Earlier this week, the Southeastern Film Critics Association (SEFCA) announced its 2013 film awards. INDY Week contributors Neil Morris and Craig Lindsey are two of SEFCA’s 51 voting members covering nine Southern states.

The big winner was 12 Years a Slave, which was selected as the year’s best film. Director Steve McQueen won best director, Chiwetel Ejiofor was named best actor and Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o, a newcomer to American films, won Best Supporting Actress.

“While 12 Years a Slave was a clear-cut winner, the voting indicates that this is an exceptionally deep year for the movies,” SEFCA President Philip Martin said. “Eighty-one different films received votes.”

Mud director Jeff Nichols became the first two-time winner of the groups’ Gene Wyatt Award, a prize for films that “best evoke the spirit of the South,” given by SEFCA in honor of the late Nashville Tennessean film critic and charter member of the critics’ group.

The full list of SEFCA winners and runners-up are listed below:

Best Films
1. 12 Years a Slave
2. Gravity
3. American Hustle
4. Her
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Nebraska
7. Dallas Buyers Club
8. Philomena
9. Captain Phillips
10. The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Actor
1. Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
2. Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Best Actress
1. Cate Blancett, Blue Jasmine
2. Judi Dench, Philomena

Best Supporting Actor
1. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
2. Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

Supporting Actress
1. Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
2. Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Ensemble Performance
1. American Hustle
2. 12 Years a Slave

Director
1. Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
2. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Original Screenplay
1. Spike Jonze, Her
2. David O. Russell and Eric Singer, American Hustle

Adapted Screenplay
1. John Ridley,12 Years a Slave
2. Jeff Pope & Steve Coogan, Philomena

Documentary
1. The Act of Killing
2. Blackfish
3. Muscle Shoals

Foreign Language
1. The Hunt
2. Blue is the Warmest Color

Animated Film
1. Frozen
2. The Wind Rises

Cinematography
1. Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity
2. Sean Bobbitt, 12 Years a Slave

The Gene Wyatt Award for the Film that Best Evokes the Spirit of the South
1. Jeff Nichols, Mud
2. Greg “Freddy” Cammalier, Muscle Shoals