This morning in London saw the release of the 2014 British Academy Film Award nominations, and leading the pack is **Gravity **with 11 nominations, just ahead of **12 Years A Slave ** and **American Hustle **with 10 nominations each.
That said, given that **Gravity **is defined as a British film and therefore gets a shot at the additional category of Best British film, it's essentially a three-way tie between the films for head of the pack. **Captain Phillips **is just behind with nine nominations, while Saving Mr. Banks and Behind The Candelabra each get five. Philomena, Rush and **The Wolf Of Wall Street **each get four.
The latter film was unlucky to miss out on a Best Film nod, although Martin Scorsese is nominated as Best Director, which suggested that BAFTA voters - like their Oscar brethren, reportedly - were a little shocked at the sex and drugs and stockbroking in the film. **Dallas Buyers Club **and Her also missed out, despite both being eligible and doing rather well on the US awards circuit. Does this mean they're out of the Oscar race? Not at all, we suspect, but we'll see on January 16 when the Oscar nominations are announced.
And while you may not have thought this was a particularly strong year for homegrown films, there are a full six nominees for Best British film, albeit that definition seems to include Saving Mr. Banks, presumably on the basis that screenwriter Kelly Marcel is British as well as producer Alison Owen.
In the acting categories, there are few surprises in the lead actor and actress groups, with very well-deserved nods to the likes of Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street, Emma Thompson for **Saving Mr. Banks **and Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. It's perhaps a surprise that Robert Redford missed out for All Is Lost, and the almost total shut-out of Inside Llewyn Davis and star Oscar Isaac is a shame, while Mandela gets a nod in the British film category but there's no love for Idris Elba or Naomie Harris, but otherwise it's a strong line-up.
In supporting actress, it's no surprise to see Blue Jasmine's Sally Hawkins, American Hustle's Jennifer Lawrence or 12 Years A Slave's Lupita N'Yongo listed; Julia Roberts and Oprah Winfrey were perhaps less of a lock but both are worthy additions. In supporting actor, it was great to see Barkhad Abdi get a nod for Captain Phillips, alongside the higher profile likes of Michael Fassbender.
Only three animated films are nominated this year, but then it wasn't a banner year for the form. Despicable Me 2 and Monsters Inc may suffer from the fact that Frozen is still in cinemas and still fresh in voters' minds, but time will tell.
In the more technical categories, The Great Gatsby gets well-deserved nods for its production design, make-up & hair and costumes, and The Hobbit gets some love for its special effects. We wonder, however, if the other special visual effects nominees have much chance against the pull of Gravity.
This year's British Academy Film Awards take place on February 16, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden once again. Stephen Fry is hosting, and **Empire ** will be covering it on the night. In the meantime, here are the nominees...
BEST FILM
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Gravity
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
Philomena
Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
The Selfish Giant
**OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER **
Colin Carberry (Writer), Glenn Patterson (Writer) Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel (Writer) Saving Mr. Banks
Kieran Evans (Director/Writer) Kelly + Victor
Paul Wright (Director/Writer), Polly Stokes (Producer) For Those in Peril
Scott Graham (Director/Writer) Shell
DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen - 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell - American Hustle
Paul Greengrass - Captain Phillips
Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity
Martin Scorsese - The Wolf Of Wall Street
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell - American Hustle
Woody Allen - Blue Jasmine
Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón - Gravity
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson - Nebraska
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
John Ridley - 12 Years A Slave
Richard LaGravenese - Behind The Candelabra
Billy Ray - Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope - Philomena
Terence Winter - The Wolf Of Wall Street
LEADING ACTOR
Bruce Dern - Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor - 12 Years a Slave
Christian Bale - American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street
Tom Hanks - Captain Phillips
LEADING ACTRESS
Amy Adams - American Hustle
Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine
Emma Thompson - Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench - Philomena
Sandra Bullock - Gravity
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi - Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper - American Hustle
Daniel Bruhl - Rush
Matt Damon - Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender - 12 Years a Slave
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence - American Hustle
Julia Roberts - August: Osage County
Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey - The Butler
Sally Hawkins - Blue Jasmine
**FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE **
The Act Of Killing
Blue Is The Warmest Colour
The Great Beauty
Metro Manila
Wadjda
DOCUMENTARY
The Act Of Killing
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish
Tim's Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
ANIMATED FILM
Despicable Me 2
Frozen
Monsters University
**ORIGINAL MUSIC **
12 Years A Slave - Hans Zimmer
The Book Thief - John Williams
Captain Phillips - Henry Jackman
Gravity - Steven Price
Saving Mr. Banks -* Thomas Newman*
CINEMATOGRAPHY
12 Years A Slave - Sean Bobbitt
Captain Phillips - Barry Ackroyd
Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis - Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska - Phedon Papamichael
**EDITING **
12 Years A Slave - Joe Walker
Captain Phillips - Christopher Rouse
Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger
Rush - Dan Hanley, Mike Hill
The Wolf Of Wall Street -* Thelma Schoonmaker*
PRODUCTION DESIGN
12 Years A Slave - Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker
American Hustle - Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler
Behind The Candelabra - Howard Cummings
Gravity - Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard
The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn
COSTUME DESIGN
American Hustle - Michael Wilkinson
Behind The Candelabra - E**llen Mirojnick
The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman - Michael O’Connor
Saving Mr. Banks - Daniel Orlandi
MAKE UP & HAIR
American Hustle - Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell
Behind The Candelabra - Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin
The Butler -* Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor, Candace Neal*
The Great Gatsby - Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug - Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater
SOUND
All Is Lost -* Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur*
Captain Phillips - *Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney *
Gravity - Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro
Inside Llewyn Davis - *Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff
RUSH Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse*
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity - *Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny *
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug - *Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds *
Iron Man 3 - *Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick *
Pacific Rim - *Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner *
Star Trek Into Darkness - Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody
Sleeping With The Fishes
**BRITISH SHORT FILM **
Island Queen
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Orbit Ever After
Room 8
Sea View
THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Dane DeHaan
George McKay
Lupita Nyong'o
Will Poulter
Lea Seydoux
[[Poll1101]]