Films "Birdman," "The Grand Budapest Hotel" lead Oscar nominations with 9 nods each

"Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel" led Thursday's Oscar nominations, with nine nominations each for the 87th Academy Awards, followed by "The Imitation Game," which got eight nods.

The other five best picture nominees include "American Sniper," "Boyhood," "Selma," "The Theory of Everything" and "Whiplash."

The 12-years-in-the-making movie "Boyhood," the big winner at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, picked up six nominations, including a directing nod for Richard Linklater. Best picture hopeful "Selma " which some had predicted would earn a shot at the Oscar for director Ava DuVernay, received one other nomination -- for its original song, "Glory."

In addition to Linklater, director nods also went to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for "Birdman," Bennett Miller for "Foxcatcher," Wes Anderson for "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and Morten Tyldum for "The Imitation Game."

As widely expected, Michael Keaton picked up a nomination for his role as a one-time blockbuster superhero actor trying to revive his career on Broadway in "Birdman." British actor Eddie Redmayne joined best actor category for his role as physicist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything." Other best actor nominations are Benedict Cumberbatch for his portrayal of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," box- office favorite and now three-time nominee Bradley Cooper for " American Sniper" and Steve Carell for his transformation into millionaire murderer John du Pont in "Foxcatcher."

All but Cooper are first-time Oscar nominees. Keaton and Redmayne both took home prizes at Golden Globe Awards four days ago.

Best actress nominees include Julianne Moore for her role as a linguistics professor diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in "Still Alice," 2008 Oscar-winner Marion Cotillard for her portrayal of a young mother fighting to keep her job in the Belgian film "Two Days, One Night," Felicity Jones for her work opposite Redmayne in "The Theory of Everything," Rosamund Pike as the murderous wife in "Gone Girl" and Reese Witherspoon for her soul-searching role in the adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's "Wild." Moore, now a five-time Oscar nominee, won a Golden Globe Sunday.

Actresses scoring nominees for supporting roles were first- timers Patricia Arquette for "Boyhood" and Emma Stone for "Birdman, " along with Laura Dern for "Wild," Keira Knightley for "The Imitation Game," and Meryl Streep for "Into the Woods." This is Streep's 19th nomination and she has already won three Oscars.

Supporting actors garnering nominations included 84-year-old Oscar-winner Robert Duvall for "The Judge," four-time nominee Ethan Hawke for "Boyhood," Ed Norton for "Birdman," Mark Ruffalo for "Foxcatcher" and first-time nominee J.K. Simmons for "Whiplash. "

Best foreign language films nominated were "Ida" (Poland), " Leviathan" (Russia), "Tangerines" (Estonia), "Timbuktu" ( Mauritania) and "Wild Tales" (Argentina). The Oscar nominees for best animated feature film are "Big Hero 6," "The Boxtrolls," "How to Train Your Dragon 2," "Song of the Sea" and "The Tale of Princess Kaguya."

One of young leading Chinese directors, Hu Wei, 32, got best live action short film nomination for his 15-minute Tibetan themed film "Butter Lanp." This is the only Chinese film in this year's Oscar race.

The Academy reformed its process for announcing the nominations this year. Traditionally, the early morning live-televised announcement at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre only featured some of the top categories. On Thursday, the Oscar nominations were announced in all 24 categories at the early morning event.

The Oscars will be presented Feb. 22 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with Neil Patrick Harris hosting. Endite