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Chicago Film Critics Awards Celebrate "Moonlight," "Manchester by the Sea," "The Handmaiden"

This past Thursday night, the Chicago Film Critics Association held their annual awards dinner, where the winners for the year’s best in movies and performances were announced. 

With numerous great films in competition, it’s a line-up of winners that curiously starts with the Best Picture nominees: The most awards went to writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s masterpiece of grief, “Manchester by the Sea,” receiving four including Best Actor (Casey Affleck) Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams). Three awards each went to Best Picture nominees “The Handmaiden” and “Moonlight”; the former receiving Best Foreign Language Film, the latter the top title of Best Picture. Two awards went to Best Picture nominees “Jackie” and “La La Land,” which also battled in categories like Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. 

Roger Ebert was on the Board of Directors of the Chicago Film Critics Association. RogerEbert.com Managing Editor Brian Tallerico is the Vice President of the CFCA. Publisher Chaz Ebert, Assistant Editor Nick Allen, and Assistant Editor Matt Fagerholm are members, as are contributors Peter Sobczynski, Collin Souter, Erik Childress, Sergio Mims, Mark Dujsik, Patrick McGavin, Jacob Oller and Michael Snydel.

A complete list of the CFCA winners, in bold, can be found below. 

BEST PICTURE

"The Handmaiden"
"Jackie"
"La La Land"
"Manchester by the Sea"
"Moonlight"

BEST DIRECTOR

Damien Chazelle, "La La Land"
Barry Jenkins, "Moonlight"
Pablo Larrain, "Jackie"
Kenneth Lonergan, "Manchester by the Sea"
Park Chan-wook, "The Handmaiden"

BEST ACTOR

Casey Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea"
Adam Driver, "Paterson"
Joel Edgerton, "Loving" 
Colin Farrell, "The Lobster
Denzel Washington, "Fences"

BEST ACTRESS

Amy Adams, "Arrival"
Rebecca Hall, "Christine"
Isabelle Huppert, "Elle"
Natalie Portman, "Jackie"
Emma Stone, "La La Land"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight"
Alden Ehrenreich, "Hail, Caesar!"
Ben Foster, "Hell or High Water"
Lucas Hedges, "Manchester by the Sea"
Trevante Rhodes, "Moonlight"
Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Viola Davis, "Fences"
Lily Gladstone, "Certain Women"
Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"
Janelle Monae, "Hidden Figures"
Michelle Williams, "Manchester by the Sea"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Hell or High Water" by Taylor Sheridan
"Jackie" by Noah Oppenheim
"The Lobster" by Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou
"Manchester by the Sea" by Kenneth Lonergan
"Moonlight" by Barry Jenkins

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"Arrival" by Eric Heiserrer
"Elle" by David Birke
"The Handmaiden" by Seo Kyung-Chung & Chan-wook Park
"Love & Friendship" by Whit Stillman
"Silence" by Jay Cocks & Martin Scorsese

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"Elle"
"The Handmaiden"
"Julieta"
"Neruda"
"Toni Erdmann"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM

"Cameraperson"
"Life, Animated"
"OJ: Made in America"
"Tower"
"Weiner"

BEST ANIMATED FILM

"Kubo and the Two Strings"
"Moana"
"The Red Turtle"
"Tower"
"Zootopia"

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"The Handmaiden," Chung-hoon Chung
"Jackie," Stephane Fontaine
"La La Land," Linus Sandgren
"Moonlight," James Laxton
"Silence," Rodrigo Prieto

SCORE

"Arrival," Johann Johannsson
"Jackie," Mica Levi
"La La Land," Justin Hurwitz
"Moonlight," Nicholas Britell
"The Neon Demon," Cliff Martinez

ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN

"The Handmaiden", Seong-hie Ryu
"Jackie," Jean Rabasse & Halina Gebarowicz
"La La Land," David Wasco & Austin Gorg
"The Neon Demon," Elliott Hostetter & Austin Gorg
"The Witch," Craig Lathrop & Andrea Kristof

EDITING

"Cameraperson," Nels Bangerter
"Jackie," Sebastian Sepulveda
"La La Land," Tom Cross
"Manchester by the Sea," Jennifer Lame
"Moonlight," Joi McMillon & Nat Sanders

MOST PROMISING PERFORMER

Lily Gladstone, "Certain Women"
Lucas Hedges, "Manchester by the Sea"
Royalty Hightower, "The Fits"
Janelle Monae, "Hidden Figures & Moonlight"
Trevante Rhodes, "Moonlight"

MOST PROMISING FILMMAKER

Kelly Fremon Craig, "The Edge of Seventeen"
Robert Eggers, "The Witch"
Anna Rose Holmer, "The Fits"
Travis Knight, "Kubo and the Two Strings"
Trey Edward Shults, "Krisha"

To read our review staff's picks for the Top 10 films of the year, click here.
To read our contributors' individual Top 10 lists, click here
Nick Allen

Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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