With this morning’s Golden Globe nominations, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association seemed to acknowledge that Birdman is the landmark film I’ve been calling it all along, and that it might — I say “might” — take its seven GG nominations and four SAG noms and a similar tally of Oscar noms and do a King Shit quarterback run to a Best Picture win. Don’t kid yourself — the film with the most all-around nominations often wins. Famous last words, right?

All I know is that before this morning’s Golden Globe announcements, I was presuming that Birdman‘s critical esteem wouldn’t be quite enough. I thought it would gather more Oscar noms than Boyhood but that Boyhood would probably win the big prize because it (a) has more heart and (b) took 12 years to shoot. That might still happen, of course, but who knows? Right now Birdman feels like a comer.

Why am I banging out my Golden Globe nom reactions at 7:50 am instead of two hours earlier? Because I only do 5 am wake-ups for plane departures, earthquakes, the Oscar nominations and responsibility attacks. When I have a lot to get to and I know it’s super-important my body clock always wakes me before dawn. Today I slept. It’s only the Golden Globes.

Fox Searchlight’s Birdman, IFC Films’ Boyhood and the Weinstein Co.’s The Imitation Game are the GG hotties with seven, five and five nominations each.

A filmmaker friend said a couple of weeks ago that while Birdman‘s brilliance is undeniable, it doesn’t deliver the emotional thing that industry softies value above all. Yesterday he told me he’s sensing that The Imitation Game, which is softie-friendly, might be the one. (Are you listening, Steve Pond? The Imitation Game might be “the one.”) He’s never said anything about Boyhood, which may or may not be an indicator.

Angelina Jolie‘s Unbroken is apparently in serious trouble this morning, Oscar-wise, with absolutely no GG attention. Nobody ever thought Interstellar was going to be much of an award-season player, and this morning it snagged only one nomination for Hans Zimmer‘s score, which a lot of people thought was way too emphatic. (Remember?)

Ava DuVernay‘s Selma saved itself with a Best Picture nomination (partly, let’s be honest, because Birdman was relegated to the Best Comedy or Musical category), a Best Director nom for DuVernay, and Best Actor, Drama nomination for the highly deserving David Oyelowo.

A hey-hey for Gone Girl‘s having snagged four nominations (inducing a Best Director nomination for David Fincher) and for Tim Burton’s Big Eyes scoring three noms (why not?). Cake‘s Jennifer Aniston and Nightcrawler‘s Jake Gyllenhaal are obviously In Like Flynn when you factor in their SAG Award nominations. Congrats also to DuVernay for landing a Best Director nom — the first ever given to an African-American female.

And HE’s own Jessica Chastain landed her much-deserved Best Supporting Actress nomination for A Most Violent Year.

Wild‘s Laura Dern again came up short. Ditto Mr. Turner‘s Timothy Spall (i.e., couldn’t understand half his dialogue). Hillary Swank was never in the running for her Homesman performance because people vote for the character as much as the acting and nobody’s going to nominate a tough pioneer woman who decides to off herself out of the blue and for no discernible reason.

The 2015 Golden Globes will be broadcast by NBC on Sunday, January 11th, from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.