Film News: ‘12 Years a Slave’ Leads 2013 Chicago Film Critics Winners

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Steve McQueen’s harrowing “12 Years a Slave” was the big winner at an awards dinner held on December 16, 2013 by the Chicago Film Critics Association, of which HollywoodChicago.com writer Brian Tallerico is the Vice President and HC film critics Adam Fendelman & Patrick McDonald are voting members. “Slave” took home five prizes, including Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay. It was easily the big winner of the night, followed by Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity” with three technical awards and “Her” with two trophies for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score.

Destin Cretton and Adele Exarchopoulos took home the citations for promising newcomers while Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto continued their runs to Oscar with awards for “Blue Jasmine” and “Dallas Buyer Club,” respectively. Finally, Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” won BOTH Best Documentary and Best Foreign-Language Film while Hayao Miyazaki’s elegiac final film, “The Wind Rises,” which doesn’t even open in Chicago until February, won Best Animated Film of the year. Full list below…

12 Years a Slave Photo credit: Fox Searchlight

BEST PICTURE
“12 Years a Slave”

BEST DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen, “12 Years a Slave”

BEST ACTOR
Chiwetel Ejiofor, “12 Years a Slave”

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Her” by Spike Jonze

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“12 Years a Slave” by John Ridley

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
“The Act of Killing”

BEST DOCUMENTARY
“The Act of Killing”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“The Wind Rises”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Gravity,” Emmanuel Lubezki

BEST EDITING
“Gravity,” Alfonso Cuaron & Mark Sanger

BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
“Gravity”

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
“Her,” Arcade Fire

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER
Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue is the Warmest Color”

MOST PROMISING FILMMAKER
Destin Cretton, “Short Term 12”

AWARD TALLY
“12 Years a Slave”: 5 awards
“Gravity”: 3 awards
“The Act of Killing”: 2 awards
“Her”: 2 awards
“Blue is the Warmest Color”: 1 award
“Blue Jasmine”: 1 award
“Dallas Buyers Club”: 1 award
“Short Term 12”: 1 award
“The Wind Rises”: 1 award

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com