Home-court advantage turned out to be just the ticket for "The King's Speech," which as expected dominated the nominations for the British Academy Film Awards. Tom Hooper's drama scored 14 BAFTA nominations, two more than "Black Swan," five more than "Inception" and eight more than Golden Globes and Critics Choice Movie Award winner "The Social Network."
David Fincher's film about the founding of Facebook, which had dominated the awards picture in the United States, also trailed "127 Hours" and "True Grit," both of which had eight nominations to its six.
In the Best Film category, "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network" are up against "Black Swan," "Inception" and "True Grit."
"The King's Speech" was also nominated for Outstanding British Film, where it will compete with "127 Hours," "Another Year," "Four Lions" and "Made in Dagenham."
Besides the two best-picture categories, "The King's Speech" was nominated for its director, screenplay, actor (Colin Firth), supporting actor (Geoffrey Rush), supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter), music, cinematography, editing, production design, costumes, sound and makeup and hair -- every possible category in which it could compete except for visual effects.
Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" was nominated in all the categories except music, actor and supporting actor.
Aronofsky and Fincher will compete in the Best Director category against Hooper and two other Brits: Danny Boyle for "127 Hours" and Christopher Nolan for "Inception."
"The Fighter" fared less well than it has in most U.S. awards contests, with nominations for its screenplay, supporting actor Christian Bale and supporting actress Amy Adams -- but not Melissa Leo, who won both the Critics Choice and Golden Globes supporting actress awards.
Among the other BAFTA choices that differed from most Stateside nominations: Javier Bardem was nominated for Leading Actor for "Biutiful," but Ryan Gosling ("Blue Valentine") and Robert Duvall ("Get Low") were not; "True Grit" star Hailee Steinfeld was placed in the leading rather than the supporting category; a supporting actress nod for "Black Swan" went not to Mila Kunis, but to Barbara Hershey; and Julianne Moore was nominated for Leading Actress alongside her "Kids Are All Right" co-star Annette Bening, but Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter's Bone"), Nicole Kidman ("Rabbit Hole") and Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine") missed the cut.
When the BAFTA "longlists" of 15 contenders in each category were announced on January 7, Williams was given an asterisk next to her name, indicating that she was one of the five favorites of the BAFTA actors' branch. Last year's BAFTA Leading Actress winner, Carey Mulligan ("Never Let Me Go"), was also given an asterisk -- but the two women were replaced on the final list of nominees by Steinfeld and Noomi Rapace ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo").
The award for a film not in the English language, nominees for which were announced along with the longlists, will be given to "Biutiful," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "I Am Love," "Of Gods and Men" or "The Secret in Their Eyes."
