
The St. Louis Film Critics (of which I am a member), the professional association of working film critics in the St. Louis area, announced the winners of their annual St. Louis Film Critics Awards on Monday, December 16, 2013.
The yearly awards are given to recognize the best in cinema for the year. To be eligible for an award, a film must have been shown in 2013 in the greater St. Louis area in a theater, at a film festival or series, or made available to SLFC members by screening or screener by our deadline for awards consideration.
Films opening in New York or Los Angeles before year’s end for Oscar qualification are eligible in advance of a St. Louis opening, provided the films are made available to members of the St. Louis Film Critics Association by our deadline. This year, among the films not made available for awards consideration, was “Labor Day,” and, therefore, it could not be considered for the SLFC Awards.
This year, the SLFC Association added a new category, for Best Art Direction. The winners of these two unofficial categories are listed separately below our official winners.
Overall “12 Years a Slave” was the big winner but I feel we spread the love around pretty well.
The 2013 St. Louis Film Critics’ Award Winners are:
Best Film
12 Years a Slave
Runner-up: American Hustle
Best Director
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
Runner-up: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Runner-up: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Actress
Cate Blanchette (Blue Jasmine)
Runner-up Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)
Best Supporting Actor
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Runner-up: Will Forte (Nebraska)
Best Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyongo (12 Years a Slave)
Runner-up: June Squibb (Nebraska)
Best Original Screenplay
Spike Jonze (“Her”)
Runner-up: David O. Russell and Eric Singer (“American Hustle”)
Best Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley and Solomon Northrup (“12 Years a Slave”)
Runner-up: Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope, and Martin Sixsmith (“Philomena”)
Best Cinematography
a tie: 12 Years a Slave(Sean Bobbitt)
and Gravity(Emmanuel Lubezki)
Best Visual Special Effects
Gravity
Runner-up: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Best Musical Score
Marie Ebbing and Ren Klyce (“Her”)
Runners-up (tie): Steven Price (“Gravity”) and Mark Orton (“Nebraska”)
Best Soundtrack
T-Bone Burnett “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Runner-up: Christophe Beck (“Frozen”)
Best Art Direction
Damien Drew, Ian Gracie, and Michael Turner (“The Great Gatsby”)
Runner-up: Austin Gorg (“Her”)
Best Documentary
Blackfish
Runners-up (a tie): The Act of Killing
and
Stories We Tell
Best Non-English Language Film
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
Runner-up: Wadjda
Best Comedy
a tie: Enough Said
and
The World’s End
Best Animated Feature
Frozen
Runner-up: The Wind Rises
Best Art-House or Festival Film
For artistic excellence in independent, international, or smaller-budget films that played at film festivals, film series, or had a limited-release run in St. Louis, playing one to three cinemas.
Short Term 12
Runners-up (a tie) Blue Is the Warmest Colour
and Frances Ha
Best Scene
- A favorite movie scene or sequence
12 Years a Slave- The hanging scene
Runner up: Gravity- The opening tracking shot.