Critics Awards (Film)

Chicago Indie Critics (CIC) Winners: ‘Sinners’ Nabs 10 Awards

Erik Anderson January 16, 2026

The Chicago Indie Critics (CIC) have announced the winners of their Windie Awards for the best in film for 2025.

Leading all films with 10 total Windie Award wins was Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Coogler received two individual wins in Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, and shared the prize of Best Studio Film as one its producers – alongside his wife, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian. Coogler’s longtime collaborator, Michael B. Jordan, took home Best Actor for his dual performance of the Moore twins “Smoke” and “Stack.”

Casting Director, Francine Maisler, won for assembling the lights-out cast in the Best Ensemble category, and Coogler-favorite Ludwig Göransson took home Best Score and shared the prize for Original Song for “I Liedto You.” Lastly, Sinners finished the day with wins in the technical categories of Editing, Cinematography, and Sound.

Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein earned the second-most wins with three, claiming victory in the craft categories of Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup. The other two films to win multiple awards were Paul Thomas Anderson’s, One Battle After Another (Best Adapted Screenplay and Sean Penn in Best Supporting Actor), and James Cameron’s ultimate blockbuster, Avatar: Fire and Ash (Best Visual Effects, and Sight Unseen Performance for Oona Chaplin).

Here is the complete list of winners.

BEST INDEPENDENT FILM

Train Dreams

Producers: Marissa McMahon, Teddy Schwarzman, Will Janowitz, Ashley Schlaifer, and Michael Heimler

BEST STUDIO FILM

Sinners

Producers: Zinzi Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Ryan Coogler

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Sentimental Value

Producers: Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen OttmarBEST DOCUMENTARY

John Candy: I Like Me

Producers: Colin Hanks, Johnny Pariseau, George Dewey, Shane Reid, Ryan Reynolds, Sean Stuart, and

Glen Zipper

BEST ANIMATED FILM

KPop Demon Hunters

Producers: Maggie Kang, Chris Applehans, and Michelle Wong

BEST DIRECTOR

Ryan Coogler – Sinners

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Sinners – Ryan Coolger

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson

BEST ACTOR

Michael B. Jordan – Sinners

BEST ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley – Hamnet

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sean Penn – One Battle After Another

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Madigan – Weapons

BEST ENSEMBLE

Sinners – Francine Maisler

BEST BREAKOUT PERFORMER

Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another

BREAKOUT BEHIND THE SCENES

Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby

SIGHT UNSEEN PERFORMANCE

Oona Chaplin – Avatar: Fire and Ash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Sinners – Autumn Durald ArkapawBEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Frankenstein – Tamara Deverell

BEST EDITING

Sinners – Michael P. Shawver

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Frankenstein – Kate Hawley

BEST MAKEUP

Frankenstein – Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel, and Cliona Furey

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avatar: Fire and Ash – Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett

BEST STUNTS

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Wade Eastwood

BEST SOUND

Sinners – Chris Welcker, Benny Burtt, Brandon Proctor, Steve Boeddeker, and Felipe Pacheco

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“I Lied to You”– Sinners

Written by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson

Performed by Miles Caton

THE IMPACT AWARD

Given to individual or group who has made a positive impact on local Chicago cinema

Michael Phillips – former film critic of The Chicago Tribune

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.