to forget, but these femme-helmed/femme centric films that brought inspiration, understanding, compassion, and respite replete with laughter are not among them — and they must not slip into oblivion. Their themes, topics and genres are diverse, and each one of them is a gem. Add them to your must watch list. Share the titles with friends. To find out more about each of the selected films, click on the highlighted titles for links to the full #MOTW coverage that was published on AWFJ.org on the day of their release. Enjoy all of them!
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As the year draws to a close in late December, and holiday spirits of hope for the new year prevail, include viewing movies with family and friends as part of your seasonal celebrations. Good movies provide respite from the world’s worries — or, as an alternative, they deliver insight into ways we might over them. And so we present for your viewing enjoyment Team Movie of the Week’s richly varied list of recommended movies for your ho ho holiday viewing. The MOTW roster features romance, comedy, thrills and an abundance of good food. Team MOTW has selected films that are upbeat, inspiring and spirited, although not all are directly connected to traditional holiday celebrations. Read our mini reviews of all the selected titles, punch up the trailers and pick those with the greatest appeal. Or, better yet, watch them all.
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She’s been working pretty steadily since she first hung up her red swimsuit after Baywatch aired its last episode in the late 1990s, but with director Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, Pamela Anderson may have finally found the role that will put the image of her running down a beach in slow-mo to rest once and for all. She’s unforgettably vulnerable as Shelly, an aging Las Vegas dancer whose life is thrown into turmoil when her long-running burlesque show closes.
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A woman struggling fiercely with the never-ending demands of modern motherhood dares to think — and say — some of the quiet parts out loud in writer/director Marielle Heller‘s thought-provoking Nightbitch. Part satire, part surreal fantasy, and part family drama, it’s bound to resonate with any woman who’s ever found herself wondering “is this really it?” while reading yet another board book or making her umpteenth pot of mac and cheese.
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It’s difficult to imagine a documentary feeling more timely in the wake of the 2024 U.S. presidential election than Nanfu Wang’s extremely personal film Night Is Not Eternal. As she explores her own feelings about resisting China’s authoritarian regime and discovers their parallels to — and departures from — the experiences of Cuban activist Rosa Maria Paya, Wang also paints a sobering picture of what could be lurking in our own not-so-distant future.
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Three very different women living in crowded but sometimes-isolating modern-day Mumbai navigate work, relationships, and social norms in writer/director Payal Kapadia’s understated but powerful drama All We Imagine as Light. Winner of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prize, Kapadia’s second feature is a compelling mix of beautifully observed reality and poignant magical realism that boasts excellent performances by its three female leads. Thoughtful, relatable, and full of meaning, All We Imagine as Light is an excellent example of what “female-forward filmmaking” really looks like.
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Writer/director Xaque Gruber’s showbiz comedy Sallywood pays loving homage to one of Hollywood’s grand dames — Oscar nominee/Golden Globe winner Sally Kirkland — while poking fun at the machinations, manipulations, and short attention span of Tinseltown itself. Based on Gruber’s own real-life experiences getting started in the entertainment industry (and working as Kirkland’s assistant) in the early 2000s, it’s ultimately as affectionate as it is satirical.
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If what happened in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, took you completely by surprise, then you’re overdue to watch Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus’ powerful (and AWFJ EDA Award-winning!) documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy. As the film makes abundantly clear through compelling interviews and extensive documentation, the horrifying acts of domestic terrorism that took over our computer and TV screens a few days ago are the direct result of the United States’ legacy of racism and voter suppression.
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