2018: Ten Best Films Directed by Women

see Filmmaker Magazine for complete list!

Alt Awards: The Muriels & The WFCC

Alternative Oscar Noms are probably vital now more than ever as everyone slowly realizes that not everyone in the world is a white American male (loud eye roll)....This year I was lucky enough to participate in two different exercises in changing the Award Season conversation!

The Women Film Critics Circle announced our winners a little while ago, the complete list of which can be found here (scroll down to about the middle of the page!). The WFCC is unique in that there are a number of categories specific to women such as the Adrienne Shelly Award given to a film that displays opposition of violence towards women, The Josephine Baker Award for expressing the American WOC experience and the Karen Morley Award for a film that shows a woman's courageous search for self and her (often overlooked) place in history or society.

The Muriel Awards (named after a beloved guinea pig no less!), is an invite-only group that seeks out movie thinkers and writers, those of us who passionately lurk alone in darkened theaters to ponder the importance of cinema. They are sloooowly rolling out their list of nominees and winners with participants contributing written pieces on their choices. I wrote one on Best Supporting Actress and another on The Florida Project as part of the Best Picture countdown! I also really liked this piece about best Director winner PT Anderson & Phantom Thread, it captures the feel of the film in writing which is always the hardest- yet often overlooked- task critics are faced with! Honored to be part of this fine group!

Taking the time to look back at the year in film truly makes me see the power in what is being made and also a path forward as filmmaking expands in accessibility from all angles. Sometimes I feel like awards are just plain ridiculous but I realize now awards help inform studios about where they put their money. Having communities like The Muriels & the WFCC I hope helps make a small funnel towards the other audiences hungry for work beyond the status quo of The Academy.

H2N Review: SUNDANCE 2018 Sorry to Bother You

"Sorry to Bother You feels like a battle. During the whole film Boots Riley is fighting- fighting against genre, fighting against convention, fighting against the man, sometimes even fighting himself- and doing so with darkly comic gags and heart."