"Boyhood," "Nightcrawler" Win Big as Georgia Film Critics Split the Board

Richard Linklater takes top honors for both Picture and Director; "Nightcrawler," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and "Selma" all take home two each.

For their 4th annual awards presentation, the Georgia Film Critics Association have decided to distribute the love pretty evenly. Of the ten Best Picture nominees, nine of them took home at least one award.

"Boyhood" took home the big prizes, Best Picture and Best Director for Richard Linklater. "Nightcrawler" won Best Actor for Jake Gyllenhaal and Best Original Screenplay for Dan Gilroy. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" won awards for Best Production Design and Best Ensemble. "Selma" won the Oglethorpe Award for Excellence in Georgia Cinema and Best Original Song for "Glory," performed by John Legend and Common.

Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for "Two Days, One Night," while Tilda Swinton and J.K. Simmons took home Supporting prizes for Best Picture nominated films "Snowpiercer" and "Whiplash," respectively. "Gone Girl" took home Best Adapted Screenplay honors, while "Birdman" won for Best Cinematography (This is Emmanuel Lubeski's third GFCA win, after "The Tree of Life" and "Gravity"). Hans Zimmer's score for "Interstellar" provides the film's sole win out of three nominations.

Best Foreign Film went to "Ida," Best Documentary to "Life Itself" and Best Animated Film to "The LEGO Movie." David Oyelowo won the Breakthrough Award, with all five of his films from 2014 sharing the mention.

Check out the full list of winners after the jump.

Georgia Film Critics Reveal Nominees for 2014 Awards

"Birdman" narrowly leads nominations; "Ida," "Nightcrawler," "Snowpiercer," "Under the Skin," make a splash across the board.

Most critics groups have had their say already, but the Georgia Film Critics Association doesn't mind giving themselves time to think about their top picks of the year. This is their fourth year handing out best-of designations.

"Birdman" leads the pack with seven nominations, but "Boyhood," "Gone Girl," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and Georgia-lensed "Selma" are all close by with six mentions each (not counting the individuals mentioned for Breakthrough Award).

Perhaps most noteworthy is the dominance of "Nightcrawler" (with five nods), "Snowpiercer" (with four nods) and "Ida" (with three nods)—all including Best Picture. Foreign films "Force Majeure" and "Two Days, One Night" pop up in the Best Actress category. Documentaries garner several mentions outside their own category, with "Sepideh" receiving a Foreign Film nod, "Life Itself" mentioned in Best Score, and both "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me" and "Virunga" earning Best Original Song nominations.

"Calvary" earned a rogue screenplay nomination, as did "Wild" and "The Imitation Game." There was plenty of love for "Inherent Vice," "Interstellar" and "Under the Skin"—each receiving three nominations.

Several of these films were found on the Georgia film festival circuit this year. "Whiplash," "Two Days, One Night," "Foxcatcher," "The Imitation Game," "Life Itself," "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me," "Finding Vivian Maier," "Keep On Keepin' On," "Big Hero 6" and "The Book of Life" all featured at the Savannah Film Festival. "Ida" played at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival early in the year.

Winners will be announced on Friday, January 9th. Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.

Review: "Gone Girl" (****½)

Editor's Note: It is a pleasure to introduce you to the newest part of the Reel Georgia team, Ali Coad. I met Ali in early 2014, when we both began working for the Atlanta Film Festival. Ali holds a degree in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Georgia, so you'll have to pardon my writing once you read hers. But however eloquent she may be—and she is very eloquent—everything Ali writes exudes a crystalline sincerity, as if your best friend is writing to you personally. I know y'all will enjoy all that Ali has to offer and I look forward to reading every word. -CM

Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike in "Gone Girl" 

I had read Gillian Flynn’s novel “Gone Girl” prior to seeing director David Fincher’s captivating adaptation, and in my humble opinion, this film lives up to all the volcanic hype and energy that presupposed it’s release. I liked the movie just as much as, it seems, most people did. I saw this film with a friend of mine who was in the enviable, nearly-impossible position of knowing nothing about this movie; I don’t really know how that happened, but it did. She knew who Ben Affleck was and, really, that’s about it. And when the twists and turns came, as we all knew they would, I’d catch small glimpses of her reactions and there was this beautiful, thrilling purity to it. Despite knowing what was going to happen, I still loved the intricate flimflam, but the electric magic of the big reveal was lost on me simply because I saw it coming. I still enjoyed it, but it didn’t pack the same punch for me as it did for my friend.

“Gone Girl” is the story of Amy and Nick Dunne. How from the outside looking in, they have a loving, perfect marriage. Fincher reinforces this idea by filming them through long hallways, through windows, in closed-off spaces; he really highlights the claustrophobia that can, sometimes though not always, accompany a partnership, even a loving one. It’s fair to say, like any other couple, that Amy and Nick struggle: Nick looses a job, his mom gets sick, Amy has parental pressures and obligations, they move, they argue over children. But at the end of the day, they love each other. Or so it seems.