87th Academy Awards results – Birdman soars! Also wins for Whiplash, Boyhood, Interstellar and Grand Budapest

We, like so many, predicted that Richard Linklater’s loving endeavour of a film would snatch top prize last night but the Broadway-set black comedy depicting a disgraced actors attempted resurgence has caused an unexpected upset. Birdman is this year’s victor, succeeding the recent likes of 12 Years a Slave, Argo, The Artist and The King’s Speech. It received four awards, including Best Picture, Director and Cinematography. Here’s the full winners list.

Best Picture:

Birdman
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director:

Alejandro Gonazlez Inarritu – Birdman
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

Best Actor:

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton – Birdman

Best Actress:

Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Supporting Actor:

JK Simmons – Whiplash
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

Best Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Laura Dern – Wild
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best Original Screenplay:

Birdman – Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
Boyhood – Richard Linklater
Foxcatcher – E Max Frye, Dan Futterman
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
Nightcrawler – Dan Gilroy

Best Adapted Screenplay:

The Imitation Game – Graham Moore
American Sniper – Jason Dean Hall
Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson
The Theory of Everything – Anthony McCarten
Whiplash – Damien Chazelle

Best Animated Feature Film:

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Foreign Language Film:

Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales

Best Documentary – Feature:

Citizenfour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

Best Documentary – Short:

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Cruise
The Reaper
White Earth

Best Live Action Short Film:

The Phone Call
Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh

Best Animated Short Film:

Feast
The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

Best Original Score:

The Grand Budapest Hotel – Alexandre Desplat
The Imitation Game – Alexandre Desplat
Interstellar – Hans Zimmer
Mr Turner – Gary Yershon
The Theory of Everything – Johann Johannsson

Best Original Song:

“Glory” – John Legend, Common – Selma
“Everything is Awesome” – The Lonely Island, Tegan and Sara – The Lego Movie
“Grateful” – Dianne Warren – Beyond the Lights
“I’m Not Gonna Miss You” – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond – Glen Campbell: I’ll be Me
“Lost Stars” – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois – Begin Again

Best Sound Editing:

American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing:

Whiplash
American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken

Best Production Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr Turner

Best Cinematography:

Birdman (Emmanuel Lubezki)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Robert Yeoman)
Ida (Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski)
Mr Turner (Dick Pope)
Unbroken (Roger Deakins)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Foxcatcher
Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Costume Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr Turner

Best Film Editing:

Whiplash
American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game

Best Visual Effects:

Interstellar
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Tonight will be considered a triumph for Birdman, Whiplash and The Grand Budapest Hotel. The team of Boyhood, besides the winning Arquette, may be disappointed with the lack of payoff for their monumental effort. Considering their high amount of nominations, The Imitation Game, Mr Turner, Unbroken and Foxcatcher have suffered a let down. Here’s the winner’s leaderboard:

Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel – 4
Whiplash – 3
American Sniper, Big Hero 6, Boyhood, Citizenfour, Ida, The Imitation Game, Interstellar, Selma, Still Alice, The Theory of Everything – 1

Making predictions for next year, perhaps Spielberg’s thriller St James Place or the Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar could feature. Inarritu may be at it again with his release The Revenant or Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight may emerge. Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs? David O Russell’s Joy? Bryan Cranston’s Trumbo? Del Toro’s Crimson Peak. We may even give Star Wars: The Force Awakens a shot. We’ll see you next year.

2015 Academy Awards Nominations! – Birdman leads

We favoured Interstellar, Godzilla, The Lego Movie, The Imitation Game and Guardians of the Galaxy as our best picks of 2014 (Birdman, Selma, American Sniper and The Theory of Everything counting as 2015) but the Oscars are assumed as the definitive representation of the finest films. The esteemed guests of actor Chris Pine (Star Trek Into Darkness), director/writer JJ Abrams (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) and last year’s Best Director winner Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men) were the ones to reveal the following announcements.

Best Picture:

American Sniper
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything
Whiplash

Best Director:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

Best Actor:

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Best Actress:

Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Laura Dern – Wild
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best Supporting Actor:

Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Adapted Screenplay:

Jason Hall – American Sniper
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash

Best Original Screenplay:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
E Max Frye, Dan Futterman – Foxcatcher
Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

Best Animated Feature Film:

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Song of the Sea
The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Cinematography:

Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman
Robert Yeoman – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Lukasz Zal, Ryszard Lenczewski – Ida
Dick Pope – Mr Turner
Roger Deakins – Unbroken

Best Editing:

American Sniper
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Whiplash

Best Costume Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Inherent Vice
Into the Woods
Maleficent
Mr Turner

Best Foreign Language Film:

Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines
Timbuktu
Wild Tales

Best Makeup and Hair:

Foxcatcher
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Production Design:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
Mr Turner

Best Sound Editing:

American Sniper
Birdman
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing:

American Sniper
Birdman
Interstellar
Unbroken
Whiplash

Best Visual Effects:

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
X-Men: Days of Future Past

Best Music – Original Score:

Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar
Gary Yershon – Mr Turner
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything

Best Music – Original Song:

Everything is Awesome – Shawn Patterson – The Lego Movie
Glory – John Stephens, Lonnie Lynn – Selma
Grateful – Diane Warren – Beyond the Lights
I’m Not Going to Miss You – Glen Campbell, Julian Raymond – Glen Campbell…I’ll be Me
Lost Stars – Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois – Begin Again

Best Documentary Feature:

CitizenFour
Finding Vivian Maier
Last Days in Vietnam
The Salt of the Earth
Virunga

Best Documentary Short:

Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
Joanna
Our Curse
The Reaper
White Earth

Best Short – Live Action:

Aya
Boogaloo and Graham
Butter Lamp
Parvaneh
The Phone Call

Best Short – Animation:

The Bigger Picture
The Dam Keeper
Feast
Me and My Moulton
A Single Life

Overall, this wasn’t entirely different to any of the major awards dispensers to go before but there’s still the odd surprise in store. Bradley Cooper, Laura Dern, Marion Cotillard and Robert Duvall’s acting nods weren’t expected. The strange number of eight Best PIcture nominees left out other favourites such as Foxcatcher, Unbroken, Interstellar, Into the Woods and Nightcrawler. Big Eyes, Cake and A Most Violent Year are mentionless.

The Lego Movie got a disappointing turnout but Selma, while it picked up a Best Picture nomination, got snubbed in Best Director (Ava DuVernay) and Best Actor (David Oyelowo). David Fincher/Ben Affleck’s Gone Girl too will be sourly disappointed, only receiving Leading Actress  Shamefully, every acting competitor is white and there are no female entries in Directing or Writing, proving the bias of the predominantly white male academy.

The award of Best Editing tends to be a powerful prompter for the Best Picture frontrunners so I’d say American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Whiplash and Birdman will be the closest contenders to the main winner Boyhood. The Grand Budapest Hotel may suffer the American Hustle problem of a great amount of nominations but none to few wins. Here’s the current leaderboard.

Birdman – 9
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 9
The Imitation Game – 8
Boyhood – 6
American Sniper – 6
Interstellar – 5
Foxcatcher – 5
Whiplash – 5
The Theory of Everything – 4
Mr Turner – 4
Into the Woods – 3
Unbroken – 3
Ida – 2
Wild – 2
Selma – 2
Guardians of the Galaxy – 2
Inherent Vice – 2

Richard Linklater, Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore, JK Simmons and Patricia Arquette seem set to win and here’s my own top ten most likely predictions for Best Picture.

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. American Sniper
4. Whiplash
5. The Theory of Everything
6. The Imitation Game
7. Selma
8. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Gone Girl and How I Met Your Mother star Neil Patrick Harris will host the Academy Awards on February 22nd.

Boyhood, Still Alice and Birdman triumph at 2015 Golden Globes

The first of the three major awards ceremonies dished out its accolades at last nights Golden Globes. So far Boyhood, Birdman, The Imitation Game, Gone Girl and The Grand Budapest Hotel seemed to be leading the way but this’ll set the town for the rest of the awards season to come.

Best Motion Picture – Drama:

Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Pride
St Vincent
Into the Woods

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama:

Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy:

Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Bill Murray – St Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy:

Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Emily Blunt – Into the Woods
Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture:

JK Simmons – Whiplash
Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods
Emma Stone – Birdman

Best Director – Motion Picture:

Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture:

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaries, Armando Bo – Birdman
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Best Original Score – Motion Picture:

Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Trent Reznor – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best Original Song – Motion Picture:

John Legend/Common, “Glory” – Selma
Lana Del Rey, “Big Eyes” – Big Eyes
Patti Smith/Leonard Kaye, “Mercy Is” – Noah
Greg Kurstin/Sia Furler/Will Gluck, “Oppurtunity” – Annie
Lorde, “Yellow Flicker Beat” – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1

Best Animated Feature Film:

How to Train Your Dragon 2
Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Lego Movie
The Boxtrolls

Best Foreign Language Film:

Leviathan
Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
Ida
Tangerines

Boyhood’s victory, as well as Linklater, Keaton, Adams, Simmons and Arquette’s wins, was easily predictable but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t any surprises. Three of the four leading categories were wide open an last night put Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams into the lead. Wes Anderson’s whimsical caper The Grand Budapest Hotel toppled dark comedy Birdman in the Comedy/Musical category but Inarritu’s film bounced back for Screenplay. The night’s biggest loser is The Imitation Game, hotly tipped with five noms but not a single win.

Here’s the winner’s list in full:

Boyhood – 3
Birdman, The Theory of Everything – 2
Big Eyes, The Grand Budapest Hotel, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Leviathan, Selma, Still Alice, Whiplash – 1

In TV, the likes of Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, True Detective and The Missing lost out to Fargo, Transparent, The Honourable Woman, House of Cards and The Affair.

You can find our official Oscar predictions (first nominees, then winners) here very soon.

Weekend box-office – 13th to 19th of December 2014 – will the Hunger Games prevail in slow week?

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 opened with a bang a couple of weeks back, its $120 million opening becoming the biggest of the year, but things have died down greatly now: this week’s highest new entry was horror flick The Pyramid at nine but this spells a second chance for Horrible Bosses 2. The dark comedy sequel (starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Pine, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey and Christoph Waltz) entered fifth last week and will hope to make an improvement now. Last week, we predicted it as a non-mover but let’s see what happens in this new edition of the Weekend Box-Office

US:

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Director: Francis Lawrence – $22 million
2. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – $10.9 million
3. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders – $8.4 million
4. Big Hero 6 – Don Hall, Chris Williams – $8 million
5. Interstellar – Christopher Nolan – $7.8 million

UK:

1. Paddington – Paul King – £3.8 million
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence – £2.2 million
3. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith – £1.6 million
4. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum – £0.9 million
5. Horrible Bosses 2 – Sean Anders – £0.6 million

Although a 60% drop hurt its chances, young adult, dystopian action The Hunger Games unsurprisingly triumphed this week but the real shock was Horrible Bosses’ leap to third. Its overall takings are still mediocre and, despite the strength of its stars, this is still a failure. In the UK, family comedy Paddington retains top spot while Dreamworks’ animation spin off Penguins of Madagascar makes a vastly disappointing third place entry. This week I’ve scored an impressive 7/10.

US:

1. Exodus: Gods and Kings – Ridley Scott
2. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
3. Top Five – Chris Rock
4. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith
5. Inherent Vice – Paul Thomas Anderson

UK:

1. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson
2. Paddington – Paul King
3. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Francis Lawrence
4. Penguins of Madagascar – Eric Darnell, Simon J Smith
5. The Imitation Game – Morten Tyldum

Natalie Dormer, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Mahershala Ali in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, this week’s US number one.

Ben Whishaw in Paddington, this week’s UK number one.

Selma, Pride and Grand Budapest Hotel surprise at Golden Globe nominations

The first of the three truly major awards ceremonies, the other two being the BAFTAs and the Oscars, has at last pushed its cards from its chest. Unsurprisingly, the likes of Boyhood, Birdman, Foxcatcher, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and The Grand Budapest Hotel feature prolifically but there’s a few unexpected mentions for the films Selma, Pride, Annie, St Vincent, Nightcrawler and Into the Woods and the stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Bill Murray, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Aniston and Meryl Streep. A phenomenal nine Brits have cropped up in the acting nominations (Benedict Cumberbatch, David Oyelowo, Eddie Redmayne, Ralph Fiennes, Felicity Jones, Rosamund Pike, Emily Blunt, Keira Knightley and Helen Mirren). Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will host the ceremony next Spring.

Best Picture – Drama:

Boyhood
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Picture – Musical or Comedy:

Birdman
Into the Woods
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Pride
St Vincent

Best Director:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Ava DuVernay – Selma
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Best Actor – Drama:

Steve Carell – Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
David Oyelowo – Selma
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

Best Actress – Drama:

Jennifer Aniston – Cake
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy:

Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Bill Murray – St Vincent
Joaquin Phoenix – Inherent Vice
Christoph Waltz – Big Eyes

Best Actress: Musical or Comedy:

Amy Adams – Big Eyes
Emily Blunt – Into the Woods
Helen Mirren – The Hundred-Foot Journey
Julianne Moore – Maps to the Stars
Quvenzhane Wallis – Annie

Best Supporting Actor:

Robert Duvall – The Judge
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game
Emma Stone – Birdman
Meryl Streep – Into the Woods

Best Screenplay:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
Alejendro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Graham Moore – The Imitation Game

Best Original Score:

Alexandre Desplat – The Imitation Game
Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Gone Girl
Antonio Sanchez – Birdman
Hans Zimmer – Interstellar

Best Original Song:

Big Eyes – Big Eyes – Lana Del Rey
Glory – Selma – John Legend, Common
Mercy Is – Noah – Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye
Opportunity – Annie – Greg Kurstin, Sia Furler, Will Gluck
Yellow Flicker Beat – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Lorde

Best Foreign Language Film:

Force Majeure
Gett: The Trial of Vivianne Amsalem
Ida
Leviathan
Tangerines

Best Animated Feature:

Big Hero 6
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

Here’s the list of the biggest nomination holders:

Birdman – 7
Boyhood – 5
The Imitation Game – 5
Gone Girl – 4
The Grand Budapest Hotel – 4
Selma – 4
The Theory of Everything – 4
Big Eyes – 3
Into the Woods – 3
St Vincent – 3
Foxcatcher – 3

Birdman tops Indie Spirit nominations and Andy Serkis discusses Age of Ultron

Andy Serkis is one of Britain’s great innovative actors of the century, providing the iconic roles of The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit’s Gollum, Rise/Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’ Caesar and King Kong. While also starring in the flesh in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, he’s still by far best known for his legendary motion capture work but its unclear which format he shall take for his upcoming works, an unspecified role in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, directing and starring as Baloo in Jungle Book: Origins and a mystery shrouded appearance in Marvel’s blockbuster sequel.

In The Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer Serkis’ part was teased in a single shot in which, bearded, he turns toward the camera. He bares a great resemblance to the Marvel villain Ulysses Klaw, which’d make him the lead antagonist in 2017’s Black Panther alongside hero Chadwick Boseman. As well as this he’s assisting with the film’s mo-cap work with the characters Hulk and Ultron. He’s shed some light on that process.

“We did some work on Ultron,” Serkis reveals to Empire on their visit to his Imaginarium Studio. “On the development of Ultron before James Spader came on board. In terms of movement styles: was he gonna be human-like? Was he going to be robot-like? So we worked with a bunch of different people, from body-popping experts to dancers, to this guy called Neil who’s nearly eight feet tall.”

“We gave Mark weights, we had voice projections so he could do his Hulk roar. On screen we could have a virtual representation of the low-resolution avatar of The Hulk, so he could come out and feel that sense of scale.”

Written and directed by Joss Whedon (Serenity, Buffy and the Vampire Slayer, Toy Story), the sequel stars Robert Downey Jr (The Judge, Sherlock Holmes) as Tony Stark, James Spader (Stargate, Lincoln) as Ultron, Chris Hemsworth (Rush, The Cabin in the Woods) as Thor, Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town) as Clint Barton, Chris Evans (Snowpiercer, The Iceman) as Steve Rogers, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Lucy) as Natasha Romanoff, Mark Ruffalo (Shutter Island, Foxcather) as Bruce Banner, Elizabeth Olsen (Godzilla, Liberal Arts) as Wanda Maximoff, Aaron Taylor Johnson (Kick-Ass, Anne Karenina) Pietro Maximoff, Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind, Margin Call) The Vision, Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother) as Maria Hill, Don Cheadle (Crash, Flight) as James Rhodes, Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, King Kong) as Wolfgang von Strucker, Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting, Melancholia) as Erik Selvig and Samuel L Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park, The Incredibles, Django Unchained) as Nick Fury.

Followed by Martin Luther King biopic Selma and drumming drama Whiplash, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Birdman, a dark comedy centred on a former but now fledging and arrogant superhero star played by Beetlejuice’s Michael Keaton, is leading the pack in The Independent Spirit Awards with six nominations. The lack of a mention for acclaimed British wartime drama The Imitation Game has caused some controversy (a calculated conspiracy to snub the Brits?). Take a look at the full list.

Best Feature:

Birdman
Boyhood
Love is Strange
Selma
Whiplash

Best Director:

Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Ava DuVemay – Selma
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
David Zellner Kumiko – The Treasure Hunter

Best Screenplay:

Big Eyes
A Most Violent Year
Nightcrawler
Only Lovers Left Alive
Love is Strange

Best Female Lead:

Marion Cotillad – The Immigrant
Rinko Kikuchi – The Treasure Hunter
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Jenny Slate – Obvious Child
Tilda Swinton – Only Lovers Left Alive

Best Male Lead:

Andre Benjamin – Jimi: All is By My Side
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
John Lithgow – Love is Strange
David Oyelowo – Selma

Best Supporting Female:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Carmen Ejogo – Selma
Andrea Suarez Paz – Stand Clear of Closing Doors
Emma Stone – Birdman

Best Supporting Male:

Riz Ahmed – Nightcrawler
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Alfred Molina – Love is Strange
Edward Norton – Birdman
JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Cinematography:

The Immigrant
Birdman
It Felt Like Love
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Selma

Best Editing:

Boyhood
Whiplash
Nightcrawler
A Most Violent Year
The Guest

Best International Film:

Force Majeure
Ida
Leviathan
Mommy
Norte, The End of History
Under the Skin

Robert Altman Award:

Inherent Vice; Director: Paul Thomas Anderson; Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Jena Malone, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon

Special Distinction Award:

Foxcatcher; Director: Bennett Miller; Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, Vanessa Redgrave

The Avengers: Age of Ultron – May 1st 2015