The Broadcast Film Critics Association have just finished announcing their annual Critics Choice Awards, with Birdman winning honors in seven categories (including Best Actor, Best Actor in a Comedy, Best Ensemble, and Best Original Screenplay) and Boyhood taking four of its own, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress.
This is usually the point where I would point out any shocking twists or surprises that occurred, but truth be told, not a single surprising thing happened. Everyone who was expected to win, or had a very good chance of winning, did. In fact, the only slightly unusual thing that happened all evening was seeing Michael Keaton take both Best Actor AND Best Actor in a Comedy, when many thought the BFCA would use that chance to honor two different actors. It’s rather hard to complain about it though as Keaton’s performance is brilliant and very much deserving of both awards.
So, what did we learn from this evening? Well, we now have very solid confirmation that Birdman is highly likely to take the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, especially when you couple this with the Golden Globe win it received earlier this week. We already had a pretty good idea of which film was going to receive SAG’s Best Cast award, but its Best Ensemble win tonight seems to make it an even higher probability that it will go to Birdman as well. Aside from that, we can only further confirm that we have a few wide-open Oscar categories, where many of the leaders (including a few of the winners tonight) were snubbed earlier this morning.
One thing’s for sure, pending some enormous upset by the guilds, it looks like Boyhood and Richard Linklater will have smooth sailing straight through to the Oscars. Speaking of the guilds, next up are the Producers Guild of America awards on January 24th, where we’ll get our final answer as to what film has the best chance of moving on to win Best Picture. Be sure to join us then for a live list of the winners.
In the meantime, please see below for a complete list of this evening’s winners:
Best Picture: Boyhood
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Ensemble: Birdman
Best Original Screenplay: Birdman
Best Adapted Screenplay: Gone Girl
Best Editing: Birdman
Best Cinematography: Birdman
Best Art Direction: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Hair and Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Visual Effects: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Best Animated Feature: The LEGO Movie
Best Documentary: Life Itself
Best Foreign Language Film: Force Majeure
Best Score: Birdman
Best Song: “Glory,” Selma
Best Action Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Actor in an Action Movie: Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Best Actress in an Action Movie: Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow
Best Comedy: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Actor in a Comedy: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress in a Comedy: Jenny Slate, Obvious Child
Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie: Interstellar
Best Young Actor/Actress: Ellar Coltrane, Boyhood