Los Angeles:
Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” lost the best picture and director race to “Birdman” at the 87th Academy awards while “Foxcatcher” returned empty-handed despite five nominations.
“Boyhood” was up for six nominations including best picture, best supporting actor, best director, best editing and best original screenplay but it won only one trophy—best supporting actress which went to Patricia Arquette.
The film, which took 12 years to complete, earlier swept the major awards like BAFTA and Golden Globes, but was defeated by “Birdman” at the Oscars.
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s American black comedy also won the other three categories, including best director, best original screenplay and achievement in cinematography.
Biographical crime drama “Foxcatcher” returned empty-handed despite its five nominations in key categories.
World War II code-breaker Alan Turing’s biopic “The Imitation Game” also failed to impress the voters as it bagged only one award for the adapted screenplay to writer Graham Moore.
Similarly, “American Sniper” star Bradley Cooper’s fans, who were hoping that he would score an Oscar, were disappointed after he lost the best actor trophy to Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything”.
The Clint Eastwood-directed movie was also nominated in best picture category but it failed to consolidate its USD 300 million box office triumph with an Oscar.
“Whiplash” was a surprise winner at the event by bagging trophies in the key categories including best supporting actor for JK Simmons, editing and sound mixing.
There was a minor upset in the foreign language film category with Poland’s “Ida” trumping Russia’s “Leviathan”, both films have stirred up some controversy in their homelands.
“Selma”, a film on Martin Luther King Jr, managed to garner one golden statuette for the best original song “Glory” by rapper Common and hip-hop star John Legend after the Academy received major flak for “the exclusion of black artists from the 25 people that it nominated in the acting and direction categories”.
“Birdman” star Keaton lost out to Redmayne despite the film emerging one of the top winners in an otherwise divided year at Oscars.
Actresses Rosamund Pike, Meryl Streep and Reese Witherspoon also returned empty-handed.
Director Mike Leigh’s biographical film “Mr Turner” could not manage to win even a single award despite four nominations. Similarly Angelina Jolie’s highly ambitious war drama “Unbroken” failed to bag any trophy.
