Boyhood may be the favorite of critics for Best Picture, but when it comes to individual performance, Birdman is the runaway winner. The film's lead, Michael Keaton, who plays the washup Hollywood movie hero who attempts to claim his long-lost fame the second time around, got the Best Actor nomination for his role as Riggan Thomson.

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Birdman's other stars, Emma Stone, who portrayed Keaton's distressed daughter, and Edward Norton, the haughty theater actor, garnered best supporting nods.

The picture also got the nomination for Best Ensemble.

"An ensemble like this hardly ever comes around, and all of us made this very unique film work - (led) by our maestro, director Alejandro Iñárritu," Keaton said in a statement.

In a close battle with Birdman is the equally acclaimed coming-of-age story of Boyhood, the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game, and the Stephen Hawking biography The Theory of Everything, which got three nominations, specifically for ensemble casts and individual performances.

Ava DuVernay's civil rights drama Selma and Angelina Jolie's Louis Zamperini biopic Unbroken failed to garner any nomination. The films, though, have not been released, and the buzz is that the two films are strong Oscar contenders.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley also pulled in acting nods for portraying World War II British logicians Alan Turing and Joan Clarke, respectively.

Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel garnered one nomination, for best ensemble, thanks to its numerous cast that include Norton and Adrien Brody, who got an acting nomination for History's Houdini.

While Bennett Miller's drama Foxcatcher failed to get a nod, Steve Carell managed to grab the Best Actor nomination, and Mark Ruffalo was honored with the Best Supporting Actor nod.

Jake Gyllenhaal also grabbed a lead acting nomination as the sociopathic journalist in the Los Angeles noir Nightcrawler.

Meanwhile, HBO led the nominees for television with 10 nominations. Netflix, ABC and Showtime each got five.

Modern Family got the most nomination for individual categories with four nominations.

The SAG Awards will be presented January 25. It will honor Debbie Reynolds with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Guild Awards is often a precursor of the Academy Awards, which will be held Feb. 22, with nominations to be announced Jan. 15. SAG awardees usually have strong chances of grabbing an Oscar.

TagsBirdman, screen actors' guild awards, SAG