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Posted December 15, 2014 by Mike Tyrkus in News
 
 

Boyhood Dominates the 2014 Detroit Film Critics Society Awards


The most distinguished film critic group in Michigan, the Detroit Film Critics Society, released their Best of 2014 nominees and winners in ten categories. The society was founded in Spring 2007 and consists of a group of eighteen Michigan film critics who write or broadcast in the Detroit area as well as other major cities within a 150-mile radius of the city including Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Flint, Michigan.

BoyhoodEach critic submitted their top five picks in the following categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Ensemble, and Breakthrough Performance, Best Screenplay, and Best Documentary. From these submissions, each entry was given a point value and the top five in each category were placed on the final ballot. The final ballots were then given to each critic to rank in order and the final results were tabulated in the same way.

This year, there was a three-way tie in the category of Best Ensemble with Birdman, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Grand Budapest Hotel all ending up with the same point value. Boyhood was the top winner in four categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay. Birdman and Whiplash took two awards each.

 

The Best of 2014
as picked by the Detroit Film Critics Society
(nominees are listed in alphabetical order)

BEST FILM

  • Winner: Boyhood
  • Birdman
  • The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Under the Skin
  • Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Winner: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
  • Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
  • Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin
  • Ajejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman

BEST ACTOR

  • Winner: Michael Keaton, Birdman
  • Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
  • Brendan Gleeson, Calvary
  • Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
  • Tom Hardy, Locke
  • Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS

  • Winner: Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
  • Essie Davis, The Babadook
  • Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin
  • Julianne Moore, Still Alice
  • Reese Witherspoon, Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Winner: JK Simmons, Whiplash
  • Josh Brolin, Inherent Vice
  • Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
  • Edward Norton, Birdman
  • Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Winner: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
  • Laura Dern, Wild
  • Rene Russo, Nightcrawler
  • Emma Stone, Birdman
  • Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer

BEST ENSEMBLE

  • Winner: Birdman
  • Winner: The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Winner: Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Boyhood
  • Into the Woods

BREAKTHROUGH

  • Winner: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash (director, screenplay)
  • Jennifer Kent, The Babadook (director, screenplay)
  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Belle, Beyond the Lights (actress)
  • Chris Pratt, Guardians of the Galaxy (actor)
  • Dan Stevens, The Guest (actor)

BEST SCREENPLAY

  • Winner: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
  • Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
  • Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
  • Nicolas Giacobone and Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman
  • John Michael McDonagh, Calvary

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • Winner: CitizenFour
  • Finding Vivian Maier
  • Jodorowsky’s Dune
  • Keep On Keepin’ On
  • Life Itself
Mike Tyrkus

Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.