HOLLYWOOD: Dark comedy "Birdman" and coming-of-age drama "Boyhood" headed into battle Sunday for the prestigious top prize at the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night, as the main event got under way.
Host Neil Patrick Harris launched the more than three-hour show with a song and dance routine about the movie industry itself -- including a joke about the lack of any non-white actors in the four acting categories.
"Tonight we honor Hollywood's best and whitest ... sorry, brightest," he said, earning laughs from the star-studded audience at the Dolby Theatre.
J.K. Simmons won the first award of the night -- the best supporting actor prize for his role as a bullying jazz teacher in "Whiplash," which was also nominated for best picture.
Before the show began, A-listers -- and a fair bit of rain -- hit the red carpet for the annual pre-show fashion parade on a sealed-off stretch of Hollywood Boulevard outside the venue.
Julianne Moore, Patricia Arquette and Eddie Redmayne are among those widely tipped to take home acting prizes during the extravaganza.
On the eve of the Oscars, "Birdman" got a fresh boost, taking best film honors at the Independent Spirit Awards as well as best actor for Michael Keaton.
But "Boyhood" took the best director Spirit Award for Richard Linklater.
The race for the biggest prize of the night Sunday -- best picture -- is too close to call.
"Birdman," a fanciful yet dark tale of a washed-up superhero actor battling to revive his career on Broadway, has swept a string of awards in the run-up to the Oscars, including top prizes from the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America.
But Linklater's "Boyhood" -- made over the course of 12 years with the same actors aging with their characters -- scooped up the biggest awards at last month's Golden Globes, as well as Britain's BAFTAs.
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