As a long-time member of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, I am proud to announce this year’s awards.

AWFJ Best Of Awards
(These awards are presented to women and/or men without gender consideration.)

Best Film

“The Banshees of Inisherin”

Best Director

Sarah Polley – “Women Talking

Best Screenplay, Original

“The Banshees of Inisherin”– Martin McDonagh

Best Screenplay, Adapted

“Women Talking– Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews

Best Documentary

“All the Beauty and Bloodshed” – Laura Poitras

Best Animated Film

“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” – Guiilermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Best Actress

Michelle Yeoh – “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role (tie)

Kerry Condon – “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Jamie Lee Curtis – “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Actor

Colin Farrell – “The Banshees of Inisherin”

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Ke Huy Quan – “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

Best Ensemble Cast – Casting Director

“Women Talking” – John Buchan and Jason Knight

Best Cinematography (tie)

“Top Gun: Maverick” – Claudio Miranda
“The Woman King” – Polly Morgan

Best Editing

“Everything Everywhere All at Once” – Paul Rogers

Best Non-English-Language Film (tie)

“Decision to Leave”
“RRR”

EDA FEMALE FOCUS AWARDS
(These awards honor women only).

Best Woman Director

Gina Prince-Bythewood – “The Woman King”

Best Woman Screenwriter

Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews – “Women Talking”

Best Animated Female

Connie – Isabella Rossellni “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On”

Best Woman’s Breakthrough Performance

Danielle Deadwyler – “Till”

Outstanding Achievement by A Woman in The Film Industry

Viola Davis – For getting “The Woman King” made as her lifetime passion project and creating opportunities for other women creatives.

EDA SPECIAL MENTION AWARDS

Grand Dame Award for defying ageism

Emma Thompson

Most Egregious Lovers’ Age Difference Award

“Crimes of the Future”– Viggo Mortensen born 1958 and Lea Sedoux born 1985

She Deserves A New Agent Award (NOTE: This is not a put down. On the contrary, it suggests that the actor is better than the role she’s been given.)

Ana de Armas for “Blonde”

Most Daring Performance

Emma Thompson – “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”

Time Waster Remake or Sequel Award

“Jurassic World: Dominion”

AWFJ Hall of Shame Award (Women and men are eligible)

Harvey Weinstein for everything and forever

Happy New Year!  Lots of great movies to look forward to in 2023. As usual, we have more information about big blockbusters that have been in the works for a while than about smaller films that may still be in production. I always look forward to seeing more from my old favorites, but as I say every year what I enjoy most is knowing that there will be some filmmakers I’ve never heard of who will surprise and delight me in the new year. Watch for Jonathan Majors, already one of my favorites ever since “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” in two giant sequels, “Creed III” and the new Ant-Man film. And watch for Oscar-winner Dame Helen Mirren in two blockbuster sequels as well: “SHAZAM” and “Fast X Part 1.”

Here are some of the films we are already excited about. (Release dates tentative)

Comic Book Movies

SHAZAM:Fury of the Gods (December)

Helen Mirren!

Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February)

Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 (May)

Deadpool 3 (September)

Sequels and Remakes

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (June)

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are back!

John Wick: Chapter 4

Fast X Part 1 (May)

The series is going out with a two-part bang. It’s still about chases, explosions, and family.

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (July)

Chases, explosions, secrets, and Tom Cruise.

Creed III (March)

Jonathan Majors plays an old friend who gets into the ring with Creed.

Magic Mike: Last Dance (February)

Salma Hayek gives the dancers their dream shot.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford is back!

Avatar 3

The forest people and the sea people versus the sky people, part 3 of 5.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part One (June)

Sequel to the Oscar-winning animated multi-verse Spidey story.

Book Club 2 (May)

Jane Fonda, Mary Steenbergen, Diane Keaton, and Candace Bergen reunite for another movie about golden age antics.

Fantasy Games

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (March)

Owlbear! Dragons! Chris Pine!

The Super Mario Brothers Movie (April)

The classic video game comes to animated life with the voices of Charlie Day and Anya Taylor-Joy.

Intriguing New Ideas

Barbie (July)

Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” was so well done I can’t help but look forward to her take on Mattel icon Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

When You Finish Saving the World (January)

“The Social Network’s” Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed a film that looks like it will break all our hearts. But in a good way.

Missing (January)

The clever “Searching” all took place on the computer screen of the frantic father played by John Cho. This follow-up stars Nia Long and Storm Reid.

Sharper (February)

Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan star in a movie about a con.

Emily (February)

Loosely inspired by the writer Emily Bronte, whose passionate story “Withering Heights” continues to thrill readers.

Linoleum (February)

Jim Gaffigan plays the host of a failing children’s science TV show who has always dreamed of being an astronaut.

Revolution (February)

In the 1970s, a church finds its congregation.

Mama Mafia (April)

Toni Collette inherits the family’s Mafia empire and turns things around with the help of Monica Belluci.

Asteroid City (June)

It’s a new Wes Anderson movie. So I’m guessing it will be quirky, curated, and a bit pretentious but worth seeing.

No Hard Feelings (June)

Jennifer Lawrence and Broadway star Andrew Barth Feldman (“Ratatouille the Musical”) plus Matthew Broderick, Ebon Moss-Bacharach (“The Dropout”), and Natalie Morales in an R-rated comedy about a woman hired to advise a socially awkward young man.

Renfield (April)

Remember Dracula’s sidekick? No? Well, here he gets his own story, with Nicholas Hoult falling in love with Awkwafina and Nicolas Cage as the vampire.

For the Family

Elemental (June)

Pixar asks whether Fire and Water can find a life together.

Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (December)

An animated sequel to the popular series.

The Little Mermaid (May)

A live action remake starring Halle Bailey.

Happy New Year! Wishing you and your families a happy and healthy new year.

If you’re home on New Year’s Eve, try one of these:

Garry Marshall’s “New Year’s Eve” shows us a variety of happy, poignant, and romantic encounters on the night of December 31.

“When Harry Met Sally” has a memorable New Year’s Eve dance.

In “Holiday,” Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn “step into a waltz as the old year dies” while the fancy society engagement party for him and her sister goes on downstairs.

Other movies with New Year’s Eve scenes: “About Time,” “The Holiday,” “The Godfather Part II,” “Rent,” and “The Apartment” — plus the completely bonkers Madam Satan. Here’s a glimpse:

As usual, I’ve picked a favorite and the other nine are tied for second place, with some runners-up.

1. “Everything Everywhere All at Once”

“Aftersun”
“The Banshees of Inisherin”
“The Fabelmans”
“Living”
“Nope”
“The Outfit”
“Skies of Lebanon”
“TÁR”
“Turning Red”

Runners-up: “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Bad Guys,” “Bullet Train,” “Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers,” “Devotion,” “Fire Island,” “Glass Onion,” “The Inspection,” “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” “The Legend of Molly Johnson,” “Spoiler Alert,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Strange World“

I have very conflicting ideas about this review. Part of me wants to tell you all about “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” but a bigger part of me wants you to find out all of its secrets and surprises on your own. So bear with me if I lean too far in that direction. I’m doing it for your own good. “Glass Onion” is an enormously entertaining delight and I want you to enjoy it fully. In fact, go ahead and watch it and then come back here if you want to see what I think about it.

Like its predecessor, “Knives Out,” it is a deliciously twisty remix of the classic British-style murder mystery, with a fabulous location and a group of suspects who all have motive and opportunity. Also like its predecessor, it has an all-star cast clearly enjoying themselves enormously.

The very large cast is efficiently and wittily introduced as each of them receives an elaborate invitation to a party at a fabulous glass mansion on a remote island, the home of a billionaire named Miles Bron (Edward Norton). In a brilliantly edited sequence, we see each of the characters trying to open the box, telling us a lot about who they are and how they think. Jackie Hoffman, as one character’s mother, is hilariously bored and sharp at the same time.

Receiving the astonishingly crafted puzzle box with the invitation:

Kate Hudson as Birdie Jay, a flamboyant, selfish, famous-for-being-famous celebrity whose outspoken remarks are often offensive.

Kathryn Hahn as Claire Debella, the governor of Connecticut.

Dave Bautista as Duke, an obnoxious, gun-toting social media star. He brings his girlfriend, Whiskey (Madeline Cline).

Leslie Odem as Lionel, a scientist working with Miles on a secret project.

Janelle Monae as Andi, formerly Miles’ girlfriend and partner.

These people were all friends before Miles became wealthy and they get together once a year. This year, Miles has something special planned, a murder mystery game.

Also arriving on the island — the one carry-over character from the earlier film, the brilliant detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).

We learn about the connections that tie this group together, with some hilarious cameo appearances (two very touching from huge stars we recently lost) and celebrity references. Miles’ glass palace is filled with the kind of gauche art displays you would see in the home of an ultra-rich guy who wants bragging rights. (Genuine art lovers will notice that the “Rothko” is hanging upside down.) Amidst the twists and turns of the story are some clever digs at those we consider “influencers” and “disrupters.”

The performances are all spectacular. Hudson nails the selfish, superficial fading star desperate for attention, pretending that she does not know the difference between being outspoken and having something to say. Norton is just right with the false geniality of of a man who has given up everything to think of himself as a winner. Craig is a hoot (one of the movie’s best surprises is the reveal of his romantic partner). Monae masters a role that requires a lot of subtlety as the estranged member of the group and looks like a billion bucks as she does so.

What song will Johnson pick for the next one? Which superstars will appear? I can’t wait to find out.

Parents should know that this is a murder mystery with homicides and betrayal. There are some graphic images, characters use strong language and drink and get drunk. The movie also includes sexual references and a sexual situation.

Family discussion: What was the biggest surprise in the movie? How does the Beatles song “Glass Onion” relate to the film? Who should star in the next chapter?

If you like this, try: “Knives Out” and “See How They Run” as well as some of the stories that inspired them: “And Then There Were None,” “The Thin Man,” and the original “Murder on the Orient Express”