Women Film Critics Circle honors 'Lady Bird,' 'Mudbound,' 'First They Killed My Father'

Dec. 23 (UPI) -- The Women Film Critics Circle has declared Lady Bird -- a coming-of-age story starring Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf -- 2017's Best Movie About Women.

Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, the dramedy also earned the awards for Best Movie by a Woman and Best Woman Storyteller.

Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father was deemed Best Foreign Film by or About Women and the stars of Girls Trip were honored as Best Ensemble.

The WFCC bestowed its Lifetime Achievement honor on director Agnes Varda.

Frances McDormand earned the accolades for Best Actress and Courage in Acting for her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, while Allison Janney scored the prizes for Best Comedic Actress and Mommie Dearest -- Worst Screen Mom of the Year for her work in I, Tonya.

The Josephine Baker Award for "best expressing the woman of color experience in America" went to Mudbound and its director Dee Rees was recognized with the Courage in Film-making title.

Coco won for Best Family Film and Best Animated Females; Wonder Woman for Best Female Action Hero; Battle of the Sexes won for Best Equality of the Sexes; and characters Emily and Kumail -- played by Zoe Kazan and Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick -- for Best Screen Couple.

Gary Oldman was named Best Actor for his performance in Darkest Hour; Brooklynn Prince won the Best Young Actress award for her work in The Florida Project; and Betty Gabriel from Get Out earned the Invisible Woman Award for a supporting performance by a woman "whose exceptional impact on the film dramatically, socially or historically, has been ignored."

The Light of the Moon won the Adrienne Shelly Award for a film that "most passionately opposes violence against women" and the Karen Morley Award for "best exemplifying a woman's place in history or society, and a courageous search for identity" was presented to Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story.

Bombshell also shared the Best Documentary by or About Women distinction with Jane.

The WFCC's voting also reflected recent events in the entertainment industry in which dozens of executives and artists have been accused of inappropriate behavior by the women who work with and for them.

Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan and "all the women who spoke out against the culture of sexual abuse" won the group's Acting and Activism Award.

Harvey Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer repeatedly accused by women of sexual abuse, was inducted into the WFCC Hall of Shame. 

"In a year that has been marked by women's solidarity and greater awareness of injustices towards women, it means a lot for our film to be recognized. I'm grateful to the Women Film Critics Circle for all they do to support female voices in film," Jolie said in a statement issued through Netflix, her movie's distributor.