NY and LA Critics Picks are in

  [caption id="attachment_64480" align="aligncenter" width="600"] IMAGE: DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS[/caption] 2014 has been a strange year in terms of award season frontrunners, with film heavyweights like Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel coming out in early summer, and no clear favorite for "Best Picture" emerging from the crowd of Oscar hopefuls; until this weekend. Coming away a clear favorite, Richard Linklater and his labor-intensive masterpiece Boyhood won top prizes with both critic circles. While the two large critic associations' choices do not have any actual bearing on what the elusive "Academy" will decide, their picks have re-arranged several "10 Best" lists, and started conversations about several documentaries and current theatrical releases. Starting with the East Coast, the New York Film Critics Circle Picks are below:

Best Picture Boyhood Best Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood) Best Screenplay The Grand Budapest Hotel Best Actress Marion Cotillard (The Immigrant, Two Days One Night) Best Actor Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner) Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) Best Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) Best Cinematographer Darius Khondji (The Immigrant) Best Animated Film The LEGO Movie Best Non-Fiction Film (Documentary) Citizenfour Best Foreign Film Ida Best First Film Jennifer Kent (The Babadook)

And the Los Angeles Critics Association are as follows:

Best Picture: Boyhood Runner-Up: The Grand Budapest Hotel Best Director Richard Linklater (Boyhood) Runner-Up: Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel) Best Screenplay Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel) Runner-Up: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr. And Armando Bo (Birdman) Best Actor Tom Hardy (Locke) Runner-Up: Michael Keaton (Birdman) Best Actress Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) Runner-Up: Julianne Moore (Still Alice) Best Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) Runner Up: Edward Norton (Birdman) Best Supporting Actress Agata Kulesza  (Ida) Runner-Up: Rene Russo (Nightcrawler) Best Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman) Runner-Up: Dick Pope (Mr. Turner) Best Animation The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya Runner-Up: The LEGO Movie Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film Citizenfour Runner-Up: Life Itself Best Foreign-Language Film Ida Runner-Up: Winter Sleep New Generation Ava Duvernay (Selma)

The LA Critics certainly voted the most "out of the box" throwing Tom Hardy's performance in Locke and Agata Kulesza's incredible Ida performance in the mix. While it is probably too late to sway many of the Academy voters, its always interesting to see how the major critic groups vote come awards season. Hopefully the awards will also bolster some interest for important documentaries like Citizenfour and the little-seen foreign gem Ida. Whatever the takeaways from the awards, they are sure to drum up a lot of conversation about some spectacular films; always something film buffs and casual movie fans can get excited about.