Just as it made a strong showing in the Oscar nominations Thursday morning, “Birdman” was the front-runner with the most nominations for the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Thursday night. It also ended the night with the most trophies, taking home seven, including both Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy for Michael Keaton, Best Acting Ensemble, and Best Editing (the film was shot to look as if it was a single continuous take).
“Boyhood” followed with four awards, including two of the biggest honors of the night: Best Picture and Best Director for Richard Linklater. The film’s star Ellar Coltrane was honored as Best Young Actor for the movie that was filmed over 12 years, beginning when he was just six years old.
J.K. Simmons (“Whiplash”) and Patricia Arquette (“Boyhood”) repeated their Golden Globes performances with wins in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories, while Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”) repeated as Best Actress.
The annual event switched from The CW to a live broadcast on A&E for its 20th anniversary year. Michael Strahan was on hand as host of the show, which took place at the Hollywood Palladium.
Special awards were given to Jessica Chastain, Kevin Costner and Ron Howard. Chastain earned the inaugural Critics’ Choice MVP Award for her standout work in four films over the past year. Costner was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Howard was given the Critics’ Choice Louis XIII Genius Award.
In three categories, the winners were films that had been surprisingly omitted from Oscar nominations earlier in the day. “The Lego Movie” was named Best Animated Film, leading director Chris Miller to begin his speech by saying, “What a rollercoaster of emotions today has been.”
Steve James’ “Life Itself,” the film about Roger Ebert that was a shocking no-show on the Oscar documentary slate, won the award for best doc, while the Oscar-snubbed “Force Majeure” was named the best foreign language film.
With nearly 30 categories, including made-for-TV categories honoring action films, sci-fi/horror films and comedies, the show handed out some awards on the red carpet and others in a brief pre-show presentation. But nominees in some categories didn’t know they’d lost until announcements were made during commercial breaks, while no announcement was ever made in the house for key categories like Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary.
The glut of categories also led to the disconcerting sight of an organization of writers giving out the screenplay awards, which were won by “Birdman” and “Gone Girl,” in a non-televised segment of the ceremony.
The awards are chosen by the members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest film critics’ organization in the country. It is made up of more than 280 television, radio and internet critics and journalists (including TheWrap‘s Steve Pond).
The awards are typically a reliable indicator of Oscar success. Of the 19 categories that overlapped last year, 17 of the Critics‘ Choice winners went on to win Oscars.
The complete list of winners:
BEST PICTURE
“Birdman”
“Boyhood” — WINNER
“Gone Girl”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Nightcrawler”
“Selma”
“The Theory of Everything”
“Unbroken”
“Whiplash”
BEST ACTOR
Benedict Cumberbatch – “The Imitation Game”
Ralph Fiennes – “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Jake Gyllenhaal – “Nightcrawler”
Michael Keaton – “Birdman” — WINNER
David Oyelowo – “Selma”
Eddie Redmayne – “The Theory of Everything”
BEST ACTRESS
Jennifer Aniston – “Cake”
Marion Cotillard – “Two Days, One Night”
Felicity Jones – “The Theory of Everything”
Julianne Moore – “Still Alice” — WINNER
Rosamund Pike – “Gone Girl”
Reese Witherspoon – “Wild”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – “Inherent Vice”
Robert Duvall – “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke – “Boyhood”
Edward Norton – “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo – “Foxcatcher”
J.K. Simmons – “Whiplash” — WINNER
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – “Boyhood” — WINNER
Jessica Chastain – “A Most Violent Year”
Keira Knightley – “The Imitation Game”
Emma Stone – “Birdman”
Meryl Streep – “Into the Woods”
Tilda Swinton – Snowpiercer
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Ellar Coltrane – “Boyhood” — WINNER
Ansel Elgort – “The Fault in Our Stars”
Mackenzie Foy – “Interstellar”
Jaeden Lieberher – “St. Vincent”
Tony Revolori – “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Quvenzhane Wallis – “Annie”
Noah Wiseman – “The Babadook”
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
“Birdman” — WINNER
“Boyhood”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“Into the Woods”
“Selma”
BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Ava DuVernay – “Selma”
David Fincher – “Gone Girl”
Alejandro G. Inarritu – “Birdman”
Angelina Jolie – “Unbroken”
Richard Linklater – “Boyhood” — WINNER
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“Birdman” – Alejandro G. Inarritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo — WINNER
“Boyhood” – Richard Linklater
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness
“Nightcrawler” – Dan Gilroy
“Whiplash” – Damien Chazelle
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Gone Girl” – Gillian Flynn — WINNER
“The Imitation Game” – Graham Moore
“Inherent Vice” – Paul Thomas Anderson
“The Theory of Everything” – Anthony McCarten
“Unbroken” – Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Richard LaGravenese, William Nicholson
“Wild” – Nick Hornby
BEST CINEMATOGRAPY
“Birdman” – Emmanuel Lubezki — WINNER
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Robert Yeoman
“Interstellar” – Hoyte Van Hoytema
“Mr. Turner” – Dick Pope
“Unbroken” – Roger Deakins
BEST ART DIRECTION
“Birdman” – Kevin Thompson/Production Designer, George DeTitta Jr./Set Decorator
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator — WINNER
“Inherent Vice” – David Crank/Production Designer, Amy Wells/Set Decorator
“Interstellar” – Nathan Crowley/Production Designer, Gary Fettis/Set Decorator
“Into the Woods” – Dennis Gassner/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator
“Snowpiercer” – Ondrej Nekvasil/Production Designer, Beatrice Brentnerova/Set Decorator
BEST EDITING
“Birdman” – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione — WINNER
“Boyhood” – Sandra Adair
“Gone Girl” – Kirk Baxter
“Interstellar” – Lee Smith
“Whiplash” – Tom Cross
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” – Milena Canonero — WINNER
“Inherent Vice” – Mark Bridges
“Into the Woods” – Colleen Atwood
“Maleficent” – Anna B. Sheppard
“Mr. Turner” – Jacqueline Durran
BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
“Foxcatcher”
“Guardians of the Galaxy” — WINNER
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
“Into the Woods”
“Maleficent”
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” — WINNER
“Edge of Tomorrow”
“Guardians of the Galaxy”
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
“Interstellar”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Big Hero 6”
“The Book of Life”
“The Boxtrolls”
“How to Train Your Dragon 2”
“The Lego Movie” — WINNER
BEST ACTION MOVIE
“American Sniper”
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
“Edge of Tomorrow”
“Fury”
“Guardians of the Galaxy” — WINNER
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper – “American Sniper” — WINNER
Tom Cruise – “Edge of Tomorrow”
Chris Evans – “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
Brad Pitt – “Fury”
Chris Pratt – “Guardians of the Galaxy”
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt – “Edge of Tomorrow” — WINNER
Scarlett Johansson – “Lucy”
Jennifer Lawrence – “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1”
Zoe Saldana – “Guardians of the Galaxy”
Shailene Woodley – “Divergent”
BEST COMEDY
“Birdman”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” — WINNER
“St. Vincent”
“Top Five”
“22 Jump Street”
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Jon Favreau – “Chef”
Ralph Fiennes – “The Grand Budapest Hotel”
Michael Keaton – “Birdman” — WINNER
Bill Murray – “St. Vincent”
Chris Rock – “Top Five”
Channing Tatum – “22 Jump Street”
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Rose Byrne – “Neighbors”
Rosario Dawson – “Top Five”
Melissa McCarthy – “St. Vincent”
Jenny Slate – “Obvious Child” — WINNER
Kristen Wiig – “The Skeleton Twins”
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
“The Babadook”
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”
“Interstellar” — WINNER
“Snowpiercer”
“Under the Skin”
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Force Majeure” — WINNER
“Ida”
“Leviathan”
“Two Days, One Night”
“Wild Tales”
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“Citizenfour”
“Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me”
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”
“Last Days in Vietnam”
“Life Itself” — WINNER
“The Overnighters”
BEST SONG
“Big Eyes” – Lana Del Rey – “Big Eyes”
“Everything Is Awesome” – Jo Li and the Lonely Island – “The Lego Movie”
“Glory” – Common/John Legend – “Selma” — WINNER
“Lost Stars” – Keira Knightley – “Begin Again”
“Yellow Flicker Beat” – Lorde – “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1”
BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – “The Imitation Game”
Johann Johannsson – “The Theory of Everything”
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – “Gone Girl”
Antonio Sanchez – “Birdman” — WINNER
Hans Zimmer – “Interstellar”