BIRDMAN AND GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL HEAD UP CHICAGO CRITICS' NOMINATIONS

The shadow of Roger Ebert still looms large over the Chicago Film Critics Association, as they announce their nominations for the finest achievements in filmmaking this year, and we all wonder what Roger would have made of their choices. No doubt he would have smiled at a nomination for Steve James, even if it was for Life Itself, a film on his own life. He probably would have approved of that film's doc competition, The Overnighters. And probably considerable love for Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel would have been firmly supported by the great critic too; those two films lead the nominations. They, like so many other critics' groups this year, will reveal their winners on the 15th of December.

Best Picture

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Under the Skin

Whiplash

Best Director

Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

David Fincher (Gone Girl)

Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)

Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

Christopher Nolan (Interstellar)

Best Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

David Oyelowo (Selma)

Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)

Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin)

Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Best Supporting Actor

Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice)

Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Edward Norton (Birdman)

Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

J. K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)

Laura Dern (Wild)

Agata Kulesza (Ida)

Emma Stone (Birdman)

Best Original Screenplay

Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Armando Bo, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)

Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)

Richard Linklater (Boyhood)

Martin McDonagh (Calvary)

Best Adapted Screenplay

Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice)

Walter Campbell and Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin)

Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)

Nick Hornby (Wild)

Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)

Best Cinematography

Robert Elswit (Nightcrawler)

Ryszard Lencewski and Lukasz Zal (Ida)

Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman)

Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar)

Robert D. Yeoman (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Editing

Sandra Adair (Boyhood)

Kirk Baxter (Gone Girl)

Douglas Crise and Stephen Mirrione (Birdman)

Tom Cross (Whiplash)

Barney Pilling (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Art Direction / Production Design

Marco Bittner Rosser (Only Lovers Left Alive)

Nathan Crowley (Interstellar)

Dennis Gassner (Into the Woods)

Ondrej Nekvasil (Snowpiercer)

Adam Stockhausen (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Original Score

Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game)

Mica Levi (Under the Skin)

Antonio Sanchez (Birdman)

Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)

Best Animated Feature

Big Hero 6

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The LEGO Movie

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

Best Documentary

Citizenfour

Jodorowsky’s Dune

Last Days in Vietnam

Life Itself

The Overnighters

Best Foreign-Language Film

Force Majeure

Ida

Mommy

The Raid 2

Two Days, One Night

Most Promising Filmmaker

Damien Chazelle (Whiplash)

Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler)

Jennifer Kent (The Babadook)

Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin)

Justin Simien (Dear White People)

Most Promising Performer

Ellar Coltrane (Boyhood)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle / Beyond the Lights)

Jack O’Connell (Starred Up / Unbroken)

Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Jenny Slate (Obvious Child)

Agata Trzebuchowska (Ida)