The 16th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 2003

2003 in film

The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...

, were presented in 2004. The awards were originally going to be cancelled because the 2003 screener ban but when a judge ruled against it and the studios started to send out screeners again the awards were held after all.

Peter Jackson's final part of "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy "The Return of the King" and Sofia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" both won three awards.

Winners

• Best Actor:
  • Bill Murray
    Bill Murray
    William James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and...
    
     - Lost in Translation
    Lost in Translation (film)
    Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
    
    
• Best Actress:
  • Charlize Theron
    Charlize Theron
    Charlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
    
     - Monster
• Best Cinematography:
  • Lost in Translation
    Lost in Translation (film)
    Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
    
    - Lance Acord
    Lance Acord
    Lance Acord, A.S.C. is an American cinematographer.Acord was born in Marin County, California. He attended Sir Francis Drake High School's School Within A School program and went on to study photography and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. He began his professional career with...
    
    
• Best Director:
  • Peter Jackson
    Peter Jackson
    Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
    
     - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
    
    
• Best Documentary Feature:
  • The Fog of War
    The Fog of War
    The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara is a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara as well as illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare...
    
    
• Best Film:
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
    
    
• Best Foreign Language Film:
  • Cidade de Deus (City of God), Brazil
    Brazil
    Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
    
    /France
    France
    The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
    
    /USA
• Best Original Score:
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
    The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy-drama film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings...
    
    - Howard Shore
    Howard Shore
    Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
    
    
• Best Screenplay:
  • Lost in Translation
    Lost in Translation (film)
    Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
    
    - Sofia Coppola
    Sofia Coppola
    Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
    
    
• Best Supporting Actor:
  • Tim Robbins
    Tim Robbins
    Timothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the former longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
    
     - Mystic River
    Mystic River (film)
    Mystic River is a 2003 American drama film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Emmy Rossum. The film was written by Brian Helgeland, based on Dennis Lehane's novel of the same...
    
    
• Best Supporting Actress:
  • Patricia Clarkson
    Patricia Clarkson
    Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
    
     - Pieces of April
    Pieces of April
    Pieces of April is a 2003 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges. The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival.- Plot :...
    
    
• Most Promising Filmmaker:
  • Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini - American Splendor
    American Splendor (film)
    American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy-drama film about Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor comic book series. The film is also in part an adaptation of the comics, which dramatize Pekar's life...
    
    
• Most Promising Performer:
  • Keisha Castle-Hughes
    Keisha Castle-Hughes
    Keisha Castle-Hughes is a New Zealand film actress who rose to prominence at the age of eleven when playing Paikea "Pai" Apirana in the 2002 film Whale Rider...
    
     - Whale Rider