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‘Birdman’ and ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ lead Oscar nominations

Contenders in the 87th Academy Awards are announced, with 'Birdman' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' leading the pack with nine nominations apiece, followed by 'The Imitation Game' with eight and 'American Sniper' and 'Boyhood,' each with six.

Birdman, a breathless backstage drama starring Michael Keaton as a fading Hollywood star trying to reclaim his career, and his soul, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson's between-the-wars screwball romp, tied with nine nominations apiece  as the list of films and filmmakers vying for the 87th Academy Awards were announced this morning in Beverly Hills.

Rounding out the eight (out of a possible ten) best picture contenders: American Sniper, Boyhood, The Imitation Game, Selma, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash. The Imitation Game came away with eight nominations,  and American Sniper and Boyhood followed with six each.

In the best actor race, Keaton, who made his screen debut in 1978, in the Joan Rivers-directed Rabbit Test, received his first Academy Award nomination. The Birdman star is up against Steve Carell for his transformative take on Newtown Square multimillionaire John du Pont in Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper as the Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle in American Sniper, Benedict Cumberbatch as the British codebreaker and mathematician Alan Turing in The Imitation Game and Eddie Redmayne as  Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Keaton's role is the sole fictional character in the bunch. And a surprise snub: no nomination for David Oyelowo, who stars as  Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr., in Selma.

For best actress, Marion Cotillard, the French Oscar winner for La Vie en Rose, received an encore nod for her role as a laid-off factory worker in Two Days, One Night. Felicity Jones was nominated for her performance as Jane Wilde, aka Mrs. Stephen Hawking, in The Theory of Everything, Julianne Moore, as a linguistic professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in Still Alice, Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl, and  Reese Witherspoon as the epic trekker and memoirist Cheryl Strayed in Wild.

In the supporting actress field, Emma Stone lands her first Oscar nod, for her edgy portrayal of Keaton's character's daughter in Birdman, and Meryl Streep nabs her 19th,, for the conflicted witch  in Into the Woods. Streep already holds the record for the most nominations of any actor in Academy history, so this one is just a cushion against any (unlikely) competition in the coming years. Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)  Laura Dern  (Wild), and Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) round out the field

For supporting actor, Academy voters nominated veteran Robert Duvall for The Judge, Ethan Hawke for Boyhood, Edward Norton for Birdman, Mark Ruffalo for Foxcatcher and J.K. Simmons for Whiplash.

And in the director ranks, the fab five are Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Alejandro G. Inarritu, for Birdman. Richard Linklater for Boyhood,  Bennett Miller for Foxcatcher, and Morten Tyldum for The Imitation Game.

In the animated feature field, box office hits Big Hero 6 and How to Train Your Dragon 2 will be vying for the big prize alongside The Boxtrolls, Song of the Sea  and The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Citizenfour, a you-are-there chronicle of Edward Snowden's epic leaks of classified and compromising NSA files, is considered the frontrunner among the five nominated documentary features.

Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, leading lady of yore Maureen O'Hara, and French writer, actor and filmmaker Jean-Claude Carrière received honorary Oscars at the Governors Awards ceremony in November. Singer, actor and social activist Harry Belafonte is the recipient of the 2015 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

The 87th Academy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, will be broadcast live from the Dolby Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, Sunday, Feb. 22, with coverage beginning at 7pm on ABC.

For the complete list of nominations, go here