ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

FYI: AWFJ's Independence Day Watch List at awfj.org/blog/2025/06... includes streaming information for each film and links to full reviews for many of the films. Watch! Enjoy! Be energized!!!

Contemplate the meaning of Independence Day while celebrating it. Movies on AWFJ's Independence Day watch list let you celebrate and contemplate simultaneously. Akk are streaming. Many seem prescient! Movies inform and inspire. See AWFJ's watch list at awfj.org/blog/2025/06... Viva democracy!!!

The correct link to @wrh.bsky.social's SPOTLIGHT on @cheryldunye.bsky.social is awfj.org/blog/2025/06...

awfjorg For Pride Month, we SPOTLGHT
@cheryldunye.bsky.social, iconic queer filmmaker. Dunye's THE WATERMELON WOMAN, a seminal work of Queer New Wave cinema, has inspired many films centering queerness, Blackness or both. Brava Dunye!!! Read Leslie Combemale's SPOTLIGHT on Dunye awfj.org/blog…

#AlliancefWomenFilmJournalists congrats Emmy-nominated writer/showrunner Molly Smith Metzler whose darkly comedic, femme-centric series SIRENS is on Netflix. Read about it @ awfj.org/blog/2025/05...
#allianceofwomenfilmjournalists #sirens #netflixseries @mollysmithmetzler @netflix.com x

Beautiful!

#CHAMBERMAID #Motw #sisterhood #movieoftheweek
Team #MOTW: @betsyboz.bsky.social @lorenking.bsky.social @jennifermerin.bsky.social @nellminow.bsky.social @womenrockinghollywood @cinepam.bsky.social @SandieChen @lizwhittemore.bsky.social @sherinnicole.bsky.social Cate Marquis.

A must see! CHAMBERMAID's take on a WW1 Prague household shows how hard life was for women. Anka and Resi's connection is respite from repression in a male-dominated world. Director MarianaCengelSolcanska makes that connection a lifeline for them both.
#MovieOfTheWeek @ awfj.org/blog/2025/05...

This image shows a man and a woman sitting on a bench outside a dark blue cinderblock building with a neon sign that says "Urgent Care Open" in the window. They're laughing. The man is white, roughly in his sixties, with white hair and a beard and dark-framed glasses. He wears an untucked button down shirt open at the neckline and black pants smeared with white splotches. The woman is in her fities, white with shoulder-length brown hair. She wears a purple wrap-waist stress and the man's black blazer with white splotches around her shoulders. The man has a sling on his right wrist. She has a boot-like cast on her left ankle.

Amy Landecker pulls off a hat trick with #ForWorse, writing, directing, and starring in this snappy romantic comedy about a divorced woman finding her feet in the Los Angeles dating scene. My @awfjorg.bsky.social review. #SXSW2025 awfj.org/blog/2025/03...

This is a photo of three twentysomething women in a largely empty palatial home. Crumbling plaster is on the walls, and two women sit on the floor while one lies on her stomach. All the women are white. The woman at the far left wears a tan long-sleeved shirt and shorts or a skirt. Her legs are crossed. She has shoulder-length brown hair. The woman in the center wears a long-sleeved blue top and sips a drink. She has long brown hair that is pulled back at the neck. The woman lying on her stomach has wavy light brown hair past her shoulders. She wears an off-the-shoulder light-colored top with ruffles, blue shorts, and thigh-high white socks with black shoes. The three are looking at illustrations spread out on the floor.

An endless summer might sound divine, but in the speculative drama #GloriousSummer, it’s a recipe for ennui. This #SXSW2025 film is more of a thought experiment than an intriguing whole. My @awfjorg.bsky.social review.
awfj.org/blog/2025/03...

This is a closeup of actress Marlee Matlin, the first deaf performer to win an Oscar for Best Actress. Matlin is a white woman in her late 50s. In this photo, she is lying on her left forearm on her left side. She has sandy blonde hair and thin brows. She wears a short-sleeved white shirt and denim coveralls. Her right hand plays with the short necklace she wears. She has a thoughtful expression on her face.

I loved the #SXSW2025 documentary #MarleeMatlinNotAloneAnymore, a revealing & introspective look at this groundbreaking performer, conveying interviews and revelations via how she experiences life: with visuals, sign language, and captioning. My @awfjorg.bsky.social review. awfj.org/blog/2025/03...

@idapost.bsky.social drops it @ @awfjorg.bsky.social on #arealpain 🧐 awfj.org/female-gaze/...

This is a medium closeup (from the head to mid-chest) of actor Val Kilmer. He is a white man in his early 60s with graying blond hair combed back and sunglasses perched atop his head. He is waving with his left hand and has a turquoise cuff bracelet on that wrist. He wears a gray suit jacket with a red pocket square, a white button-down shirt, a greenish scarf tied around his neck, and several necklaces of turquoise and Native American jewelry. Some curtains from a stage are in the background.

Raising a mental toast to #ValKilmer, gone too soon at 65. If I may, check out #Val on Amazon Prime. I reviewed this documentary for @awfjorg.bsky.social in 2021. It's an engrossing, poignant, and introspective look at his career creative & drive in his own words. awfj.org/blog/2021/07...

@awfjorg.bsky.social ‘s Movie of the Week is Emilie Blichfeldt’s THE UGLY STEPSISTER! shorturl.at/NcmkA

This is a medium closeup of a fiftysomething White woman with shoulder-length blond hair. She wears a floral blouse open at the neck. She has blue eyes and a startled look on her face. She holds her left fingers to her temple. Blood smears her forehead and fingers.

Nicole Kidman has become known for playing women whose meticulous life hides secrets. Amazon Prime's HOLLAND has some below the surface but in a way that’s more half-baked than satisfying. More in my @awfjorg.bsky.social review.
awfj.org/blog/2025/04...

This is a medium closeup outdoors where a fiftysomething White woman with long blond hair is on the right, looking into the eyes of a white horse with black splotches. The horse has a light brown bridle. The woman wears a yellow V-neck sweater and a white zipped-up hoodie that's open under a dark blue jacket.

A film crew determined to make the best of a mix-up is the basis of MAGIC FARM, a comedic drama with more going on in the background than its myopic main characters or the film cares to explore. More in my @awfjorg.bsky.social review.
awfj.org/blog/2025/04...

This is an image from an animated film set during the French Revolution, so it's an elaborate and elegant palace interior. The woman on the left wears a pink opulent gown of bows, blonde curls piled high on her head. The woman on the right is slightly taller, wears a red military coat with gold epaulets and a sword, and has long, cascading blonde hair.

Combining the French Revolution with anime and musical numbers, #TheRoseofVersailles on Netflix is a peculiar concoction, like a wasabi macaron. It might look pretty, but boy, is this an acquired taste. More in my @awfjorg.bsky.social review.
awfj.org/blog/2025/04...

VULCANIZADORA by Joel Potrykus.

Joel Potrykus’ VULCANIZADORA is releasing now.

In my review for @awfjorg.bsky.social I said “Vulcanizadora is supremely accomplished, unbearably sad, and the kind of film which is hard to shake off. Magnificient.”

awfj.org/blog/2024/08...

This image shows four people in a red convertible with the top down. The car is stopped and angled to the left. All four people wear sunglasses. At the wheel is a medium-skinned man with dark hair, a mustache and a goatee. He wears a white shirt cuffed at the elbows. Next to him is a white woman wearing white including a wide-brimmed hat. In the backseat are a white woman with long brown hair and a black woman with long brown hair wearing a floral top.

#AnotherSimpleFavor is more a travelogue for Italy’s stunning island of Capri than a satisfying mystery, with more twists to track than the island’s jackknifing roads. My @awfjorg.bsky.social review.
awfj.org/blog/2025/04...

ICYMI: My #HotDocs25 wrap piece for @awfjorg.bsky.social. Get a look at the women making news at this year's film fest in Toronto: awfj.org/blog/2025/05...

An collage/illustration of two women with long red hair, orange gowns, holding a rope, with the words "the surrender" at the top and the sxsw laurels at the bottom denoting its world premiere

Julie Max's THE SURRENDER is a solid horror film, but a truly breathtaking portrait of palliative caregiving - I've never seen it so authentically represented in a horror movie.

Don't miss this one: hits Shudder on the 23 May. My review is over at @awfjorg.bsky.social here awfj.org/blog/2025/05...

Proud to announce the nominees for the 2024 AWFJ EDA Awards! Read the list. What are your favorites? What are your predictions?
awfj.org/2024-eda-awa...

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists is proud to announce the winners of the AWFJ EDA Awards for Best Female-Directed Feature and Best Female-Directed Short at Whistler Film Festival 2024. Congrats to all! Read the report to discover the winners: awfj.org/blog/2024/12...

What's your favorite Diane Warren song?

AWFJ's December SPOTLIGHT is focused on Diane Warren! Read @wrh.bsky.social's profile on the revered and prolific songsmith at awfj.org/blog/2024/11...

Exciting news! Focus Features will release Chloe Zhao's HAMNET, adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's eponymous novel. We can't wait to see Zhao's take on this fictionalized life of William Shakespeare and his son, Hamnet, who died at a young age. Read more about it at awfj.org/blog/2024/11...

In this painting an older woman, dressed in a contemporary black raincoat, black pants & a colorful scarf, pauses while walking down a leaf-strewn sidewalk. A large black umbrella rests on her left shoulder. Her somber, yet determined face directly confronts the viewer & appears to shine brightly from the umbrella’s dark shelter. “Defiance of Erebus,” (Portrait of Jennifer Merin) 2011 by Ellen Cooper (American, born 1957)

Ellen Cooper is a respected portrait painter & teacher whose work has won many awards & accolades. This example is a bit uncharacteristic, but I like its photo-realistic quality. It's called "Defiance of Erebus.” In this instance, Erebus refers to the god of old age. www.ellencooper.net/index.html

This is a portrait of Jennifer Merin. The title of the painting should be the name of its subject, who does not wish to be portrayed or portrait-ed as the anonymous god of old age.

FYI: The painting's title should be the name of the painting's subject: Jennifer Merin. She does not wish to be portrayed or portrait-ed as anonymous!

Let's hope it's not prescient!