The Los Angeles Film Critics have named "Boyhood" the best film of the year.

The group also gave the film the Best Director award for Richard Linklater, the Best Actress prize for Patricia Arquette and the Best Editing award.

The film was clearly a favorite for the group as it won more awards than any other film.

However, the group as usual went away from the norm and chose some of the most surprising winners of the season. Arquette, for example, won for Best Actress instead of Best Supporting Actress. Her role in "Boyhood" is large but IFC Films is campaigning her in the Supporting category.

Most surprising, however, was Tom Hardy's victory for "Locke." The movie is being campaigned by A24 but it has not obtained the buzz necessary to break into the Oscar race. The movie came out in April and, while it was a critical hit, it bombed at the box office. It is likely that A24 will give Hardy a stronger push after the victory, but Hardy continues to be a dark horse in the overcrowded Best Actor race.

An L.A win does not mean an automatic acting nomination at the Oscars. As a matter of fact, four of the last five Best Actor winners were nominated at the Oscars. In 2011, Michael Fassbender won for his combined work in "Shame," "A Dangerous Method," "Jane Eyre" and "X-Men: First Class" but failed to get nominated at the Oscars.

Also surprising was Agata Kulesza's win for "Ida." The actress won the Best Supporting Actress category. It's not the first time LA awards a foreign performance. In the last five years, five foreign performances have went on to win acting awards with the L.A Critics. However, only one of the performances transferred over to the Academy Awards. The performance was Emmanuelle Riva's work in "Amour."

J.K. Simmons' win for "Whiplash" was the only standard acting win. Simmons took home the Best Supporting Actor award, beating out rival contender Edward Norton for "Birdman."

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Lubezki added another trophy to his awards for Best Cinematography. The Mexican cinematographer is quickly becoming the frontrunner to win his second Academy Award for "Birdman."

"Citizenfour" added another victory for Best Documentary while "Ida" won the Best Foreign Film category. "Ida" is most likely expected to win at the Oscars but it has lacked the awards that most pundits expected the film would have. Early on, pundits expected that if "Ida" ran away with all the foreign film awards, it would break out of the Foreign Film category and possibly be nominated in other categories. The L.A Film Critics clearly embraced it, but it is still too early to know if the movie will have the same effect on other critics groups.

The Los Angeles Film Critics are known for their idiosyncratic choices that hardly ever match up with the Academy Awards. However, 10 of the 11 Best Picture winners have gone on to get nominated for the Academy Awards. Only one has gone on to win Best Picture. The organization is also credited with giving the foreign film "Amour" a boost for the Academy Awards. It was the first critics' society to give the Austrian film a Best Picture award before eventually getting nominated at the Oscars.

"Boyhood" is currently the frontrunner for the Oscars and the win at L.A is yet another boost for the Indie breakout.

Complete List of Winners:

Best Picture: "Boyhood"
Best Director: Richard Linklater - "Boyhood"
Best Actor: Tom Hardy - "Locke"
Best Actress: Patricia Arquette - "Boyhood"
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons - "Whiplash"
Best Supporting Actress: Agata Kulesza
Best Animated Film: "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"
Best Documentary: "Citizenfour"
Best Foreign Film: - "Ida"
Best Screenplay: Wes Anderson - "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki - "Birdman"
Best Editing: Sandra Adair - "Boyhood"
Best Production Design: Adam Stockhausen - "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Best Score: TIE - Johnny Greenwood - "Inherent Vice"; Mica Levi - "Under the Skin"
New Generation Award: Ava DuVernay - "Selma"

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