“Boyhood” still has life in this year’s awards race, winning the Best Film award at the EE British Academy Film Awards on Sunday evening in London.
The victory came just as a string of wins by rival “Birdman” had seemingly doomed the chances of Richard Linklater’s 12-years-in-the-making family drama. While the overlap between Oscar voters and members of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts is small, the film that won the top BAFTA award has gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars for the last six years in a row.
“Boyhood” still faces an uphill battle, of course, with “Birdman” winning at the Producers Guild, Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild.
At the BAFTAs, though, it not only beat “Birdman,” but also fellow Oscar nominees “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything.” And Linklater, about 14 hours after losing the DGA Award to Alejandro Inarritu, beat Inarritu to take best-director honors from BAFTA.
(Because the two shows took place less than a day apart, one in Los Angeles and one in London, Linklater could not attend the BAFTAs.)
Also read: BAFTA Awards: Complete List of Winners, Nominees
The win came at the end of a ceremony in which “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “The Theory of Everything” had scored significant victories, with the former film winning five awards and the latter taking best-actor honors for Eddie Redmayne as well as a victory in the Outstanding British Film category.
Julianne Moore won the best actress award for “Still Alice,” while J.K. Simmons and Patricia Arquette continued their sweeps through awards season, taking the supporting actor and actress awards for their performances in “Whiplash” and “Boyhood,” respectively.
The British film “The Imitation Game” went into the show with 10 nominations, but it was shut out.
Three favorites, “Citizenfour,” “Ida” and “The Lego Movie,” won in the documentary, foreign-language and animated categories, respectively.
For much of the show, “Grand Budapest Hotel” dominated, picking up early awards for music, production design and makeup and then later adding costume design and original screenplay, the last category featuring a head-to-head battle between “Budapest,” “Birdman,” “Boyhood” and “Whiplash.”
“Whiplash” also did well in the below-the-line categories, taking editing and sound awards.
BAFTA’s two short-film categories each contained one Oscar nominee, both of which won: “The Bigger Picture” in animation, and “Boogaloo and Graham” in live-action.
The winners:
Best Film: “Boyhood”
Outstanding British Film: “The Theory of Everything”
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Stephen Beresford (Writer), David Livingstone (Producer), “Pride”
Film Not in the English Language: “Ida”
Documentary: “Citizenfour”
Animated Film: “The Lego Movie”
Director: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Original Screenplay: “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson
Adapted Screenplay: “The Theory of Everything,” Anthony McCarten
Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
Leading Actress: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”
Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Original Music: “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography: “Birdman,” Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing: “Whiplash”
Production Design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Costume Design: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Make Up & Hair: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Sound: “Whiplash”
Special Visual Effects: “Interstellar”
British Short Animation: “The Bigger Picture”
British Short Film: “Boogaloo and Graham”
The EE Rising Star Award (voted for by the public): Jack O’Connell