CIFCC ANNOUNCES FIRST EVER ANNUAL AWARD WINNERS

Nothing shocking, given that these first ever awards from the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle are based on their first ever nominations. Makes sense, right? And nothing shocking in their choices of winners either, as La La Land and Moonlight both win big - the former especially - or about as big as a film can win with a group like the CIFCC. And here you go:

Best Director

Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Actress

Natalie Portman (Jackie)

Best Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Supporting Actress

Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Best Original Screenplay

Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney (Moonlight)

Best Cinematography

Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

Best Editing

Tom Cross (La La Land)

Best Production Design

David Wasco (La La Land)

Best Costume Design

Anna Biller (The Love Witch)

Madeline Fontaine (Jackie)

Best Visual Effects

Richard Bluff, Stephane Ceretti, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould (Doctor Strange)

Best Makeup

Jason Hamer (Swiss Army Man)

Best Original Score

Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Best Ensemble Cast

Mahershala Ali, Patrick Decile, Naomie Harris, Alex R. Hibbert, Andre Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monae, Jaden Piner, Trevante Rhodes and Ashton Sanders (Moonlight)

Best Studio Film

La La Land (Fred Berger, Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt)

Best Independent Film

Moonlight (Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Adele Romanski)

Best Micro-Budget Film

The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer and Lisa Kjerulff)

Best Animated Film

Kubo and the Two Strings (Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner)

Best Documentary

O.J.: Made in America (Ezra Edelman, Deirdre Fenton, Libby Geist, Nina Krstic, Erin Leyden, Tamara Rosenberg, Connor Schell and Caroline Waterlow)

Best Foreign Film

The Handmaiden (Syd Lum and Park Chan Wook)

Best Chicago Film

Southside with You (Tika Sumpter, Richard Tanne and Robert Teitel)

Best Undistributed Film

Atmo Horrox (Patmo Tremblay)

Best Short Film

Piper (Marc Sondheimer)

Impact Award

Ava DuVernay (13th)

Charles Musser and Jacqueline Stewart (Pioneers of African-American Cinema)

Trailblazer Award

Anna Biller (The Love Witch)

Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)