NEW YORK: And the winner is ... a mouthful.

Though the full wingspan of the best-picture favorite at the Academy Awards is usually clipped down to simply “Birdman,” the movie many think is destined to fly highest at the Oscars is officially titled “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).” If it were to win, it would be the longest-titled best-picture winner, as well as the most grammatically dubious.

Oscar night may come down to not only what name is read from the night’s final envelope, but also how the winning film is said. Should either name be called, writer-director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu isn’t quibbling.

“Better the full title, but honestly I understand we have to be practical,” said Inarritu of his preference in a recent interview. “It’s more practical to say ‘Birdman.’ That’s fine by me.”

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognizes the film’s full title in all its colorful plumage, even if most multiplex marquees don’t.

Since lengthy, oddly punctuated dual titles aren’t exactly what marketers dream of, “Birdman” is how it’s generally been promoted. But Fox Searchlight also presents the complete title on movie posters (albeit with the second title in much smaller type) and it urged critics reviewing the film to use the full title on first reference.

With its redundant parentheses, the grammatical inaccuracy of the title has annoyed more grammatically sensitive moviegoers. The phrasing, of course, has a tradition; it takes after Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” a best-picture nominee in 1965.

If “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” does triumph at the Oscars on Feb. 22, it will usurp “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” as the lengthiest titled best picture winner. (“Argo” and “Gigi” tie for the shortest.)

It’s still, however, a very long way off the film frequently cited for longest title: “Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Alien, Flesh Eating, Hellbound, Zombified Living Dead Part 2: In Shocking 2-D.”