Alliance of Women Film Journalists Announce Their 2018 Film Awards Winners

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has announced the winners of the 2018 AWFJ EDA Awards. This year, AWFJ presented EDA Awards in 25 categories (divided into three sections).

In the ‘Best Of’ section, this year’s big winner is Roma, garnering five EDA Awards for Best Film, Best Non-English Language Film, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Director for Alfonso Cuaron.

The highly-regarded The Favourite was honored in the “Best Of,” “Female Focus,” and “EDA Special Mention” categories with a total of four awards. The film’s star Olivia Colman was honored with the Best Actress and the Bravest Performance awards, while the film’s writer Deborah Davis received two wins for Best Screenplay Original (with co-writer Tony McNamara) and Best Woman Screenwriter.

Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? won three awards including Best Supporting Actor for Richard E. Grant, Best Screenplay Adapted going to writers Nicole Holofcener and Jeff White, and Best Woman Director to Heller.

Disney/Marvel’s action film Black Panther was awarded Best Ensemble Cast, and cinematographer Rachel Morrison received the ‘Outstanding Achievement By A Woman’ honor for paving the road for women cinematographers for her work as DP on the blockbuster and her history-making 2018 Oscar nomination for her cinematography work on Mudbound.

Morgan Neville’s documentary on Mr. Rogers, Won’t You Be My Neighbor, was named Best Documentary, and Best Animated Film went to Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse which was directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsay, and Rodney Rothman.

The Best Animated Female award went to Elastagirl (Holly Hunter) from Incredibles 2.

Additional acting awards went to Ethan Hawke for Best Actor for First Reformed, Best Supporting Actress to Regina King for her role in If Beale Street Could Talk, and newcomer Thomasin McKenzie was honored with the Best Breakthrough Performance Award for her starring role in Leave No Trace.

Additional winners in the EDA Special Mention Categories:

• Viola Davis received ‘The Actress Defying Age and Ageism Award’ for Widows
• Jennifer Lawrence in Red Sparrow was singled out for ‘Actress Most in Need Of A New Agent’
• Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson received ‘The Most Egregious Age Difference Between The Lead and The Love Interest Award’ for Mission Impossible: Fallout
• Overboard was named ‘The Remake or Sequel That Shouldn’t Have Been Made’

The Annual AWFJ Hall of Shame Award was bestowed upon ‘All Alleged Abusers,’ including Weinstein, Moonves, CK, Spacey, Rush, Franco, Singer, Rose, Lauer et al.

“Representing women film critics’ perspectives on the world’s constantly evolving cinema scene, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists is proud that our 2018 EDA Awards nominees and winners genuinely reflect the movie industry’s advances in the cause of equality and diversity,” states Jennifer Merin, EDA Awards and AWJF founder and film critic. “Our EDA Awards always honor the year’s best regardless of gender, but we also recognize the need to have categories that focus specifically on women’s achievements in an industry that still has a long way to go to reach gender parity and equal opportunity for all.”

This year on their final ballots, AWFJ members singled out films that told stories centering on strong and complex female characters from diverse backgrounds. The organization honored the excellent work of female directors and screenwriters. And, as is customary, they have called out some egregious choices and behavior that hopefully will not be repeated in the future.

“All in all, 2018 produced a bumper crop of female-directed and female-centered films,” adds Merin. “Too few of them reached the mainstream, but we hope that AWFJ and the EDA Awards can help to rush such films into the current.”

For those who don’t know, AWFJ (official website) is a not-for-profit corporation. It is an international association of professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to raising the volume on women’s voices in the film community by broadening opportunities for women who write about film and supporting films by and about women – both in front of and behind the cameras – through intra-group promotional activities, outreach programs and by presenting EDA awards in recognition of outstanding accomplishments (the best and worst) by and about women in the movies.

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Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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