"Avatar," "An Education" and "The Hurt Locker" each scored eight nominations for the Orange British Academy Film Awards, the top honor handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
In nominations announced Thursday morning in London, those three films shared Best Film nominations with "Precious" and "Up in the Air."
The BAFTA nominations were filled with potential Oscar contenders, including actors Jeff Bridges, George Clooney and Jeremy Renner and actresses Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe. But they also had a distinctly British flavor to them: in the Leading Actor category, for instance, four likely Oscar candidates (Bridges, Clooney, Renner and Colin Firth) were joined by Andy Serkis for his role "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll," a biography of pub-rock musician Ian Dury.
In the best actress category, Streep, Mulligan (left) and Sidibe will be competing with Audrey Tatou for "Coco Before Chanel" and Saoirse Ronan for "The Lovely Bones."
Besides Best Film, "Avatar" was nominated for directing, cinematography, editing, music, production design, sound and special visual effects, though it received nothing in the acting or writing categories. "An Education" received nods for Best Film and Outstanding British Film, along with director, actress, supporting actor, adapted screenplay, costume design and makeup & hair. "The Hurt Locker" is competing in the Best Film, directing, leading actor, original screenplay, cinematography, editing, sound and special visual effects categories.
Neill Blomkamp's "District 9" received seven nominations, including directing. "Inglourious Basterds" and "Up in the Air" received six, while "Coco Before Chanel," "Nowhere Boy," "Precious" and "Up" each received four.
In the category of OUtstanding British Film, the nominees are "An Education," "Fish Tank," "In the Loop," "Moon" and "Nowhere Boy."
The awards will be handed out on Sunday, February 21 at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London.
The full list of nominees:
BEST FILM
AVATAR James Cameron, Jon Landau
AN EDUCATION Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer
THE HURT LOCKER Nominees TBC
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness
UP IN THE AIR Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Daniel Dubiecki
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
AN EDUCATION Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer, Lone Scherfig, Nick Hornby
FISH TANK Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold
IN THE LOOP Kevin Loader, Adam Tandy, Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche
MOON Stuart Fenegan, Trudie Styler, Duncan Jones, Nathan Parker
NOWHERE BOY Kevin Loader, Douglas Rae, Robert Bernstein, Sam Taylor-Wood, Matt Greenhalgh
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
AVATAR James Cameron
DISTRICT 9 Neill Blomkamp
AN EDUCATION Lone Scherfig
THE HURT LOCKER Kathryn Bigelow
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Quentin Tarantino
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE HANGOVER Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
THE HURT LOCKER Mark Boal
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS Quentin Tarantino
A SERIOUS MAN Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
UP Bob Peterson, Pete Docter
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
DISTRICT 9 Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
AN EDUCATION Nick Hornby
IN THE LOOP Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE Geoffrey Fletcher
UP IN THE AIR Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BROKEN EMBRACES Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar
COCO BEFORE CHANEL Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne, Anne Fontaine
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN Carl Molinder, John Nordling, Tomas Alfredson
A PROPHET Pascale Caucheteux, Marco Chergui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard
THE WHITE RIBBON Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Margaret Menegoz, Michael Haneke
ANIMATED FILM
CORALINE Henry Selick
FANTASTIC MR FOX Wes Anderson
UP Pete Docter
