The two films that have been duking it out for top honors from critics, Boyhood and Birdman have surprisingly taken a back seat to three other films in the nominations tally here. Nightcrawler is the surprising top nominee with nine mentions followed by Gone Girl and The Grand Budapest Hotel. There are some interesting selections here. Some change the tweak the current narrative a little and others are so far left-field that they don’t have much of a hope with Oscar.

Nominations Tallies

(9) Nightcrawler
(8) Gone Girl, The Grand Budapest Hotel
(7) Birdman, Boyhood
(5) The Theory of Everything
(4) The Imitation Game

The Nominations

Best Picture

Boyhood
Gone Girl
Nightcrawler
Selma
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Theory of Everything

Best Animated Film

Big Hero 6
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie
The Nut Job

Best Director

Alejandro G. Iñárritu – Birdman
Dan Gilroy – Nightcrawler
David Fincher – Gone Girl
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actor

Brendan Gleeson – Calvary
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Tom Hardy – Locke

Best Actress

Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Hilary Swank – The Homesman
Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night
Mia Wasikowska – Tracks
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl

Best Supporting Actor

Edward Norton – Birdman
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
Riz Ahmed – Nightcrawler

Best Supporting Actress

Carrie Coon – Gone Girl
Emma Stone – Birdman
Keira Knightly – The Imitation Game
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Rene Russo – Nightcrawler

Best Original Screenplay

Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Locke
Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Fault in Our Stars
Gone Girl
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Wild

Best Score

Birdman
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Nightcrawler

Best Editing

Boyhood
Edge of Tomorrow
Gone Girl
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nightcrawler

Best Cinematography

Force Majeure
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Nightcrawler
Unbroken

Best Production Design

The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
Interstellar
Into the Woods
The Theory of Everything

Best Foreign Film

Force Majeure
Heli
Ida
Two Days, One Night
Venus in Fur

Best Documentary

Citizenfour
Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
Life Itself
The Last Days in Vietnam

Best Ensemble Performance

Birdman
Boyhood
Selma
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game

Kyle Counts Award

TBD

San Diego Film Critics Society Data

First Awards: 1996 (19)