'Birdman' flying high as Hollywood gathers for Globes

The race to the Oscars begins in earnest Sunday when Hollywood's A-listers gather for the Golden Globes, with dark comedy "Birdman" leading the pack in the quest for awards glory.
      
The film -- starring onetime "Batman" star Michael Keaton as a washed-up film actor trying to revive his career on stage -- earned seven nods for the Globes, the first major event in Tinseltown's annual awards season.
      
Coming-of-age drama "Boyhood" and Nazi code-breaking thriller "The Imitation Game" starring Britain's Benedict Cumberbatch are also in strong position with five nods apiece.
      
Cumberbatch and his co-star Keira Knightley are among a batch of Britons tipped for gold at the Globes.
      
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are in the running for their heartrending performances as British physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane in "The Theory of Everything," and Rosamund Pike has earned praise for her searing turn as a wronged wife in "Gone Girl."       

Comic actresses Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will be hosting the show for the third straight year.
      
Some critics have highlighted the lack of a clear frontrunner, in contrast to previous years like in 2012, when "The Artist" had a virtual lock on Best Picture prizes straight through to the Oscars.
      
"It seems like a real toss-up," Tom Nunan of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television told AFP, adding that actors in this year's race "are all giving career-best performances."                       

This year's crop of hotly-tipped movies is heavy on true stories: four of the five Globes best drama nominees are based on real-life events.
      
Among the historical figures featured are Hawking, British mathematician...