Just when you think Birdman will have an easy path to victory at the Oscars the BAFTA's come and give two big awards to Boyhood.  The British Academy anointed Boyhood Best Film and Richard Linklater Best Director.  While I don't think it will be enough to push Boyhood into Oscar frontrunner status it keeps the awards race interesting.  But also continuing to rack up awards us Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor.  With the amount of awards he has won it is easy to have him as the frontrunner for the Oscar but I think it is still a close race between him and Michael Keaton for Birdman.  The Grand Budapest Hotel did win the most awards of the night with 5 including Best Original Screenplay.  Also of note The LEGO Movie won Best Animated Feature which the Oscars did not even nominate.  

Full list of winners is below.  

The 2015 Directors Guild Awards were handed out last night at a ceremony in Los Angeles.  The big winner and somewhat of a surprise to some was Alejandro González Iñárritu for Birdman.  A log of people were expecting Richard Linklater to win for Boyhood.  Now, after winning the PGA and the SAG for best ensemble there is no doubt that it is the frontrunner at the Oscars and could have a big night.  

Winning Best Director of a Documentary was Laura Poitras for CitizenFour which pretty much cements it as the frontrunner for Best Documentary Oscar.  If anything else wins at the Oscars it would be a major shocker.  

Other winners are
Best TV Movie/Miniseres- Lisa Cholodenko for Olive Kitteredge
Best Comedy Series - Jill Soloway for Transparent 
Best Drama Series - Lesli Linka Glater for Homeland
Best Variety/Talk/New/Sports Special - Glenn Weiss - The 68th Tony Awards
Best Variety/Talk/News/Sports Regulary Schedule programming - Dave Diomedi - The Tonight Show
Best Reality Program - Anthony B. Sacco - The Chair
Best Children's Program - Jonathan Judge - 100 Things To Do Before High School 
Best Commercials- Nicolai Fuglsig - Sapeurs, Guinness AMV BBDO
                                                 Waiting, FEMA Deutsch NY  

The Academy announced the 9 movies moving on in the Oscar race for Best Foreign Film. A few surprises as Canada's "Mommy" and Belgium's "Two Days, One Night" two movies that have been expected to be serious contenders didn't make the cut.



Here are the 9 that made the cut.



Argentina, “Wild Tales,” Damián Szifrón, director;
Estonia, “Tangerines,” Zaza Urushadze, director;
Georgia, “Corn Island,” George Ovashvili, director;
Mauritania, “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako, director;
Netherlands, “Accused,” Paula van der Oest, director;
Poland, “Ida,” Paweł Pawlikowski, director;
Russia, “Leviathan,” Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Sweden, “Force Majeure,” Ruben Östlund, director;
Venezuela, “The Liberator,” Alberto Arvelo, director.

The Golden Globe nominations were announced this morning and of course there were a few surprises. 

Biggest surprise was the complete shutout of Unbroken. Once thought to be the frontrunner for award season the lack of any nomination shows it might not be the juggernaut once thought. Although it still seems likely to get an Oscar nomination. 

No major nominations for Interstellar which isn't much of a surprise as it has been fading. 

Selma gets a huge boost after being shut out at the SAG nominations. Getting 4 nominations including Picture, Actor, and Director. Foxcatcher is another movie that got a boost today. After being shutout for most of the award season so far it grabbed a best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination yesterday at the SAG nominations and added Best Picture to that today. It still has a way to go to get back into the Oscar race but it's a start. 

Jennifer Aniston and Robert Duvall continue their quest for an Oscar nomination getting Golden Globe nominations following their SAG nominations. 

Birdman continues to dominate with 7 nominations followed by the usual suspects Boyhood and The Imitation Game with 5. Gone Girl, Selma, The Theory of Everything and The Grand Budapest Hotel follow with 4. I am glad to see The Grand Budapest Hotel getting some love. It was a great movie from early in the year and I wasn't sure it could get the recognition at the end of the year. 

And a snub in my opinion is no "Everything is Awesome" for best song from The Lego Movie
Full list of nominees below

Now that some of the Critics have had their say it's time to get to the guild award nominations.  These are sometimes more telling of the Oscar race because these are the same people that will be voting for Oscars.  Also the Screen Actors Guild is somewhat telling because the Actor branch makes up the largest part of Oscar voters so what they love will crossover more.  
That being said there are some surprising choices.  
First no love for Selma at all.  I was expecting Selma to challenge the top boys for Best Picture. But now it's hard to say. 
Other surprises Robert Duvall for the Judge hasn't been getting much buzz.  The biggest surprise might be the  nomination of Naomi Watts for Best Supporting Actress for St. Vincent. 
Foxcatcher did get a few nominations but not sure its enough to push it to a best picture nomination.  And it looks like it will fall short. 


Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Robert Duvall, The Judge
Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
Edward Norton, Birdman
Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
Emma Stone, Birdman
Meryl Streep, Into the Woods
Naomi Watts, St. Vincent

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture


Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton, Birdman
Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role in a Motion Picture

Jennifer Aniston, Cake
Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Motion Picture

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything