‘Boyhood’ wins best film of 2014 honor from N.Y. Film Critics Circle

“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater’s acclaimed coming-of-age drama shot over a 12-year period, was named best film of 2014 on Monday by the New York Film Critics Circle. “Boyhood” also won awards for director Linklater and supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

The film also is nominated for four Gotham Independent Film Awards, which take place Monday evening in New York City.

Timothy Spall won top actor for his role as British artist J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner.” Marion Cotillard was named best actress for her performances in two films, “The Immigrant,” as a Polish emigre in New York, and “Two Days, One Night,” as a young mother desperate to save her job.

J.K Simmons earned the supporting actor award as a relentless music teacher in “Whiplash.”

Screenplay honors went to Wes Anderson for “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and Darius Khondji won the cinematographer award for “The Immigrant.”

“The Lego Movie” was selected top animated film and Poland’s “Ida,” directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, earned the foreign film honor.

Laura Poitra’s “Citizenfour” received nonfiction film honors. Jennifer Kent’s “The Babadook” was selected best first film.

A special award went to Adrienne Mancia, who, as a curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art for more than 30 years, “helped shape the movie-going tastes of New Yorkers by bringing the work of filmmakers like Bernardo Bertolucci, Manoel De Oliveira and Marco Bellocchio to the United States.”

The New York Film Critics Circle honors are the first major critics awards announced this season. Founded in 1935, NYFCC is made up of critics from daily and weekly newspapers, magazine and qualifying online sites.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the NYFCC rarely agree on their top choices. In fact, the group’s website states that its awards are “a principled alternative to the Oscars honoring aesthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial pressures.”

Last year, the critics named “American Hustle” best film of 2013; “12 Years a Slave” won the best picture Oscar. The last time the two groups agreed on the top film was for 2011’s “The Artist.”

The NYFCC awards will be handed out Jan. 5 at Tao.

The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. is scheduled to announce its selections on Dec. 7.