Alliance of Women Film Journalists choose ‘Nomadland,’ Emerald Fennell, Radha Blank for top film awards

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) named Nomadland the best film of 2020 as well as Chloé Zhao for best director and star Frances McDormand as best actress among its numerous accolades.

Nomadland had led the nominations with 9. Regina King and her feature film directorial debut One Night in Miami with 8 and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman with 6.

Radha Blank was named best Woman Screenwriter for her feature debut The Forty-Year Old Version and Emerald Fennell won the original screenplay prize for Promising Young Woman, also her feature directorial debut.

“Our EDA Awards always honor the year’s best regardless of gender,” says AWFJ and EDA Awards founder Jennifer Merin. “We are thrilled that in 2020 three female-directed films have emerged as our most-nominated films. Even better, two of these and several other multi-nominated films tell stories centering on strong and complex female characters from diverse backgrounds.”

The news was first reported by Variety.

Here is the full list of winners.

AWFJ BEST OF AWARDS

(These awards are presented to women and/or men without gender consideration)

Best Film

• Minari (A24)
• Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
• Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – WINNER
• One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
• Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)

Best Director 

• Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
• Regina King, One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
• Kelly Reichardt, First Cow (A24)
• Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
• Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – WINNER

Best Actor

• Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)
• Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) – WINNER
• Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)

Best Actress 

• Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
• Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
• Frances McDormand, Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – WINNER
• Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role 

• Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
• Bill Murray, On the Rocks (A24/Apple TV Plus)
• Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios) – WINNER

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

• Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Amazon Studios)
• Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
• Amanda Seyfried, Mank (Netflix)
• Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari (A24) – WINNER

Best Screenplay, Original 

• Mank (Netflix) – Jack Fincher
• Promising Young Woman (Focus Features) – Emerald Fennell – WINNER
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix) – Aaron Sorkin

Best Screenplay, Adapted

• First Cow (A24) – Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond
• Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – Chloé Zhao – WINNER
• One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios) – Kemp Powers

Best Animated Film

• Over the Moon (Netflix)
• Soul (Pixar) – WINNER
• Wolfwalkers (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS)

Best Cinematography 

• Mank (Netflix) – Erik Messerschmidt
• Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – Joshua James Richards – WINNER
• One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios) – Tami Reiker

Best Editing 

• One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios) – Tariq Anwar
• Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures) – Chloé Zhao – WINNER
• The Trial of the Chicago 7”(Netflix) – Alan Baumgarten

Best Documentary 

• All In: The Fight for Democracy (Amazon Studios) – WINNER (tie)
• Athlete A (Netflix)
• Crip Camp (Netflix)
• The Painter and the Thief (Neon) – WINNER (tie)
• Time (Amazon Studios)

Best Non-English-Language Film

• Another Round – Denmark – WINNER
• Beanpole – Russia
• The Mole Agent – Chile
• The Painted Bird – Czech Republic

Best Ensemble Cast – Casting Director

• Da 5 Bloods (Netflix) – Kim Coleman
• One Night in Miami”(Amazon Studios) – Kimberly Hardin – WINNER (tie)
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix) – Francine Maisler – WINNER (tie)

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS

(These awards honor WOMEN only, excluding women who’ve won the category in the Best Of Awards.

Best Woman Director 

• Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman (Focus Features) – WINNER
• Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
• Regina King, One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
• Channing Godfrey Peoples, Miss Juneteenth (Vertical Entertainment)
• Kelly Reichardt, First Cow (A24)
• Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Best Woman Screenwriter 

• Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix) – WINNER
• Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)
• Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features)
• Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Best Animated Female 

• “22” in Soul (Pixar) – portrayed by Tina Fey – WINNER
• “Mebh Óg MacTíre” in Wolfwalkers (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS) – portrayed by Eva Whittaker
• “Robyn Goodfellowe” in Wolfwalkers (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS) – portrayed by Honor Kneafsey

Best Woman’s Breakthrough Performance 

• Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version (Netflix)
• Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features) – WINNER
• Helena Zengel, News of the World (Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry 

• All female heads of film festivals who successfully transitioned from live to online events to sustain festival culture through the pandemic.
• All indie female writers and directors who normalized abortion as a vital element in the cultural conversation in films such as Saint Frances, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Sister of the Groom, Once Upon a River, The Glorias and others. – WINNER
• Emerald Fennell for creating a film that forces empathy to put an end to the toxic sexist rape culture pervasive through modern history.
• Sophia Loren for a brilliant comeback at age 86 in The Life Ahead, the latest in her record-setting career. Loren won a Best Actress Oscar in 1962 for “Two Women” and was the first actor to win for a foreign language movie. She was also nominated in 1965 for Marriage Italian Style. If she’s nominated in 2021, it will be a 56-year span between her two most recent nominations – the current record is held by Henry Fonda, who had a 41-year gap between nominations.

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

Grand Dame Award for defying ageism.

• Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
• Tsai Chin, Lucky Grandma (Good Deed Entertainment)
• Sophia Loren, The Life Ahead (Netflix) – WINNER
• Frances McDormand, Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)

Most Egregious Lovers’ Age Difference Award 

• The Burnt Orange Heresy (Sony Pictures Classics) – Elizabeth Debicki and Claes Bang (23 years)
• Devil All the Time (Netflix) – Riley Keough and Jason Clarke (20 years)
• Mank – Amanda Seyfried and Charles Dance (39 years), Gary Oldman (27 years)
• Tenet – Elizabeth Debicki and Kenneth Branagh (30 years) – WINNER

She Deserves A New Agent Award 

• Rose Byrne, Like a Boss (Paramount Pictures)
• Tiffany Haddish, Like a Boss (Paramount Pictures)
• Katie Holmes, Dare to Dream (Gravitas Ventures)
• Uma Thurman, The War with Grandpa (101 Studios) – WINNER

Most Daring Performance Award 

• Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’(Amazon Studios) – WINNER
• Haley Bennett, Swallow (IFC Films)
• Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman (Netflix)
• Elisabeth Moss, The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures)
• Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman (Focus Features)

Time Waster Remake or Sequel Award 

• The Croods: A New Age (DreamWorks Animation)
• Doolittle (Universal Pictures) – WINNER
• Rebecca (Netflix)

AWFJ Hall of Shame Award 

• Shia LaBeouf for his ongoing abusive behavior
• Christopher Nolan for insisting that Tenet be screened exclusively in theaters during a pandemic. – WINNER (tie)
• Dallas Sonnier and Adam Donaghey at Cinestate for sexual harassment, abuse and cover-up. – WINNER (tie)

AWFJ is an international association of professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media. The EDAs are named in honor of AWFJ founder Jennifer Merin’s mother, Eda Reiss Merin, a stage, film and screen actress whose career spanned more than 60 years. A dedicated foot soldier in the industry, Eda was one of the founders of AFTRA and a long-standing member of AMPAS.

The Forty-Year Old Version image courtesy of Jeong Park/Netflix

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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