Is "12 Years a Boy" the film to beat at this year's Oscars? In a rare show of solidarity with the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critic's Association also named Boyhood the best film of 2014. The last time both critic groups agreed on the best picture of the year was 2009, when they both awarded top honors to The Hurt Locker. The Hurt Locker went on to win Best Picture, and its box office tally of $15.7 million was the lowest ever for a Best Picture Oscar winner. Boyhood's box office gross, barring a re-release, was a plumper $24 million.
Richard Linklater also won Best Director for his 12-year project that charted a boy (Ellar Coltrane) growing up in Texas. Patricia Arquette, who played his mother, won Best Actress (although, she'll be slotted as a Supporting Actress candidate come Oscar time; Linklater won Best Director, and Arquette won Best Supporting Actress from NYCC, as well).
But the critic's association had a lot of tricks up their critical sleeves, such as Tom Hardy as Best Actor for Locke. Locke had the biggest acting showcase ever given to perform a conversation about a difficult and expensive cement pour, juxtaposed with taking responsibility for a mistress' child, all in a car ride. Agata Kulesza won Best Supporting Actress for the Polish film Ida and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel won best screenplay. Grand Budapest Hotel actually had a very strong showing with the LA critics; it also won Best Production Design, and came up a few straws short as the runner up for both Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing. All second place to Boyhood.
The full list of winners and runner ups are below.
Best Picture: Boyhood
Runner up: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Runner up: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Actor: Tom Hardy, Locke
Runner up: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Best Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Runner up: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Runner up: Edward Norton, Birdman
Best Supporting Actress: Agata Kulesza, Ida
Runner up: Rene Russo, Nightcrawler
Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner up: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Armando Bo, Birdman
Best Foreign Language Film: Ida
Runner up: Winter Sleep
Best Animated Film: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Runner up: The Lego Movie
Best Documentary: Citizenfour
Runner up: Life Itself
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Runner up: Dick Pope, Mr. Turner
Best Editing: Sandra Adair, Boyhood
Runner up: Barney Pilling, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner up: Ondrej Nekvasil, Snowpiercer
Best Music Score: (tie) Jonny Greenwood, Inherent Vice, and Mica Levi, Under the Skin
New Generation Award: Ava DuVernay, Selma
Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimental Film/Video Award: Walter Reuben, The David Whiting Story
