'Faces Places' earns best doc from Alliance of Women Film Journalists

AWFJ also honors 89-year-old co-director Agnès Varda with 'age-defying' honor

As the new year begins, awards are piling up quickly for the best documentaries of 2017.

Faces Places earned best doc recognition Tuesday from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, an organization made up of "professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media."

Filmmaking legend Agnès Varda and French photographer/artist JR co-directed the film, which took the pair on a rambling journey around rural France to appreciate the experience and humanity of ordinary people. 

AWFJ also gave Varda, 89, its "Actress Defying Age and Ageism" award (Varda appears on camera in the documentary -- not as an 'actor' but as herself). 

Agnès Varda and JR in a scene from "Faces Places" where JR affixes large-scale vintage portraits to a row of houses in a French village. Courtesy Cohen Media Group

AWFJ presents several atypical awards, including "Actress Most in Need of a New Agent," a dubious honor that went to Kate Winslet for her work in Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel and The Mountain Between Us directed by Hany Abu-Assad.

The group did not spare a number of men from ridicule. Its annual Hall of Shame Award went to "sexual tormentors Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner, et al," all of whom were accused in 2017 of sexual misconduct.

In the category of Outstanding Achievement by A Woman in The Film Industry AWFJ saluted Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd "and all who spoke out against sexual harassment."