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 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.
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
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.
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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