'Birdman', 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' Lead Oscar Race, India Out

India had already lost hope of a nomination in the Foreign Language Film category as its official entry ‘Liar's Dice’ had failed to make a cut even to the longlist of nine out of the 83 films that had qualified for the category. The final nomination list of the 87th Academy Awards was announced at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills here. For the first time, nominees in all 24 categories were announced live.

‘The Imitation Game’ landed eight nominations in total while Clint Eastwood's ‘American Sniper’ and ‘Boyhood’ had six each. The Best Motion Picture of the Year category will see tough competition between ‘American Sniper’, ‘Birdman’, ‘Boyhood’, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, ‘The Imitation Game’, ‘Selma’, ‘The Theory of Everything’ and ‘Whiplash’.

As for the Achievement in Directing list, there's a neck-to-neck competition between ‘Birdman’ (Inarritu), ‘Boyhood’ (Richard Linklater), ‘Foxcatcher’ (Bennett Miller), ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ (Anderson) and ‘The Imitation Game’ (Morten Tyldum).

The contenders for the Best Performance by an Actor in Leading Role are Steve Carell for ‘Foxcatcher’, Bradley Cooper for ‘American Sniper’, Benedict Cumberbatch for ‘The Imitation Game’, Keaton for ‘Birdman’ and Eddie Redmayne for ‘The Theory of Everything’.

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