'Grand Budapest...', 'Birdman' lead Oscars race with 9 nods

Satirical drama 'Birdman' and whimsical crime caper 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' lead this year's Oscar race winning nine nods each, including best picture and director, at the 87th Academy Award nominations announced today.
'The Imitation Game', the Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer British World War II drama about code-breaker Alan Turing, closely followed with eight nominations.
'Boyhood', Richard Linklater's coming-of-age tale about childhood, which took 12-years to complete, was predicted to score big, but managed to garner just six nominations.
Its chances on February 22, however, remain bright as the film is competing in key categories like best picture, director, original screenplay and supporting actors.

'Boyhood' matched its score with the Clint Eastwood's Iraq war drama 'American Sniper', which was a surprise entrant and won nominations for best picture, best actor for Bradley Cooper and adapted screenplay though Eastwood was omitted.
The biggest surprise in the nominations list was the love given to 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' as the Academy generally favours more recent releases while the film released last March.

It was one of the nominees in the best picture category along with 'Birdman', 'The Imitation Game' 'American Sniper', 'Boyhood', 'Selma', 'The Theory of Everything' and 'Whiplash'.
'Budapest', a whimsical tale about a colourful hotel concierge, also fetched Wes Anderson a best director and original screenplay nominations.

'Birdman', by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, too spread its wings by getting nominated in a number of categories.
Inarritu is nominated as the best director with Richard Linklater 'Boyhood', Bennett Miller of 'Foxcatcher', Anderson for 'Budapest' and Morten Tyldum of 'The Imitation Game'.
Michael Keaton, who plays the role of a washed up actor seeking to resurrect his career in 'Birdman', scored a best actor nomination while Emma Stone was nominated for best supporting honours for the same film.
He will fight it out with Cumberbatch for 'The Imitation Game', Cooper for 'American Sniper', Steve Carell for 'Foxcatcher' and another British star, Golden Globe winner Eddie Redmayne for his role as scientist Stephen Hawking in 'The Theory of Everything'.