Oscar noms: 'Birdman,' 'Grand Budapest Hotel' lead with 9 each

This image released by Fox Searchlight shows Ralph Fiennes, left, and Tony Revolori in 'The Grand Budapest Hotel.' The film was nominated for an Oscar Award for best feature on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015. (AP / Fox Searchlight)

The Oscar nominations added intrigue if not diversity to an Academy Awards race by favouring one late-season release ("American Sniper") over another ("Selma").

The flip-flopping of fortunes, however, did little to dislodge the humble coming-of-age epic "Boyhood," which has steadily grown into the movie to beat in a little-seen Oscar field, closely followed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's backstage ego trip "Birdman."

The two films solidified themselves as Oscar favourites with best-picture and best-director nominations: "Boyhood" chalked up its expected six nominations, including supporting nods for Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. And "Birdman, (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" landed a co-leading nine nominations, including best actor for Michael Keaton.

"I don't care how much people tell you: 'It's gonna happen.' When it happens, you're thrilled," said Keaton about his first nomination.

But the Oscar race -- largely solidified by the ever-expanding industrial complex of Hollywood's awards season -- may have gotten a little more competitive in Thursday's nominations.

Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" (six nods) Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" (nine nominations) and "The Imitation Game" (eight nominations) all emerged as heftier contenders, while another, "Selma," largely fizzled.

Each joined a best-picture field that also included the Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" and the music school psychodrama "Whiplash." The modestly sized movies -- all dwarfed by Hollywood's stampede of bigger blockbusters at the box office -- make for a classy but not particularly high-wattage batch of nominees that may challenge host Neil Patrick Harris to drive viewers to the Feb. 22 ceremony, which drew 43 million viewers last year, a 10-year high.

Three Canadians who helmed animated films were celebrating an Oscar nomination, including "How To Train Your Dragon 2" director Dean DeBlois, fresh off a Golden Globe win. The Aylmer, Que.-native was nominated in the best animated feature category along with Graham Annable of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., co-director of "The Boxtrolls."

Norway-born, Montreal-based Torill Kove is in contention for the best animated short film prize for "Me and My Moulton." She won the Oscar in the same category in 2007 for "The Danish Poet" and was nominated for her animated short "My Grandmother Ironed the King's Shirts" in 2000.

Craig Mann, who grew up in the Toronto area, is also nominated for sound mixing for his work on "Whiplash."

"The Lego Movie"'s "Everything is Awesome," performed by Calgary's Tegan and Sara, is up for best original song, with the nomination going to songwriter Shawn Patterson.

Overall, this year's awards amount to a distinctly white Oscars. All 20 of the nominated actors are white, which led to the trending Twitter hashtag "OscarsSoWhite" on Thursday. It's a nightmare scenario for the Academy of Motion Pictures, which has in recent years sought to diversify its ranks. It also comes a year after the best-picture win for "12 Years a Slave," during which there was much chest-thumping about Hollywood's thawing close-mindedness.

Though Ava DuVernay's civil rights drama "Selma" was once seen as a major contender, it landed just two nominations. (The second was for best song.) David Oyelowo, who stars as Martin Luther King Jr. in "Selma," was surprisingly left out of best actor. On Twitter, DuVernay called the nominations "an Oscar gift" to King on his birthday, but referenced Oyelowo's oversight, calling him "our miracle."

Whereas the late December arrival of "Selma" appeared to hurt its chances, similar timing was on target for Clint Eastwood's Navy SEAL drama "American Sniper." Bradley Cooper, who plays lethal marksman Chris Kyle in the film, seemed to take Oyelowo's best-actor spot.

Wes Anderson's old Europe caper "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which also won best comedy or musical at the Globes, has emerged as the most unexpected awards heavyweight. It managed nine nominations without a single acting nod and was instead repeatedly cited for Anderson's meticulous craft in directing, production design, makeup and screenplay.

"We feel very deeply honoured and thrilled and, frankly, very, very pleased with ourselves all around," Anderson said in a statement.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" (opening all the way back in March) is also the most money-making best-picture entry, with $59.1 million at the North American box office. (That, though, will soon change after "American Sniper" expands nationwide this weekend.)

Box-office hits were scarce. Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic "Interstellar" reeled in five nominations in technical categories. David Fincher's popular and well-reviewed "Gone Girl" managed only a best-actress nomination for Rosamund Pike.

Marion Cotillard for the French-language "Two Days, One Night" was the surprise nominee for best actress. She and Pike were joined by Felicity Jones ("The Theory of Everything"), Julianne Moore ("Still Alice") and Reese Witherspoon ("Wild"). Those picks left Jennifer Aniston's pained and grieving performance in "Cake" on the outside.

The eight nominations for the World War II code-breaker thriller "The Imitation Game," about pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, included best actor for Benedict Cumberbatch and supporting actress for Keira Knightley. The film's distributor, the Weinstein Co., has previously shepherded another prestige British period film ("The King's Speech") all the way to best picture.

"I am knocked for six by this," said Cumberbatch of his first Oscar nod. "To ring my parents who are both actors and tell them that their only son has been nominated for an Oscar is one of the proudest moments of my life."

Steve Carell ("Foxcatcher") and Eddie Redmayne ("The Theory of Everything") rounded out the best actor category. Redmayne, the freckled British actor who stars as Stephen Hawking in the film, said by phone that he was woken with the news.

"I was half undressed and stumbled to the door," said Redmayne. "I found my manager there brandishing a phone with a lot of screams coming out of it."

The eight best-picture nominees left out two wild cards that might have added a dose of darkness to the category: the creepy Jake Gyllenhaal thriller "Nightcrawler" and the tragic wrestling drama "Foxcatcher." In the three years since the category was expanded to allow up to 10 films to be nominated, nine movies contending for best picture.

"Foxcatcher" helmer Bennett Miller (previously nominated for "Capote") squeaked into best director, which also included Morten Tyldum ("The Imitation Game"). DuVernay and "Unbroken" director Angelina Jolie failed to crack the historically male category. Jolie's WWII survival tale landed three nods, including a 12th nomination for cinematographer Roger Deakins.

One of the most notable snubs came in best animation, usually a particularly staid category. Despite critical love and major box office, "The Lego Movie" was not among the nominees which included "Big Hero 6," "The Boxtrolls," "How to Train Your Dragon 2," "Song of the Sea" and "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya."

"Lego" co-director Phil Lord tweeted a photo of a Lego-built Oscar, writing: "It's okay. Made my own!"

Other nominees came with the reliability of clockwork. Meryl Streep landed her 19th nomination (a record) for her supporting performance as a witch in Disney's Stephen Sondheim musical "Into the Woods." Emma Stone ("Birdman") and Laura Dern ("Wild") rounded out the category.

Aside from Hawke, supporting-actor nominations went to Robert Duvall ("The Judge"), Edward Norton ("Birdman"), Mark Ruffalo ("Foxcatcher") and J.K. Simmons ("Whiplash").

The nominees for best foreign language film went to "Ida" (Poland), "Leviathan" (Russia), "Tangerines" (Estonia), "Timbuktu" (Mauritania) and "Wild Tales" (Argentina). The acclaimed black-and-white "Ida" also surprised with a nod for cinematography.

Best documentary nods went to "CitizenFour," "Finding Vivian Maier," "Last Days in Vietnam," "The Salt of the Earth" and "Virunga." The last gave Netflix its second Oscar nomination. Left out was the Roger Ebert documentary "Life Itself."