It may have faltered when the industry awards rolled around in early 2015, but the earlier, critics-dominated half of the 2014-15 awards season was all Boyhood. It wins four Critics Consensus Awards, capitalizing on one of the most impressive performances I've seen across critics' awards and polls in the 50 years' worth that I've covered for this feature. Birdman mounts a fine challenge, winning three awards including two for Michael Keaton, though none for the year's triple Oscar recipient, producer / director / writer / hack Alejandro G. Inarritu. Julianne Moore wins a fourth prize, a third in individual categories, while there were welcome female victories in Adapted Screenplay and Music for Oscar-snubbed Gillian Flynn and Mica Levi, respectively. Check out the 2014 nominations at this link, and the winners below.
Best Picture
Boyhood (Richard Linklater, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss and Cathleen Sutherland)
Best Director
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Rol
Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Michael Keaton (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
J. K. Simmons (Whiplash)
Best Original Screenplay
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Adapted Screenplay
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
Best Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Best Editing
Sandra Adair (Boyhood)
Best Production Design
Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Best Music
Mica Levi (Under the Skin)
Best Ensemble Cast
Zach Galifianakis, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts (Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance))
Best Animated Feature
The Lego Movie (Roy Lee, Dan Lin, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller)
Best Documentary
Citizenfour (Mathilde Bonnefoy, Laura Poitras and Dirk Wilutzky)
Best Foreign Language Film
Ida (Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Pawel Pawlikowski and Ewa Puszczynska)
Image Credit: MovieStillsDB