The 2010 BAFTA Nominations

The nominations for the British Academy Film and Television Awards have been announced and Avatar, The Hurt Locker and An Education have run up the best totals. At eight nominations each it'd be an upset for any of those films to leave empty handed, which is just the kind of set-up that can add a little spice for Awards aficionados. A lot of interest in the BAFTAs in recent years has hinged on their timing, coming earlier than the Oscars. Note that there are a good number of folk who have a vote in both awards, potentially making BAFTA a far better indicator of the moods of the Academy than the Golden Globes, voted for by a few journalists, could ever be.

Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker are also three of the five best picture contenders, alongside Precious and Up in the Air. The full list of nominations lurks beyond the break, including some very good news for Duncan Jones' Moon. There are also some weird kinks in the Dr. Parnassus and District 9 nominations...Moon, I expect you recall, has been the focus of a fan campaign to garner some Oscar recognition. With BAFTA, however, there's a few extra awards for which it was particularly suited, if not indeed a shoo in.

Here's the full roster of awards and nominations as per BAFTA's press release:

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

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 Inglourious 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 Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair

DISTRICT 9 Philip Ivey, Guy Poltgieter

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS Nominees TBC

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco

COSTUME DESIGN

BRIGHT STAR Janet Patterson

COCO BEFORE CHANEL Catherine Leterrier

AN EDUCATION Odile Dicks-Mireaux

A SINGLE MAN Arianne Phillips

THE YOUNG VICTORIA Sandy Powell

SOUND

AVATAR Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson, Addison Teague

DISTRICT 9 Nominees TBC

THE HURT LOCKER Ray Beckett, Paul N. J. Ottosson, Craig Stauffer

STAR TREK Peter J. Devlin, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Mark Stoeckinger, Ben Burtt

UP Tom Myers, Michael Silvers, Michael Semanick

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

AVATAR Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones

DISTRICT 9 Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander, Nicolas Aithadi

THE HURT LOCKER Richard Stutsman

STAR TREK Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton

MAKE UP & HAIR

COCO BEFORE CHANEL Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen, Jane Milon

AN EDUCATION Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS Sarah Monzani

NINE Peter 'Swords' King

THE YOUNG VICTORIA Jenny Shircore

SHORT ANIMATION

THE GRUFFALO Michael Rose, Martin Pope, Jakob Schuh, Max Lang

THE HAPPY DUCKLING Gili Dolev

MOTHER OF MANY Sally Arthur, Emma Lazenby

SHORT FILM

14 Asitha Ameresekere

I DO AIR James Bolton, Martina Amati

JADE Samm Haillay, Daniel Elliott

MIXTAPE Luti Fagbenle, Luke Snellin

OFF SEASON Jacob Jaffke, Jonathan van Tulleken

As regards the Orange Rising Star Award, as voted for by the public, that was already covered in last week's /Film UK.

So, there's a couple of slots for which Moon and Duncan Jones had a head start: Outstanding British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Some stiff competition, still, and it would be good to see In The Loop get some recognition.

Notice the "Nominees TBC" note alongside The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus' Production Design mention, or District 9's sound award nod. Obviously there's some arbitration still to be settled there, and I'd imagine that a few people are anxious this morning that they might not get their recognition.

District 9 is also being categorised as an Adapted Screenplay. This is worth noting. The film has been officially categorised as a feature length adaptation of Neill Blomkamp's short film Alive in Joburg, both by BAFTA and AMPAS, despite – in my estimation at least – having almost no narrative connection to the short at all.

I've got a vested interest in the Young Victoria nomination, but more on that at another time...

Tomorrow is /Film UK day, which means I'll be covering any interesting fall-out or reaction to these nominations in and amongst all the other film news from Great Britain and Ireland. Then, I'll also be offering live coverage of the BAFTA ceremony on February 21st, at the very least through Twitter.