40th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Winners

The so-called "most powerful" group of American critics voted yesterday and Boyhood becomes their most honored movie this year as got top award, best director, best actress and best editor. Most notable is that Patricia Arquette was honored as lead actress and not in a supporting role which in my opinion complicates the possible results at AMPAS unless Academy voters are clear in one of the two possibilities.

Also noticeable among winners is the absence of the film that many have called the other "strong" contender, Birdman; an absence that allowed The Grand Budapest Hotel to occupy the space with two wins and two top-awards runner-up.

The Winners

Best Picture: Boyhood
Runner-up: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Animation: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
Runner-up: The Lego Movie

Documentary/nonfiction film: Citizenfour
Runner-up: Life Itself

Foreign-language film: Ida
Runner-up: Winter Sleep

Best Director: Richard Linklater for Boyhood
Runner-up: Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress: Patricia Arquette in Boyhood
Runner-up: Julianne Moore in Still Alice

Supporting Actress: Agata Kulesza in Ida
Runner-up: Rene Russo in Nightcrawler

Best Actor: Tom Hardy in Locke
Runner-up: Michael Keaton in Birdman

Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
Runner-up: Edward Norton in Birdman

Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner-up: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo for Birdman

Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman
Runner-up: Dick Pope for Mr. Turner

Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen for The Grand Budapest Hotel
Runner-up: Ondrej Nekvasil for Snowpiercer

Best Film Editing: Sandra Adair for Boyhood
Runner-up: Barney Pilling for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Music/score (tie)
Jonny Greenwood for Inherent Vice
Mica Levi for Under the Skin

New Generation: Ava Duvernay for Selma
Douglas Edwards Independent/Experimenta Film/Video: Walter Reuben for The David Whiting Story
Career Achievement: Gena Rowlands
Special Citation: Leonard Maltin

One thing I learned yesterday from the West Coast critics that I followed on Twitter for the day, before the best actress winner was announced some got on a heated argument about Julianne Moore and her Best Actress possibilities in Oscar. The consensus is that Julianne Moore performance in Still Alice is acceptable BUT the movie is not good. This remind me of a friend that found the movie similar to any soapy Lifetime channel movie (true!) and the other friend that believed that every time Kristen Stewart was on screen, Julianne Moore disappeared (agree). So, seems that Moore's Still Alice role will NOT be the one that could give her an Oscar and perhaps that's why Maps to the Stars was rescheduled to run ONE week in Los Angeles (this week) to fully qualify for the Academy Awards.

Probably I am one of the few that didn't enjoyed Locke, so for me is hard to understand Tom Hardy win above the favorites in this category like Keaton, Gyllenhaal, etc. As a matter of fact if I think UK films, I enjoyed a lot more Brendan Gleeson performance in Calvary than Hardy in Locke. But that shows how open the race is in both lead acting category as among the actresses seems Moore is not the sure thing everyone thought before critics' winners started to announce.

Still, we have to remember that currently we are learning what one Industry group thinks deserves honors, the film critics and NONE of them are AMPAS members, consequently NONE participate in the Academy Awards voting process. What film critics and Academy members honor each year can be different as has happened often in recent years. Nevertheless for Oscar nominations guessing process, absolutely helps to follow what large and small film critics' groups honor.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association will hand out its prizes at a ceremony on January 10, 2015. To read winners at official site go here.