I’ve been a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association for about a decade now, and have seen membership in the organization increase in quantity and breadth over that time, encompassing newspaper critics, magazine critics, and people who write exclusively for the web, in a region that stretches across nine states. Unlike some critics’ groups that meet face-to-face and hash out our yearly prize-winners, the SEFCA members are so scattered that we do most of our debating by e-mail, and then vote by private ballot. The results this year came down overwhelmingly in favor of 12 Years A Slave, with the movie topping our Top 10 and also winning Best Actor, Best Supporting Actresses, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, while earning runner-up mentions in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Ensemble categories.

As often happens in a democratic vote, fringe candidates fall away, so the names on SEFCA’s list will look familiar to anyone who’s been following this awards season. I do, however, want to call attention to our one unique category, The Gene Wyatt Award, which we give every year to a film that we feel evokes the spirit of the south (named for the late Gene Wyatt, who wrote about film for The Tennessean in Nashville). Several names were tossed around by our members, including 12 Years A Slave and Dallas Buyers Club, but the votes ultimately went to Mud, Jeff Nichols’ finely wrought coming-of-age story. This is Nichols’ second Wyatt; his Shotgun Stories won in 2008.

Top 10
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

Best supporting actress
1. Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave
2. Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle

Best ensemble
1. American Hustle
2. 12 Years A Slave

Best director
1. Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
2. Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity

Best original screenplay
1. Spike Jonze, Her
2. David O. Russell and Eric Singer, American Hustle

Best adapted screenplay
1. John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave
2. Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, Philomena

Best documentary
1. The Act Of Killing
2. Blackfish
3. Muscle Shoals

Best foreign language film
1. The Hunt
2. Blue Is The Warmest Color

Best animated film
1. Frozen
2. The Wind Rises

Best 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