Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

Overview

The Chicago Film Critics Association Awards are voted annually by 60 professional film critics based in the Chicago area. Members write for outlets including the Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, RogerEbert.com, The A.V. Club, Vulture, and NPR. The CFCA announces nominees in early December and winners shortly after, making it one of the earliest critics groups to reveal its picks each awards season.

The 2025 ceremony (the 38th edition) took place on December 11, 2025, in Chicago. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another won 9 awards, breaking the previous record of 7 wins held by The Power of the Dog (2021). The CFCA recognized 42 films across 19 categories in 2025, with One Battle After Another and Sinners tying for the most nominations at 12 each.

For filmmakers, a CFCA win or nomination provides Midwest critical validation that complements the New York and Los Angeles critics groups. The organization's two breakthrough categories, the Milos Stehlik Award for Breakthrough Filmmaker and Most Promising Performer, give early-career visibility that no other major critics group matches with the same specificity.

Key Categories

The CFCA presents awards across 19 categories. The full current list:

• Best Film
• Best Director
• Best Actor and Best Actress
• Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress
• Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay
• Best Cinematography
• Best Editing
• Best Art Direction / Production Design
• Best Costume Design (added 2019)
• Best Original Score
• Best Use of Visual Effects (added 2019)
• Best Animated Film
• Best Documentary
• Best Foreign Language Film
• Milos Stehlik Award for Breakthrough Filmmaker (renamed 2019)
• Most Promising Performer

Previous categories that have been retired include Most Promising Filmmaker (2001 to 2018, replaced by the Stehlik Award), Best Screenplay (1990 to 2005, split into Original and Adapted), and separate Most Promising Actor and Most Promising Actress awards (1988 to 2000).

History

The CFCA was founded in 1990 by film critics Sharon LeMaire and Sue Kiner, following the success of the first Chicago Film Critics Awards given out in 1988. The initial awards were compiled by the founders and not presented at a ceremony. In later years, winners received a glass Chicago Flame trophy featuring an etching of the Chicago skyline by artist Josef Puehringer.

The organization renamed its Most Promising Filmmaker award in 2019 following the death of longtime CFCA member Milos Stehlik, a respected Chicago film figure and founder of Facets Multimedia. The award became the Milos Stehlik Award for Breakthrough Filmmaker. The same year, the CFCA added Best Costume Design and Best Use of Visual Effects as competitive categories, expanding craft recognition beyond the traditional cinematography and editing awards.

The CFCA has hosted the annual Chicago Critics Film Festival since 2013, bringing feature and short films to Chicago audiences. The festival has served as a venue for films that later appear in CFCA award nominations, including Eva Victor's Sorry, Baby, which screened at the 2025 festival before receiving a Breakthrough Filmmaker nomination.

Voting Process

All 60 CFCA members vote in all categories. There is no branch or chapter system. Members receive screener access and attend screenings throughout the eligibility period. Nominations are determined by a full membership vote, and winners are selected in a second round of voting.

The lack of a branch system means that acting, technical, and writing categories are all decided by the same generalist electorate. This differs from the Academy's specialist-branch nomination model. In 2025, two categories produced tie votes in the nomination round, resulting in 6 nominees instead of the standard 5 for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.

Recent Winners

At the 38th CFCA Awards (December 2025), the major winners were:

• Best Film: One Battle After Another
• Best Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
• Best Actor: Timothee Chalamet, Marty Supreme
• Best Actress: Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
• Best Supporting Actor: Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another
• Best Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another
• Best Original Screenplay: Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
• Best Adapted Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
• Best Foreign Language Film: It Was Just an Accident (Iran)
• Best Documentary: The Perfect Neighbor
• Best Animated Feature: KPop Demon Hunters
• Best Cinematography: Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another
• Milos Stehlik Breakthrough Filmmaker: Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby
• Most Promising Performer: Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another

Significance for Filmmakers

The CFCA's December voting timeline places its results ahead of most guild awards and Academy nominations. A CFCA win or nomination generates press coverage in the Chicago market, the third largest media market in the US, and contributes to the early-season narrative that shapes subsequent voting bodies.

For emerging filmmakers, the Milos Stehlik Award for Breakthrough Filmmaker has a track record of identifying directors who go on to wider recognition. Past recipients and nominees have subsequently secured studio deals, festival premieres, and Academy Award nominations. The Most Promising Performer category similarly highlights actors early in their careers, often before guild or Academy recognition.

The CFCA's Midwest perspective produces results that frequently diverge from coastal critics groups. In 2025, the CFCA gave 9 awards to One Battle After Another, a film that also received significant recognition from the Critics Choice Awards but was not the top winner at either the New York Film Critics Circle or the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. This divergence makes the CFCA a distinct data point in the awards season landscape rather than a redundant echo of other critics groups.

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Eligibility Quirks That Trip People Up

• No submission process or fees: The CFCA does not operate a formal submission process. All 60 members vote on films released during the calendar year, determining eligibility based on theatrical and streaming release schedules. There are no entry forms, fees, or formal submission requirements. Filmmakers must rely on CFCA members seeing their film through press screenings and industry screeners.
• All 60 members vote in all categories: Unlike the Academy Awards, where branch members vote within their specialty for nominations, all CFCA members vote in every category. This generalist electorate means acting, technical, and writing categories are all decided by the same body of critics, which can produce results that differ from specialist-jury awards.
• Tie votes can expand nominee fields: In 2025, two categories produced tie votes in the nomination round, resulting in 6 nominees instead of the standard 5 for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. This is unusual among critics groups and can create confusion when comparing CFCA nominee lists to other awards that maintain strict 5-nominee fields.
• December voting is among the earliest: The CFCA announces nominees in early December and winners shortly after, making it one of the earliest critics groups to reveal its picks. Films that open late in the calendar year may not have been seen by all members before voting, which can disadvantage late releases.
• Milos Stehlik Award has specific eligibility: The Breakthrough Filmmaker award, renamed in 2019 for the late Milos Stehlik, recognizes emerging directors. The Most Promising Performer category similarly highlights actors early in their careers. These categories have no direct parallel in most other critics groups, and their eligibility criteria (what constitutes "breakthrough" or "promising") are determined by the membership rather than by published rules.

Prestige Tier

The CFCA Awards are a mid-tier US critics' award, below the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in national influence but alongside the Boston Society of Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics in critical authority. The CFCA's Midwest perspective produces results that frequently diverge from coastal critics groups, making it a distinct data point in the awards season landscape rather than a redundant echo. The December voting timeline places its results ahead of most guild awards and Academy nominations, giving it early-season narrative influence. The two breakthrough categories (Milos Stehlik Award for Breakthrough Filmmaker and Most Promising Performer) give early-career visibility that no other major critics group matches with the same specificity. For emerging filmmakers, a CFCA breakthrough win has a track record of identifying directors who go on to wider recognition, including studio deals, festival premieres, and Academy Award nominations. The Chicago market is the third largest media market in the US, giving CFCA coverage practical reach for awards campaign materials.

See Also

For understanding how critics awards shape the broader awards season calendar, see Festival Strategy for Independent Films. To model how awards recognition affects your project's revenue trajectory, use the Revenue Forecast Calculator. For comparison with other critics groups, see the Critics Choice Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.