'Birdman Backstage' Is a Virtual Tour Inside the Soaring Oscar Nominee

This interactive website full of 'Birdman' GIFs, videos, and photos is a comprehensive guide to the film's Oscar buzz.

by Beckett Mufson

January 17, 2015, 7:00pm

Image by WENN, via

The annual mad dash for cinematic glory that is The 87th Academy Awards began in earnest yesterday when the Academy announced the nominees we'll all be arguing about for the next month or so. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) placed in nine different categories, tying Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel for Most Oscar Nominations in 2014. The brains behind the former must have foreseen that this year's awards ceremony, like the film, would be a clash of Titans because they decided to set all their best feet forward with a new interactive For Your Consideration website, Birdman Backstage.

The site is framed by a map of the St. James Theatre's backstage hallways, which people who have seen Birdman will recognize from the snaking journey cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki took them on for the majority of the film. The wardrobe houses quotes about Best Director-nominated Alejandro Iñarritu, along with beautiful behind-the-scenes photos of him directing a scene. Around the corner, the Best Screenplay nomination rests in a stairwell alongside a full-length copy of the text. Across the map, Riggan Thompson's dressing room reveals a trailer for fictional 1992 film-within-a-film, Birdman Returns, complete with a cheesy voice that announces, "IN A WORLD…"

Each of the 14 rooms features an assortment of GIFs, memes, footage, and quotes, earnestly suggesting that, come voting time, viewers (who happen to be Academy members) will choose the film. The public will have to wait until February 22 to find out whether these net-friendly nuggets of content are on the winning side but for now, at least, Birdman has earned itself a second viewing—good thing that's easier than ever now that the film is back in theaters. Enjoy some of our favorite tidbits from Birdman Backstage below.