Chicago Film Critics Winners, Recap: '12 Years a Slave' Wins Best Picture

The Chicago Film Critics have chosen "12 Years a Slave" as the Best Film of the Year.

The critics also awarded the movie with the Best Director award for Steve McQueen and the Best Actor award for Chiwetel Ejiofor. Lupita Nyong'o won the Best Supporting Actress award while John Ridley won the Best Adapted Screenplay award.

"Gravity" won three technical awards including Best Art Direction, Best Editing and Best Cinematography.

Meanwhile, Spike Jonze won the Best Original Screenplay award while Arcade Fire won Best Score.

"The Act of Killing" won the Best Documentary award, adding another accolade to the film's list. The movie also surprised in the Best Foreign Film category.

"The Wind Rises" won the Best Animated film award while Destin Cretton won the Most Promising Filmmaker award for his second feature "Short Term 12."

Adele Exarchopoulos won the Most Promising Performer award for her role in "Blue is the Warmest Color.

Among the films nominated for this year's awards included "American Hustle," "Her," "Inside Llewyn Davis," and "Gravity."

Previous Chicago Film Critic winners include Kathyrn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life," David Fincher's "The Social Network," Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker," and Andrew Stanton's "Wall-E." Joel and Ethan Coen's "No Country For Old Men" and Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" were also among the past winners.

The film critics association was founded in 1989 and includes journalists Dave Canfield from Twitch Film Online, Adam Fendelman from Hollywood Chicago, and Dan Gire from Daily Herald.