Birdman soars in Globe nods

Quirky comedy racks up 7 as nominations handed out

In this image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Michael Keaton portrays Riggan in a scene from "Birdman." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for best comedy on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. The 72nd annual Golden Globe awards will air on NBC on Sunday, Jan. 11. (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Atsushi Nishijima)
In this image released by Fox Searchlight Pictures, Michael Keaton portrays Riggan in a scene from "Birdman." The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for best comedy on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2014. The 72nd annual Golden Globe awards will air on NBC on Sunday, Jan. 11. (AP Photo/Fox Searchlight, Atsushi Nishijima)

NEW YORK -- Birdman squawked loudest in the Golden Globes nominations, flying away with a leading seven nods including best picture in the comedy or musical category.

In nominations for the 72nd annual Golden Globes announced Thursday morning by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Boyhood and The Imitation Game trailed with five nods apiece. Those two films led a best-drama category that also included Foxcatcher, Selma and The Theory of Everything.

In the best picture, comedy or musical, category, Birdman was joined by St. Vincent, Grand Budapest Hotel, Into the Woods and the independent British film Pride.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman, or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, in which Michael Keaton plays a Hollywood star trying to mount a serious drama on Broadway, earned nods for Keaton and supporting players Edward Norton and Emma Stone, as well as for its direction, screenplay and score.

Richard Linklater's long-in-the-making coming-of-age drama Boyhood, thus far the critical darling and the perceived front-runner of Hollywood's awards season, added nominations for Linklater's direction and script, and supporting actors Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette.

The World War II codebreaker drama The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as mathematician Alan Turing, also went over well with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In addition to its best-picture nod, the Weinstein Co. release won nods for Cumberbatch as best actor, Keira Knightley for best supporting actress, Graham Moore for best screenplay and Alexandre Desplat for best score.

The other nominees for best actor in a drama were Steve Carell (Foxcatcher), David Oyelowo (Selma) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything).

"I've been a bit frantic," said Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking in the film, on the phone from London. "I'm trying to finish all my Christmas shopping in a day, and now I got this phone call."

Most awards season favorites were rewarded with decent showings Thursday, though some hopefuls failed to break through. Most notably, Angelina Jolie's World War II drama Unbroken yielded no nominations at all, though Jolie has seven times previously been nominated (winning three times) by the Globes, including a nod for best foreign language film for her previous directing effort, In the Land of Blood and Honey.

Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, starring Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, also went unnoticed. Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic Interstellar landed only a nomination for Hans Zimmer's score.

But Selma, the story of The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 march, netted a strong four nods despite losing out in Wednesday's Screen Actors Guild nominations. Director Ava Duvernay became the first black woman nominated for best director.

Wes Anderson (Grand Budapest Hotel) and David Fincher (Gone Girl) rounded out the best-director category.

Grand Budapest Hotel was one of the surprise winners of the day. Along with the best-director nod, it received the best-picture nomination in comedy and nominations for Ralph Fiennes as best actor, and Anderson for screenplay.

Fiennes and Keaton were joined in best actor, comedy or musical, by Bill Murray (St. Vincent) and in a few less-expected choices, Joaquin Phoenix for Inherent Vice and Christoph Waltz for Big Eyes.

In the best-actress category, 11-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis (Annie) joined a battery of veteran performers in Julianne Moore (Maps to the Stars), Helen Mirren (The Hundred-Foot Journey), Amy Adams (Big Eyes) and Emily Blunt (Into the Woods).

On the dramatic side, the best-actress category was notable for two stars in less-adorned performances: Reese Witherspoon in the hiking drama Wild and Jennifer Aniston for Cake. The other nominations went to Moore (her second, for Still Alice), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl).

The Globes wrapped up the attendance of one star -- George Clooney -- ahead of Thursday's nominations by selecting the actor-director for its honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Meryl Streep added her 26th nomination with a nod for best supporting actress for the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. She joins Stone, Arquette, Knightley and Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year.

In supporting actor, J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher) and Robert Duvall (The Judge) joined Hawke and Norton.

Information for this article was contributed by Derrik J. Lang and Sandy Cohen of The Associated Press.

A Section on 12/12/2014

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