Two films received nine nominations; Birdman ou (La Surprenante vertu de l'ignorance) (2014) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). Edward Norton stars in both films and both were produced by Fox Searchlight.
Best Actor nominees Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne both played Stephen Hawking (Cumberbatch in Hawking: La Tête dans les Étoiles (2004), Redmayne in Une merveilleuse histoire du temps (2014) (for which he was also nominated)). Best Supporting Actor nominees Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo both played Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Norton in L'Incroyable Hulk (2008) and Ruffalo in Avengers (2012) and Avengers : L'Ère d'Ultron (2015)).
Best Actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing (the character he portrays in his Oscar-nominated performance) are actually related in real-life. According to the family history site Ancestry, the two are 17th cousins with family relations dating back to the 14th century. Both are said to be related to John Beaufort, the first Earl of Somerset, through Cumberbatch and Turing's respective paternal lines. This means that for the first time, a performer is nominated for portraying a known real-life relative since Katharine Hepburn won for her performance in Le Lion en hiver (1968).
Bradley Cooper received a third consecutive Oscar nomination for American Sniper (2014). He was first nominated two years prior for Happiness Therapy (2012) and then for American Bluff (2013) (both directed by David O. Russell).
Meryl Streep's nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role marked her 19th acting nomination, increasing her record for most acting nominations.