It may have struggled to gain a foothold this week with groups like SAG and the HFPA, but “The Master” remains a pet of the critical community that has championed it since the fall. Right after The Guardian team named it the top film of 2012, Paul Thomas Anderson’s thorny character study received further good news today from the Chicago Film Critics’ Association, as it led their nominations list with a whopping 10 mentions.

The Chicago critics arguably sit alongside their Boston counterparts as the most significant regional critics’ group after New York and Los Angeles — not least because they incorporate the vote of America’s favorite critic, Roger Ebert. Their picks can often be counted upon to avoid Oscar-season groupthink, and while it doesn’t go out on too many limbs, this year’s list follows suit.

Just behind “The Master,” with nine nods, is “Beasts of the Southern Wild” — meaning two films that are by no means Oscar certainties lead the pack, while industry favorites like “Les Miserables” and “Silver Linings Playbook” are largely left on the sidelines. Consensus picks “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Lincoln” fill out the top category — I might have expected to see LA Critics’ champ “Amour” score here or for Michael Haneke in Director and Original Screenplay, though at least Emmanuelle Riva nabbed a Best Actress mention. 

Among the Windy City’s more interesting picks, it’s great to see “Holy Motors” dynamo Denis Lavant grab at Best Actor nod at the expense of stars like Bradley Cooper and Hugh Jackman, and I’m also glad to see at least one group ignoring campaign instructions and nominating “The Sessions” star Helen Hunt for Best Actress. Also, this is the first nomination I can recall for the superb Jason Clarke in Best Supporting Actor; I’d love to see his name mentioned more as “Zero Dark Thirty” builds momentum.

Meanwhile, it’s interesting to see two previously under-the-radar screenplay contenders keep racking up mentions: “Looper” scores again in the original field, while word-of-mouth favorite “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” gets another adapted nod ahead of major Oscar hopefuls like “Life of Pi.” Is the Academy’s writers’ branch hearing the same buzz? I’m beginning to think they might.

Check out the full list of nominations below, and catch up with the season thus far at The Circuit.

BEST PICTURE

Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Lincoln

The Master

Zero Dark Thirty



BEST DIRECTOR

Ben Affleck, Argo

Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild



BEST ACTOR

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Denis Lavant, Holy Motors

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Denzel Washington, Flight



BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Naomi Watts, The Impossible



BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jason Clarke, Zero Dark Thirty

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln



BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, The Master

Emily Blunt, Looper

Judi Dench, Skyfall

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables



BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino

Looper by Rian Johnson

The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson

Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola

Zero Dark Thirty by Mark Boal



BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Argo by Chris Terrio

Beasts of the Southern Wild by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin

Lincoln by Tony Kushner

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Silver Linings Playbook by David O. Russell



BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Amour

Holy Motors

The Intouchables

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Rust and Bone



BEST DOCUMENTARY

The Central Park Five

The Invisible War

The Queen of Versailles

Searching For Sugar Man

West of Memphis



BEST ANIMATED FILM

Brave

Frankenweenie

ParaNorman

The Secret World of Arrietty

Wreck-It Ralph



BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi

Janusz Kaminski, Lincoln

Mihai Milaimare Jr., The Master

Roger Deakins, Skyfall

Greig Fraser, Zero Dark Thirty



BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Alexandre Desplat, Argo

Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Jonny Greenwood, The Master

Alexandre Desplat, Moonrise Kingdom

Alexandre Desplat, Zero Dark Thirty



BEST ART DIRECTION

Anna Karenina

Les Miserables

Lincoln

The Master

Moonrise Kingdom



BEST EDITING

Willian Goldenberg, Argo

Alexander Berner and Claus Wehlisch, Cloud Atlas

Leslie Jones and Peter McNulty, The Master

Stuart Baird, Skyfall

William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor, Zero Dark Thirty



MOST PROMISING PERFORMER

Samantha Barks, Les Miserables

Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom

Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Tom Holland, The Impossible

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild



MOST PROMISING FILMMAKER

Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Drew Goddard, The Cabin in the Woods

Nicholas Jarecki, Arbitrage

Colin Trevorrow, Safety Not Guaranteed

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild