Capping off their second year as a recognized awards-voting body, the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, a group which I helped found and participate as a proud member, has announced their nominees for the second annual CIFCC Awards.  The 26 voting members completed ballots with the goal of three final nominees in 21 categories.  They will commence a final round of voting ending on December 29, 2017 with winners announced on December 30, 2017.

Leading all films with seven nominations is the acclaimed thriller Get Out from director Jordan Peele.  Following closely with six nominations each are the coming-of-age dramedy Lady Bird and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water.  There are 31 different films included in 21 total categories for this year’s CIFCC Awards.

Two awards of special interest are the Trailblazer and Impact Awards.  The Trailblazer Award honors the work of an artist who truly pushed the boundaries of the medium in terms of form and content.  Nominated this year are filmmakers Sean Baker (The Florida Project), Jordan Peele (Get Out), and Dee Rees (Mudbound).  The Impact Award celebrates a person whose work has had a positive impact on society and the nominees include Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), and Jordan Peele (Get Out).

From this first round of voting, the film critics group has compiled a pair of “10 Best” lists for 2017, one for independent film defined as a budget under $20 million and one for studio films defined as movies with budgets over $20 million:

THE 10 BEST INDEPENDENT FILMS (in alphabetical order):

The Big Sick, Call Me By Your Name, The Florida Project, Get Out, A Ghost Story, Lady Bird, Lucky, Mudbound, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

THE 10 BEST STUDIO FILMS (in alphabetical order):

Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Dunkirk, Logan, The Lost City of Z, mother!, Phantom Thread, The Post, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Wonder Woman

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The complete list of nominees for the 2017 CIFCC Awards:

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM

The Florida Project

Get Out

Lady Bird

BEST STUDIO FILM

Blade Runner 2049

Dunkirk

Logan

BEST FOREIGN FILM

Raw

The Square

Thelma

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Faces Places

Jane

Whose Streets?

BEST ANIMATED FILM

Coco

The LEGO Batman Movie

Loving Vincent

BEST DIRECTOR

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk

Jordan Peele, Get Out

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Big Sick- Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani

Get Out- Jordan Peele

Lady Bird- Greta Gerwig

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Call Me By Your Name- James Ivory

The Disaster Artist- Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Mudbound– Dee Rees and Virgil Williams

BEST ACTOR

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

BEST ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri

Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip

Allison Janney, I, Tonya

Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

Get Out

Mudbound

The Post

The Shape of Water

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049- Roger Deakins

Dunkirk- Hoyte van Hoytema

The Shape of Water– Dan Laustsen

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Blade Runner 2049- Dennis Gassner

mother!- Philip Messina

The Shape of Water- Paul D. Austerberry

BEST EDITING

Baby Driver– Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss

Dunkirk– Lee Smith

War for the Planet of the Apes– William Hoy and Stan Salfas

BEST COSTUME DESIGN AND MAKEUP

Darkest Hour– Jacqueline Durran (costumes), Kazuhiro Tsuji, Lucy Sibbick and David Malinowski (makeup)

Phantom Thread– Mark Bridges (costumes), Paul Engelen (makeup)

The Shape of Water– Luis Sequeria (costumes), Jordan Samuel and Paula Fleet (makeup)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Phantom Thread– Jonny Greenwood

The Shape of Water– Alexandre Desplat

War for the Planet of the Apes- Michael Giacchino

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049- Richard Clegg, Paul Lambert, Viktor Muller, and John Nelson

Star Wars: The Last Jedi– Richard Bain, Ben Morris, Michael Mulholland, and Chris Corbould

War for the Planet of the Apes- Joe Leterri, Dan Lemmon, Eric Winquist, and Dan Cervin

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TRAILBLAZER AWARD

Sean Baker, The Florida Project

Jordan Peele, Get Out

Dee Rees, Mudbound

IMPACT AWARD

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Patty Jenkins, Wonder Woman

Jordan Peele, Get Out