Birdman and Boyhood continue to split regional trophies. This round tips in Birdman's favor for a change though. I'm becoming more and more curious to see who SAG selects as "Outstanding Cast". Will they opt for the heartfelt dedication of 4 actors who spent a few weeks each year for over a decade making the same intimate masterpiece, or will they go with a very exciting movie that's about acting to a significant degree with the lively interactions of movie stars pretending to be theater stars who are actually acting together in frame in a way you rarely see in the movies but see all the time in theater where this is no camera and editing to distract you.
It's a tough predictive call though my vote goes to Birdman because there's far more acting with each other (and more consistency in the quality of each performance) something that is pure pleasure if you're a lover of the art of acting as interacting.
Results and commentary from Florida, Las Vegas, Utah and St Louis after the jump...
FLORIDA FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
Founded in 1996 when they named Fargo the best film. Only two of their winners haven't been Oscar Picture nominees (Magnolia & Amelie). They name their Breakthrough of the Year prize after Pauline Kael which I find so hilarious. Only because Kael was so damn cantankerous and opinionated that I'm sure she's hated most of the selections made in her name from her grave.
Picture Birdman
Director Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash
Original Screnplay Grand Budapest Hotel
Adapted Screenplay Gone Girl
Cinematography Interstellar
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Under the Skin
Visual Effects Interstellar
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film The Raid 2
Documentary Life Itself
Pauline Kael Breakout Award Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
Golden Orange - The Borsct Corporation
This last is a prize given to outstanding contributions to cinema in Florida. The Borscht Group is a non-profit helping filmmakers in South Florida
LAS VEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY
They call their prize the "Sierra" awards and they've been at it since 1997 when Titanic sunk with 4 of their trophies. Aside from a two year run 2001-2002 with Memento and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (?) all of the Sierra winners have been Oscar favorites. This year they hold the strange honor of being the only critics groups to shut Boyhood out of prizes.
Picture Birdman
Top Ten In Order
- Birdman
- Boyhood
- Whiplash
- Nightcrawler
- Grand Budapest Hotel
- Wild
- Selma
- The Imitation Game
- Snowpiercer
- Under the Skin
Director Iñárritu, Birdman
Actress Reese Witherspoon, Wild
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash
Screenplay Birdman
Cinematography Birdman
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Birdman
Song "I Love You All," Frank
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film Ida
Documentary Citizenfour
Action Film Guardians of the Galaxy
Comedy Top Five
Horror/Sci-Fi The Babadook
Family Film The LEGO Movie
Ensemble Birdman
Youth in Film Jaeden Lieberher, St Vincent
William Holden Lifetime Achievement Bill Murray
St. Vincent, or What If We Remade As Good As it Gets But Literally Canonized the Asshole Protagonist and Threw In a Pregnant Russian Hooker?
— Matthew Eng (@Eng_Matthew) December 17, 2014
So not only is Bill Murray canonized in Toronto with a whole day to himself when St Vincent premiered but he's also canonized in the film and now he's also a lifetime achievement guy for Vegas. Good year for him. The film is a solid hit, too, even though it hasn't crossed over into Oscar conversation much. You know it was thisclose to a SAG Cast nomination, though. And because we're talking about St. Vincent it's worth noting that this is one of those organizations that lets you do category fraud whenever you'd like since Naomi Watts won "SUPPORTING" for Mulholland Dr. Remember when Universal's Oscar team tried that with her campaign? That was funny... and unfortunate since she shoulda won the Oscar for best actress that year.
(They don't give out their lifetime achievement award every year but it invariably goes to a man. The only female recipient was Thelma Schoonmaker, who is closely attached to their Scorsese fetish.)
UTAH FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
Founded in 2005 so they're one of our later groups and might not make the cutoff I plan to do next year (still deciding on age of organizations to cover to make awards season more manageable.) I'm still trying to get a bead on their taste as an organization. But since I spent many years in Utah and I like one of their top critics Scott Renshaw a lot I'm always interested.
I like their unexpected mention of Snowpiercer in Adapted Screenplay just because it's something most people haven't bothered to "consider..." despite a not-very-competitive field since most of the case of "arguably adapted" works this year are claiming to be Original for the sake of awardage.
Picture Birdman
Director Inarritu, Birdman
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Michael Keaton, Birdman
Supporting Actress Jessica Chastain, A Most Violent Year
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash
Original Screnplay Birdman
Adapted Screenplay [TIE] Inherent Vice and Snowpiercer
Cinematography Nightcrawler
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Foreign Film We are the Best (Sweden)
Documentary Citizenfour
ST LOUIS GATEWAY FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION
This organization, established in 2004, includes critics from St. Louis, larger Missouri, and Illinois. Very mainstream tastes, invariably awarding either the future Best Picture winner or one of the other Oscar nomination behemoths.
Picture Boyhood
Director Alejandro Inarritu, Birdman
Actress Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Supporting Actor JK Simmons, Whiplash
Original Screnplay Birdman
Adapted Screenplay Gone Girl
Cinematography Birdman
Art Direction Grand Budapest Hotel
Score Birdman
Visual Effects Interstellar
Soundtrack Guardians of the Galaxy
Original Song "Everything is Awesome," The LEGO Movie
Animated Feature The LEGO Movie
Art House Film Whiplash
Foreign Film Force Majeure
Documentary Citizen Four
Comedy Guardians of the Galaxy
Best Scene X-Men Days of Future Past - Quicksilver's Escape
In Case You Missed Other Critics Awards Posts
Boston, LA, and NYFCO - All Boyhood, plus the early Marion Cotillard love-fest.
LAFCA Podcast - talking to Justin Chang about the LAFCA voting process and results
NYFCC - the most venerable of film critic institutions, founded in 1935!, went for Boyhood
EFA & Washington DC - Ida overseas (EFA is not a film critic organization. I was just doubling up) and a controversial Captain America: Winter Soldier decision
Boston Online - Snowpiercer curveball for an upstart group
African American Film Critics (Plus Image Awards) - A lot of Selma and a little Gugu
OFCS, Dallas, Kansas City, San Francisco - some Birdman and Budapest
Austin, Detroit, Phoenix, San Diego - a lot more Boyhood, a little Nightcrawler