The 2010 BAFTA nominations have been announced, and three films boast a whopping eight nominations, with Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker leading the pack. Just behind is District 9 with seven, followed by Up In The Air and Inglourious Basterds with six.
It's a pretty wide spread for the Awards, which also see Coco Before Chanel, Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire, Nowhere Boy and Up get four nods each. We suspect that wide range will be reflected on the night with a relatively large number of films getting prizes, BAFTA clearly having listened to their collective mother and learned to share the wealth around.
Up for Best Film overall are Avatar (predictably), The Hurt Locker (also predictably, albeit for different reasons), Up In The Air, Precious and An Education. What's perhaps surprising is that only three of these films are also nominated for Best Director: Up In The Air's Jason Reitman and Precious' Lee Daniels lose out to District 9's Neil Blomkamp and Inglourious Basterds' Quentin Tarantino. Still, we're guessing it's still a James Cameron vs. Kathryn Bigelow race for that prize.
In terms of people who haven't been nominated at the Golden Globes or many of the US lists to date, it's nice to see In The Loop up for Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay, Christian McKay up for Best Supporting Actor for his exceptional turn in Me And Orson Welles, Andy Serkis up for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and Duncan Jones nominated for Best British Film and the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director Or Producer for Moon. That category's going to be tough, though: it also includes Sam Taylor-Wood for Nowhere Boy and Stuart Hazeldine for Exam.
Serkis and McKay aside, the male acting categories go largely as you'd expect, with nods for George Clooney in Up In The Air, Golden Globe winner Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and Colin Firth for A Single Man. The one welcome surprise there is that someone has finally acknowledged that Jeremy Renner's rather good in The Hurt Locker. In the Supporting category, The Lovely Bones' Stanley Tucci and Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz are nominated alongside Alfred Molina for An Education and Alec Baldwin for It's Complicated (that film's sole nomination here).
For the ladies, by-now expected contenders Carey Mulligan (An Education), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) are joined by Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel and Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones. The Supporting category nominates two actresses from Up In The Air - Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga - and two from **Nowhere Boy - **Kristin Scott-Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff - but surely none of those can beat Mo'Nique for Precious.
The Animated ghetto category has only three nominees, but they're all great films: Fantastic Mr Fox, Coraline and Up (which is also up for Best Screenplay, Sound and Score). Films Not In The English Language is another strong group, with no clear winner: the buzzed-about Cannes winner A Prophet is up against Coco Before Chanel (which BAFTA clearly loves), **Let The Right One In **(which everyone else loves), Almodovar's **Broken Embraces **and Haneke's The White Ribbon.
The full list of nominees is below; the ceremony will take place and the results announced on February 21.
BEST FILM
Avatar
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire
**Up In The Air **
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
**An Education
Fish Tank
In The Loop
Moon
Nowhere Boy**
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
LUCY BAILEY, ANDREW THOMPSON, ELIZABETH MORGAN HEMLOCK, DAVID PEARSON Directors, Producers – Mugabe and the White African
ERAN CREEVY Writer/Director – **Shifty **
STUART HAZELDINE Writer/Director – **Exam **
DUNCAN JONES Director – **Moon **
SAM TAYLOR-WOOD Director – Nowhere Boy
DIRECTOR
James Cameron - Avatar
Neill Blomkamp - District 9
Lone Scherfig - An Education
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Jon Lucas, Scott Moore - The Hangover
Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter - Up
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell - District 9
Nick Hornby - An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche - In The Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up In The Air
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
**Broken Embraces
Coco Before Chanel
Let The Right One In
A Prophet
The White Ribbon**
ANIMATED FILM
**Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
Up **
LEADING ACTOR
Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
George Clooney - Up in the Air
Colin Firth - A Single Man
Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Andy Serkis - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
LEADING ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan - An Education
Saoirse Ronan - The Lovely Bones
Gabourey Sidibe - Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia
Audrey Tautou - Coco Before Chanel
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alec Baldwin - It’s Complicated
Christian McKay - Me and Orson Welles
Alfred Molina - An Education
Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz - I****nglourious Basterds
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne-Marie Duff - Nowhere Boy
Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
Mo'Nique - Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Kristin Scott-Thomas - Nowhere Boy
MUSIC
**Avatar **- James Horner
Crazy Heart - T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton
Fantastic Mr Fox - Alexandre Desplat
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Chaz Jankel
Up - Michael Giacchino
CINEMATOGRAPHY
**Avatar **- Mauro Fiore
District 9 - Trent Opaloch
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The Road - Javier Aguirresarobe
EDITING
**Avatar **- Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
**District 9 **- Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds - Sally Menke
Up In The Air - Dana E. Glauberman
PRODUCTION DESIGN
**Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds **
COSTUME DESIGN
**Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
A Single Man
The Young Victoria**
SOUND
**Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up**
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
**Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek**
MAKE UP & HAIR
**Coco Before Chanel
An Education
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria**
SHORT ANIMATION
**The Gruffalo
The Happy Duckling
Mother of Many**
SHORT FILM
**14
I Do Air
Jade
Mixtape
Off Season**
THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart