Dark comedy "Birdman" and stylish crime caper "The Grand Budapest Hotel" topped the Oscars nominations list Thursday with nine each, firing the starting gun on the home stretch of Hollywood's awards race.

In second place was World War II code-breaking thriller "The Imitation Game," with eight nominations. Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" and coming-of-age drama "Boyhood" each earned six nods.

The five films were all shortlisted for best picture, along with US civil rights drama "Selma," Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" and jazz drumming indie hit "Whiplash."

The golden statuettes will be handed out on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre in downtown Hollywood.

For best actor, "Birdman" star Michael Keaton and Britain's Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking in "The Theory of Everything" -- both Golden Globes winners just a few days ago -- are up against Steve Carell ("Foxcatcher"), Bradley Cooper ("American Sniper") and Benedict Cumberbatch ("The Imitation Game").

The best actress race includes two former Oscar winners -- Marion Cotillard for "Two Days, One Night" and Reese Witherspoon ("Wild").

They will compete against Globes winner Julianne Moore ("Still Alice"), along with two British actresses and first-time nominees -- Felicity Jones ("The Theory of Everything") and Rosamund Pike ("Gone Girl").

The makers of both "Birdman" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Wes Anderson, are both in the race for best director along with Richard Linklater for "Boyhood," Bennett Miller for "Foxcatcher" and Morten Tyldum for "The Imitation Game."

Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep meanwhile extended her record lead in nominations, scoring her 19th nod -- this time for best supporting actress for musical fairytale romp "Into The Woods."



Aniston snubbed


There were of course notable absentees from the nominations list.

All of the nominees in the four acting categories are white -- several commentators lamented that David Oyelowo, the Briton who played Martin Luther King Jr in best picture nominee "Selma", was overlooked.

"Selma" director Ava DuVernay was also ignored, as was "Friends" star Jennifer Aniston, who had been tipped for her role in gritty drama "Cake."

Angelina Jolie secured three nominations for her second directing foray, with World War II real-life drama "Unbroken," but none of them were in the major categories.

All the best picture nominees featured men as the central characters.

The Oscar nominees -- chosen by the 6,000-plus members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- were revealed in a pre-dawn ceremony in Beverly Hills.

Voting for the 87th Oscars starts on February 6 and closes on February 17.



Wide-open race


This year's crop of hotly-tipped movies is heavy on true stories: several of the films on the Oscars best picture shortlist were based on real-life events.

Among the historical figures depicted in those films are King ("Selma"), astrophysicist Hawking ("The Theory of Everything") and British mathematician Alan Turing ("The Imitation Game").

The eagerly-awaited Oscars announcement came just four days after "Boyhood" emerged triumphant from the Golden Globes, winning best film and best director honors, along with a prize for best supporting actress Patricia Arquette, also an Oscar nominee.

"Birdman" -- about a washed-up film actor (Keaton) trying to revive his career on stage -- and "The Theory of Everything," about Hawking's descent into disability, each took home two Globes.

The Globes -- for which "Birdman" had led nominations with seven nods -- produced a few surprises, which injected some drama into the race to the Oscars.

"My first caution to Globes winners: don't get over-confident," said Variety awards editor Tim Gray, warning that the Globes are often a poor predictor of Oscars glory.

Possibly the biggest surprise of the Globes ceremony came when "The Grand Budapest Hotel" took home the prize for best comedy/musical film over "Birdman."

"The 'Grand Budapest' triumph throws something of a curveball into the Oscar race," wrote the Los Angeles Times.