N.Y. film critics pick "Boyhood" as year's best

NEW YORK - "Boyhood," Richard Linklater's mesmerizing tale of an adolescent growing into young adulthood, whose actors aged with the characters over the film's 12-year shooting span, was named Best Picture of 2014 by the New York Film Critics Circle.

Richard Linklater’s “outlaw ethos”

Linklater also received the Best Director prize from the group, whose choices were announced Monday.


"Boyhood" also won Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette, playing the single mother with a predilection for attaching herself to the wrong men.

Marion Cotillard was named Best Actress for two performances this year, as a Polish woman whose arrival in the New World in the early 20th century steers her into the hands of a pimp in "The Immigrant," and as a woman pleading with co-workers to make a selfless choice that would save her job in "Two Days, One Night."

Timothy Spall, who won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance as English landscape painter J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh's visually stunning biopic "Mr. Turner," repeated his victory here.

The New York Film Critics Circle's top acting honors went to Marion Cotillard for two films, "Two Days, One Night" (left) and "The Immigrant," and Timothy Spall for "Mr. Turner." CBS News

J.K. Simmons received the Best Supporting Actor Award for playing a fearsome and abusive music teacher in the Sundance prize-winner, "Whiplash."

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" earned director Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness the Best Screenplay Award.

Pawel Pawlikowski's haunting period drama "Ida," about a young Polish novitiate who, before taking her vows, learns that she is Jewish and consequently goes on a journey to discovery her parents' fate, received the Best Foreign Language Film Award.

Agata Trzebuchowska and Agata Kulesza in the Polish drama, "Ida." Music Box Films

Laura Poitras' gripping documentary "CitizenFour," about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, won the group's Best Non-Fiction Award.

Darius Khondji's exquisite lensing for "The Immigrant" also won Best Cinematography.

Best First Film went to Jennifer Kent for the eerie horror film, "The Babadook."

Jennifer Kent's Australian horror tale, "The Babadook," won for Best First Film. IFC

And everything was awesome for "The Lego Movie," which won Best Animated Film.

The group gave a special career award to Adrienne Mancia, film curator for such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

The New York Film Critics Circle is comprised of 34 print and online reviewers based in the city. It is the first critics' group to announce its best-of choices, which are a major precursor for the Academy Award nominations (which will be announced on January 15).

However, the often-eclectic NYFCC's choices often don't match up with the ultimate Oscar-winners, as was the case last year. Although Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto won prizes from both groups, the N.Y. critics' picks for Best Picture and Best Screenplay ("American Hustle"), Best Actor (Robert Redford, for "All Is Lost"), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence, for "American Hustle"), Best Director (Steve McQueen, for "12 Years a Slave"), Best Cinematography ("Inside Llewyn Davis"), Best Foreign Film ("Blue Is the Warmest Color") and Best Animated Film (Hayao Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises") were all snubbed by the Academy.

And for those keeping score this year, among the popular hits, critics' darlings and end-of-year awards bait that fell short today are "American Sniper," "Begin Again," "Birdman," "Blue Ruin," "Dear White People," "Foxcatcher," "Fury," "Gone Girl," "The Imitation Game," "Inherent Vice," "Interstellar," "Into the Woods," "Locke," "A Most Violent Year," "Nightcrawler," "Selma," "Snowpiercer," "The Theory of Everything," "Unbroken," and "Under the Skin."

The New York Film Critics Circle Awards will be handed out in early January.


2014 NYFCC Winners:

Best Picture: "Boyhood"

Best Actor: Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner"

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard for "The Immigrant" and "Two Days, One Night"

Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"

Best Director: Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"

Best Screenplay: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Best Cinematographer: Darius Khondji, "The Immigrant"

Best Foreign Film: "Ida"

Best Animated Film: "The Lego Movie"

Best Non-Fiction Film: "CitizenFour"

Best First Film: "The Babadook" by Jennifer Kent

Special Award: Film curator Adrienne Mancia


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