Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker lead the way in Bafta nominations

Published on Thursday 21 January 2010 08:25

AVATAR, An Education and The Hurt Locker each received eight nominations today for this year's film Baftas.

District 9 has seven nominations; Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air have six nominations apiece; and Coco Before Chanel, Nowhere Boy, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up each receive four nominations at the Orange British Academy Film Awards.

Avatar received nominations for Best Film, while James Cameron has a nod in the Director category.

An Education is also in the running for Best Film, vying against The Hurt Locker, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up In The Air.

The Leading Actor category sees Hollywood heart-throb and Up In the Air star George Clooney pitted against Colin Firth for A Single Man, Andy Serkis for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker and Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart.

The Leading Actress category will be fought out between Carey Mulligan for An Education, Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious, Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia and Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel.

An Education, a coming-of-age story based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber, also has a nod in the Outstanding British Film category, as does In The Loop, the movie spin-off of the BBC's political comedy The Thick Of It.

Fish Tank, Nowhere Boy and Moon round off the list.

Cameron will battle it out on the director shortlist with his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow, for The Hurt Locker, the acclaimed Iraq war drama about an elite team of bomb disposal experts.

Also competing for a director gong are Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, Lone Scherfig for An Education, and Neill Blomkamp for alien film District 9.

The nominations in full:

Best film

Avatar

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Precious

Up In The Air

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)

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)

Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy)

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

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 (Geoffrey Fletcher)

Up In The Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)