Guardians of the Galaxy, The Lego Movie, Birdman Win Big at Critics Choice Awards

Birdman won five awards at the Critics Choice Awards tonight, taking home the most statues of the night, while genre fare like Guardians of the Galaxy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Lego Movie were awarded as well.

Arguably the most talked-about award of the night will be the Best Animated Feature trophy; it went to The Lego Movie, the high-grossing and critically-acclaimed film that yesterday would have been considered a frontrunner for the Academy Award. It wasn't nominated, though -- a bone of contention that even Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn picked on earlier today on Facebook.

"The LEGO Movie was flat out snubbed," Gunn wrote. "It was one of the best films of the year, not to mention one of the best animated films. It deserved to be nominated for Best Animated Film. Considering the average Academy voter is 63, perhaps the Tinkertoy Movie or the Erector Set Film would have fared better. Honestly, I don't think there can be any reason it wasn't nominated other than Academy members assumed it was a silly movie (like I did when I first heard of the movie, before seeing it) and didn't watch the screener."

Gunn himself took home a trophy for Best Action Movie, and Guardians won another for Best Hair and Makeup -- a category for which it's nominated at the Oscars. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes won Best Visual Effects, the other category for which Guardians is nominated at the Academy Awards, along with its Marvel Studios stablemate Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The Hair & Makeup award was presented before the telecast, but Best Action Movie was handed over by Adam Scott, who appears with Guardians star Chris Pratt on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.

"This tells you how much Marvel expects to win awards, is that I found out about this ceremony about a half an hour ago," said Gunn. "And I was in traffic on Laurel Canyon and they told me, 'You've got to go to this; you might win this award.'"

Awards season darling Birdman won for Actor in a Comedy (for Michael Keaton), Best Acting Ensemble, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

Presumably, the wins by Keaton, Guardians, Apes and Birdman in general set them up as favorites in those categories headed into Oscar season.

You can see the full list of winners below.

BEST ACTRESS
Julianne Moore, Still Alice

BEST DIRECTOR
Richard Linklater, Boyhood 

BEST COMEDY
The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Jenny Slate, Obvious Child

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Michael Keaton, Birdman

BEST SONG
"Glory," Common/John Legend, Selma

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K. Simmons, Whiplash 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Lego Movie

BEST ACTION MOVIE
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper, American Sniper

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Ellar Coltrane, Boyhood

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
Birdman

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYGone Girl

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman

BEST SCI FI/HORROR MOVIEInterstellar

BEST CINEMATOGRAPYBirdman, Emmanuel Lubezki

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

BEST EDITING
Birdman, Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione

BEST ART DIRECTION
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Adam Stockhausen/Production Designer, Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator

BEST COSTUME DESIGNThe Grand Budapest Hotel, Milena Canonero

BEST HAIR & MAKEUP
Guardians of the Galaxy