Well, here it is, my ranked list of 2015 releases I saw.  This was a really incredible year for female characters.  While I tend to see arthouse releases and be biased in favor of films that focus on women and other traditionally marginalized characters, without really trying, 9 of my top 10 films  featured female protagonists.  Hopefully this will be a growing trend, and future lists will include more diverse protagonists– and directors.

Additionally, this was a notable year for female film characters on CPBS.  Among them:  I kicked the year off with an early fat, gender non-conforming female character: “Ma” Rainey from The Ox-Box Incident.  Two articles I wrote for BitchFlicks focused on fat female characters: Margaret from The Foxy Merkins and Annie Wilkes from Misery.  Although I still haven’t seen The DUFF, I did use Mae Whitman’s casting as a “designated ugly, fat friend” to contemplate what criteria determine a character as fat.  And, perhaps most exciting, I interviewed my best friend and self-identified fat actress Jessica Conger about her role in Most Likely.

Since I started doing a monthly roundup of fat characters mid-year, most films with fat characters will link to the relevant article.

1. Duke of Burgundy 
2. When Marnie Was There
3. Tangerine
4. Mommy
5. Mistress America
6. Carol
7. Mad Max: Fury Road
8. Clouds of Sils Maria
9. The End of the Tour
10. Spy
11. It Follows
12. Dope
13. While We’re Young
14. Spotlight
15. They Look Like People
16. Heart of a Dog
17. Experimenter
18. The Assassin
19. Entertainment
20. Kumiko the Treasure Hunter
21. Star Wars: the Force Awakens
22. Girlhood
23. Advantageous
24. The Last Five Years
25. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
26. Queen of Earth
27. Buzzard
28. Slow West
29. Ex Machina
30. Phoenix
31. Welcome to Me
32. What We Do in the Shadows
33. World of Tomorrow
34. Goodnight Mommy
35. Iris
36. The Devil’s Candy
37. The Stanford Prison Experiment
38. Yakuza Apocalypse
39. Results
40. Red Spider
41. Jupiter Ascending
42. People Places Things
43. The D Train- Was this the only film with a fat character that I didn’t write about?  Many apologies to Jack Black, whose performance I actually enjoyed, even if a lot of the film’s humor is of the painfully socially awkward variety that makes my skin crawl.
44. Focus
45. Carmen Tropical
46. The Wolf Pack
47. Chubby
48. White God
49. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence
50. Irrational Man
51. Pitch Perfect 2
52. Animals
53. Raiders!
54. It’s Not Funny
55. Felt
56. Jurassic World
57. Unfinished Business
58. The Abandoned