“The Social Network,” David Fincher’s film chronicling the tumultuous development of the enormously popular social networking website Facebook, clearly made a lot of friends with the Chicago Film Critics Association as it received eight nominations for their 2010 awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Four films tied for second place with six nominations, including “The King’s Speech,” the British drama about King George VI struggling to overcome a lifelong stuttering problem with the help of a decidedly unconventional speech therapist, “Black Swan,” the trippy and terrifying psychodrama about a ballerina cracking under the pressure of playing the lead in “Swan Lake,” the acclaimed indie drama “Winter’s Bone” and Joel & Ethan Coen’s remake of the western classic “True Grit.” Rounding up the top vote-getters was the mind-bending thriller “Inception,” which planted itself into the running for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

In the Best Actor category, Colin Firth was cited for his performance as King George VI in “The King’s Speech” and is joined by James Franco as a hiker trapped between a rock and a hard place in “127 Hours,” Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in “The Social Network,” Ryan Gosling as one half of a marriage gone bad in “Blue Valentine” and Jeff Bridges stepping into John Wayne’s eye patch in “True Grit.” In the Best Actress category, the nominees include Annette Bening for her work in the quirky comedy-drama “The Kids Are All Right,” Jennifer Lawrence as a backwoods teenager searching for her father in “Winter’s Bone,” Lesley Manville as the self-pitying center of Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” Natalie Portman as the driven ballerina in “Black Swan” and Michelle Williams as the other half of a marriage gone bad in “Blue Valentine.” In the category of Best Supporting Actor, the nominees include Christian Bale as a boxer turned crack addict in “The Fighter,” Andrew Garfield as one of the key people behind the development of Facebook in “The Social Network,” John Hawkes as the reclusive uncle pressed into helping his niece in “Winter’s Bone,” Mark Ruffalo as a laid-back dude who finds himself unexpectedly thrust into the lives of a lesbian couple and the children that were fathered through his sperm donation and Geoffrey Rush as the radical speech therapist charged with curing a king in “The King’s Speech.” For Best Supporting Actress, co-stars Melissa Leo and Amy Adams were both cited for their work in “The Fighter” and are joined by Helena Bonham Carter for “The King’s Speech,”  Jacki Weaver for the Australian crime drama “Animal Kingdom” and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld for her turn in “True Grit.”

BEST PICTURE
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Winter's Bone

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges--True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg--The Social Network
Colin Firth--The King’s Speech
James Franco--127 Hours
Ryan Gosling--Blue Valentine

BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening--The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence--Winter’s Bone
Lesley Manville--Another Year
Natalie Portman--Black Swan
Michelle Williams--Blue Valentine

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale--The Fighter
Andrew Garfield--The Social Network
John Hawkes--Winter’s Bone
Mark Ruffalo--The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush--The King’s Speech

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams--The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter--The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo--The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld--True Grit
Jacki Weaver--Animal Kingdom