ACTOR Timothy Spall has been named best actor of 2014 by America's National Society of Film Critics.

The society, made up of 59 members from major publications across the US, lauded Spall for his portrayal of painter JMW Turner, in Mr Turner.

The 3-D movie Goodbye To Language won the best picture of 2014 accolade at the society's 49th annual awards meeting in New York City.

Members gathered at Lincoln Centre in Manhattan to vote, making French director Jean-Luc Godard's 70-minute film collage their top pick.

Richard Linklater was hailed best director for his drama Boyhood, and Laura Poitras' Citizenfour documentary of the US government's secret surveillance programme exposed by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was chosen as best non-fiction film.