The grim dance marathon that is awards season continued this weekend, as the ensembles behind this year’s favorite nominees slowly waltzed, limping into the Directors Guild and BAFTA awards in the hopes of finally claiming the Oscar, and the $1,500 cash prize and dinette set that goes with it. Barring any nervous breakdowns, heart attacks, or begging to be put down as they continue this lurch toward Feb. 22, it continues to be a tight, neck-and-neck race between Boyhood and Birdman for Best Picture, with each claiming top honors at the BAFTAs and DGAs, respectively.
For the DGAs, it was a decision made in accordance with the other top industry guilds, as director Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu’s win was added to its victories at the Producers and Screen Actors Guild awards. It remains to be seen whether Birdman will similarly take next week’s Writers Guild Awards, or whether screenwriters will turn against a talky movie about a character who reveres his own script above all else while worshipping Raymond Carver, possibly out of writerly self-loathing.
On the TV side, the DGAs had praise for Transparent, Olive Kitteridge, and Homeland. It also singled out the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, another movie that has cleaned up pretty much everywhere it’s been nominated. The complete list of DGA winners:
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Feature Film: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Documentary: Laura Poitras, Citizenfour
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Dramatic Series: Lesli Linka Glatter, Homeland, “From A To B And Back Again”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Comedy Series: Jill Soloway, Transparent, “Best New Girl”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Movies for Television and Mini-Series: Lisa Cholodenko, Olive Kitteridge
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Regularly Scheduled Programming: Dave Diomedi, The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, “Episode #1”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Variety/Talk/News/Sports – Specials: Glenn Weiss, The 68th Annual Tony Awards
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Reality Programs: Anthony B. Sacco, The Chair, “The Test”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Children’s Programs: Jonathan Judge, 100 Things To Do Before High School, “Pilot”
Outstanding Directorial Achievement In Commercials: Nicolai Fuglsig, “Sapeurs,” Guinness; “Waiting,” FEMA
Meanwhile, in the extremely exclusive guild known as England, the BAFTAs gave its highest accolades to Boyhood, awarding it both Best Film and Best Director for Richard Linklater. The movie had special appeal to British audiences, who appreciated its depiction of life as a series of long, drawn-out digressions with no sex. They also liked Patricia Arquette.
Arquette’s BAFTA win—alongside J.K. Simmons, Eddie Redmayne, and Julianne Moore—suggests that the belief in those four as this year’s best performances is transatlantic, though the BAFTAs, not surprisingly, were slightly more effusive in praise for the whimsical, mannered comedy of The Grand Budapest Hotel than Americans have been. It also recognized The Lego Movie as the year’s Best Animated Feature, in accordance with the Treaty of Kiel that England signed with Denmark in 1814, declaring that everything is awesome. Here is the complete list of BAFTA winners:
Best Film: Boyhood
Best Leading Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory Of Everything
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Rising Star: Jack O’Connell
Best Original Screenplay: Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Adapted Screenplay: Anthony McCarten, The Theory Of Everything
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
Best Special Visual Effects: Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, Interstellar
Best Sound: Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann, Whiplash
Best Editing: Tom Cross, Whiplash
Best Original Music: Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Makeup And Hair: Frances Hannon, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Animated Film: The Lego Movie
Best Documentary: Citizenfour
Best Film Not In The English Language: Ida
Best British Short Animation: Chris Hees, Daisy Jacobs, Jennifer Majka, The Bigger Picture
Best British Short Film: Brian J. Falconer, Michael Lennox, Ronan Blaney, Boogaloo And Graham
Outstanding British Film: The Theory Of Everything