Ellar Coltrane as Mason in Boyhood.
Let's hear it for the Boyhood has become the rallying cry of critics groups across North America this month, as Boyhood, Richard Linklater's 12-years-in-the-making coming-of-age movie, continues to sweep end-of-year critics' prizes.
Canada's largest critics' group, the Toronto Film Critics Association, is the latest organization to pick Boyhood as its best film of 2014, which has already been given the award by critics groups in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, San Francisco, Boston, as well as Sight & Sound Magazine and the British Independent Film Awards.
The TFCA, which consists of 40 film journalists based in the Toronto area, also announced the three candidates for the $100,000 Rogers Best Canadian Film prize: Denis Villeneuve's Enemy, Xavier Dolan's Mommy and Michael Dowse's The F-Word. The winner of the prize will be announced on the association's annual banquet on Jan. 6.
Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater, follows the life of a boy (played by Ellar Coltrane) from first grade to his first year in college. The film was shot intermittently from 2002 to 2013, with an ensemble group of actors. The film, which has earned a little more than $43-million (U.S.) box office worldwide against a $4-million budget, is the best reviewed movie of the year. Boyhood also took the prize for best director (Richard Linklater) as well as best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette, who played the boy's mother.
The two runners-up for best picture were Wes Anderson's between-the-wars fantasy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Paul Thomas Anderson's adaptation of novelist Thomas Pynchon's 2009 hippie detective novel, Inherent Vice (which opens Christmas Day). Both films were in the running for several awards. Inherent Vice's Paul Thomas Anderson took runner-up director honours, followed by Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel. The Grand Budapest Hotel took best screenplay, followed by Boyhood and Inherent Vice.
The best actor prize went to English actor, Tom Hardy, for the film, Locke, in which he plays the only character onscreen, as a man driving an English highway at night taking phone calls from various people. Best actress went to Marion Cotillard for her role in The Immigrant, set in New York in the 1920s.
Best supporting actor went to J.K. Simmons for his role as a ruthless music teacher in Whiplash.
The TFCA also announced this year's winner of the $5,000 Scotiabank Jay Scott Award for an emerging film artist, which went to director Albert Shin for his Korean-set drama In Her Place. The prize is named after the celebrated Globe and Mail film critic, who died at the age of 43 in 1993. In addition, the $5,000 Joe Fresh Allan King Documentary Award was given to director Jesse Moss for his film about a North Dakota pastor working with itinerant oil workers The Overnighters.
Best picture: Boyhood.
Best actor: Tom Hardy, Locke.
Best actress: Marion Cotillard, The Immigrant.
Best supporting actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash.
Best supporting actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood.
Best director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood.
Best screenplay, adapted or original: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Best first feature: The Lunchbox, directed by Ritesh Batra.
Best animated feature: The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.
Best foreign language film: Force Majeure.
Liam Lacey