'Birdman' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' lead 2015 Oscar nominations

The 87th Academy Awards nominations were announced on January 15 in Los Angeles, USA. The two films with the most nominations are Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel, each with 9 nominations.

Birdman is an experimental satire directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, about a fallen star trying to regain his glory. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2014 and has since won many significant awards, including “Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical” for Michael Keaton at the 2015 Golden Globes.

This year's Oscar "Best Picture" category is a competition between eight works, most of which are low-budget independent films.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a comedy directed by Paul Wes Anderson about a concierge at a European hotel in pre-World War II times. It also led the BAFTA nominations with 11 nominations. At the Golden Globes a week ago, it took home the award for “Best Comedy/Musical.”

The British biographical film - The Imitation Game - about gay mathematician Alan Turner won 8 nominations, including "Best Film", "Best Adapted Screenplay", "Best Actor" (for Benedict Cumberbatch) and "Best Supporting Actress" (Keira Knightley).

The film that dominated the Golden Globe awards was Boyhood, which received 6 nominations, equaling the number of nominations of the film American Sniper, directed by veteran actor and director Clint Eastwood.

The two directors JJ Abrams (left - photo above) and director Alfonso Cuaron hosted the first half of the Oscar nominations announcement, the second half of the program was hosted by actor Chris Pine and Ms. Cheryl Boone Isaacs - director of the Academy.

In the Best Picture category, this year’s eight films are mostly independent films with modest budgets, including Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, Boyhood, American Sniper, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash. Selma director Ava DuVernay is the only female director with a film on the list. However, she is not in the Best Director category.

The Best Director category sees competition between filmmaker Richard Linklater of Boyhood, Wes Anderson of The Grand Budapest Hotel, Alejandro González Iñárritu of Birman, Bennett Miller of Foxcatcher and Morten Tyldum of The Imitation Game.

Birdman veteran Michael Keaton is the standout name in the nominations for the “Best Actor” category, alongside British star Eddie Redmayne from The Theory of Everything, Steve Carell from Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper from American Sniper and Benedict Cumberbatch from The Imitation Game. This is the third consecutive year Bradley Cooper has been nominated for an Oscar for acting.

The 87th Academy Awards nominees for "Best Actress" (pictured above) and "Best Actor."

The Best Actress category has a host of stars. First is Oscar-winning Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night. The second is Golden Globe-winning Julianne Moore for Still Alice. Both stars will compete with Reese Witherspoon for Wild and two British beauties, Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything and Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl.

The five nominees for “Best Foreign Language Film” include Ida (Poland) by director Paweł Pawlikowski, which revolves around a nun; Leviathan by famous Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, which tells the story of a farmer who tries to keep his land from being taken away by a greedy mayor; Estonia by director Zaza Urushadze, which tells the story of an Abkhazian village during the war in the early 1990s; Wild Tales, a series of six short films about violence by Spanish director Damián Szifrón; and the French film Timbuktu, which competed at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

More than 6,000 members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will vote for the 87th Academy Awards from February 6 to February 17. The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 22 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, USA.

According to VNE