The Oscar 2015 nominations are in and BIRDMAN  and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL  ead the race for this year’s Oscars with nine nominations each and it has been a good day for many British actors.
Also securing multiple nods at this year’s Academy Awards are THE IMITATION GAME, BOYHOODÂ and AMERICAN SNIPER.
It was also a great day for the British acting contingency as Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Rosamund Pike, Felicity Jones and Keira Knightley are all nominated.
Joining Cumberbatch and Redmayne for the best actor accolade are Steve Carell, Bradley Cooper and Michael Keaton.
Cumberbatch, who plays codebreaker Alan Turing in THE IMITATION GAME, said he was “knocked for six” by the nomination:
“I’m so excited and honoured to receive this recognition. It’s wonderful to be included by the Academy in this exceptional year of performances. To ring my parents, who are both actors, and tell them that their only son has been nominated for an Oscar is one of the proudest moments of my life.”
After winning the Golden Globe award for Best Actor on Sunday for his role as Stephen Hawking in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, Eddie Redmayne revealed how he heard the exciting news:
“It’s the crack of dawn and I’ve gone from being in a deep dark sleep to hearing this news. I can’t quite articulate what I’m feeling but I feel pretty good”.
He joked about his nomination against his friend, Benedict Cumberbatch:
“We’ve been texting this morning and there have been a lot of exclamation marks of euphoria so there’s definitely no competition there.”
A regular to this kind of euphoria is Bradley Cooper, who has found himself nominated for the third consecutive Oscar nomination in the best actor shortlist, this year for his role in Clint Eastwood‘s military biopic AMERICAN SNIPER and he is the first actor to achieve this since Russell Crowe was nominated for THE INSIDER, GLADIATOR and A BEAUTIFUL MIND at the start of the century.Â
Meryl Streep is nominated for her 19th acting Oscar, breaking her own Academy Awards record. She is up for best supporting actress for INTO THE WOODSÂ alongside Knightley, Patricia Arquette, Laura Dern and Emma Stone.
Nominated alongside Felicity Jones and Rosamund Pike in the best actress category are previous Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon, Marion Cotillard, alongside Julianne Moore, who recently won the Golden Globe for her role in Still Alice.
The nominees in the main categories are:
Best film:
- American Sniper
- Birdman
- Boyhood
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- The Imitation Game
- Selma
- The Theory of Everything
- Whiplash
Best director:
- Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
- Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
- Alejandro G Inarritu (Birdman)
- Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)
- Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)
Best actor:
- Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)
- Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
- Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
- Michael Keaton (Birdman)
- Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)
Best actress
- Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
- Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
- Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
- Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
- Reese Witherspoon (Wild)
