LONDON: Slow-cooked coming-of-age tale “Boyhood” took the best film and director trophies at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, while Wes Anderson’s candy-colored comedy “The Grand Budapest Hotel” won the biggest haul of prizes, with five.

Both are unusual works by distinctive directors, and there were also multiple trophies for the Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything” and the jazz-drumming drama “Whiplash” at an event that proved small, personal films could emerge as winners.

Awards-season high-flyer “Birdman” had its wings clipped, taking only a cinematography prize from 10 nominations. And World War II code-breaking drama “The Imitation Game” won nothing despite nine nominations.

Richard Linklater, who spent 12 years making “Boyhood,” was named best director, and Patricia Arquette won the supporting-actress trophy as a struggling mother in the film.

Arquette said Linklater had set out to show “how extraordinary an ordinary life is.”

“Boyhood” star Ellar Coltrane, who grew from 6 to 18 onscreen, thanked British voters for rewarding “an exercise of collaboration and vulnerability.”

The British awards, known as the BAFTAs, are considered an indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s Academy Awards later this month.

“The Theory of Everything” was named best British film, and won an acapted-screenplay award for Anthony McCarten. Eddie Redmayne, already an awards-season favorite, won the best-actor prize for his performance as physicist Hawking, who probed the cosmos while his body was wracked by motor neuron disease.

Redmayne said the evening went much better than his last BAFTA appearance, which he spent vomiting backstage with food poisoning when he was supposed to be presenting an award.

“It was one of the worst nights of my life,” Redmayne said. “This is one of the best nights of my life.”

The actor paid an emotional tribute to Hawking, his ex-wife Jane and their families, “for reminding me of the great strength that comes from the will to live a full and passionate life.”

Julianne Moore was named best actress for portraying a professor with Alzheimer’s in “Still Alice.”

Anderson won the original screenplay trophy for “The Grand Budapest Hotel, which also took prizes for production design, costumes, hair and makeup and Alexandre Desplat’s score.

Damien Chazelle’s jazz-drumming drama “Whiplash” — a taut psychological showdown that was shot in 19 days — took prizes for sound and editing.

The supporting-actor trophy went to the film’s J.K. Simmons, a stalwart character actor who is finally receiving major awards recognition.

“The Lego Movie” was named best animated feature, a prize the filmmakers said helped ease the pain of its Oscars snub.

“You are our favorite academy by far,” said co-director Phil Lord.

British actor Jack O’Connell, star of “71” and “Unbroken,” won the Rising Star award, the only trophy decided by public vote. The others are chosen by several thousand members of the British film academy.