Awards special – Boyhood leads in LA and Boston while Pride scores at British Independant, new directors shortlist for Ready Player One

Films such as Gone Girl, Birdman, Whiplash and The Grand Budapest Hotel have received great acclaim but Boyhood is evidently the Oscar frontrunner. It had beaten off competition at the New York Critics’ Circle but its real test for gaining awards season traction will be at the upcoming accolade distributors. The results are in from both the LA and Boston Critics Awards and Boyhood has triumphed. Here’s the winners in full. Firstly, Los Angeles:

Best Picture:

Boyhood

Best Director:

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Best Actor:

Tom Hardy – Locke

Best Actress:

Patricia Arquette – Boyhood

Best Supporting Actor:

JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress:

Agata Kulesza – Ida

Best Screenplay:

Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Foreign Language Film:

Ida

Best Documentary:

Citizenfour

Best Cinematography:

Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman

Best Animation:

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Editing:

Sandra Adair – Boyhood

Best New Filmmaker:

Ava DuVernay – Selma

And in Boston:

Best Picture:

Boyhood

Best Director:

Richard Linklater – Boyhood

Best Actor:

Michael Keaton – Birdman

Best Actress:

Marion Cotillard – Two Days One Night

Best Supporting Actor:

JK Simmons – Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress:

Emma Stone – Birdman

Best Ensemble Cast:

Boyhood

Best Screenplay (tie):

Birdman/Boyhood

Best Documentary:

Citizenfour

Best Animation:

The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Foreign Language Film:

Two Days One Night

Best Editing:

Sandra Adair – Boyhood

Best Cinematography:

Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman

Best New Filmmaker:

Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler

If the snubbing of British acts here frustrates you then you might prefer these victors at the British Independent Film Awards. The pack was lead by mining/gay rights drama Pride, followed quickly by army thriller ’71 and Nick Cave’s semi-biopic 20,000 Days on Earth.

Best British Independent Film:

Pride

Best Director:

Yann Demange – ’71

Best Actress:

Gugu Mbatha Raw – Belle

Best Actor:

Brendan Gleeson – Calvary

Best Supporting Actress:

Imelda Staunton – Pride

Best Supporting Actor:

Andrew Scott – Pride

Best Screenplay:

Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan – Frank

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director):

Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard – 20,000 Days on Earth

Best Documentary:

Next Goal Wins

Best International Independent Film:

Boyhood

The Raindance Award:

Luna

The Richard Harris Award:

Emma Thompson

The Variety Award:

Benedict Cumberbatch

Warner Bros set their hopes high when they revealed that Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar) was in consideration for the sci-fi project Ready Player One. Their vision seems no less ambitious when the rest of their directing shortlist. Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, King Kong, Heavenly Creatures), Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim VS The World, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, Shaun of the Dead), Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Layer Cake, Stardust) and Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Cast Away, Back to the Future). Jackson, Nolan and Wright are more innovative filmmakers and would rather advance their own projects but the material seems appropriate for either Vaughn or Zemeckis.

Ready Player One – 2017?