Boyhood vs Birdman at Oscars

Hollywood's gearing up for it's most glamorous event of the year - the Academy Awards.

MORE: See all the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards

With the Oscars just hours away, everyone's placing their bets on who the big winners will be.

Lucy Cotter of Sky News reports Birdman and Grand Budapest Hotel lead the way with nine nominations each ... but there's always room for surprise.

"Although it may seem like the script is already, if there is one thing Hollywood loves more than a happy ending, it's a twist."

Boyhood took out the Golden Globe, but correspondent Richard Arnold says since then there has been a strong shift in popularity toward Birdman.

The movie tells the story of a troubled actor trying to rev up his career.

"Remember who votes for the Oscars, the industry, and Birdman has won the Actors, Directors and Producers guild prizes."

Covering the red carpet, USA Today's Claudia Puig says no-one knows what will happen.

She says Eddie Redmayne is looking good for the Best Actor category.

"It's a particular advantage when you play someone who is disabled, and is as widely admired as Stephen Hawking."

New Zealand has a number of nominations, including Weta Digital for Dawn of Planet of the Apes and Anthony McCarten for penning The Theory of Everything.

New Zealand screenwriter Anthony McCarten has two nominations for his Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.

The Weta Digital group's up for a gong in the visual effects category, for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

And Kiwis Brent Burge and Jason Canovas are nominated in the Sound Editing category for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.

The red carpet starts at 1 o'clock this afternoon, with the awards getting underway at 2.30.