Rising star vs 'Marlon Brando of his generation'

Despite the presence of the Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney among the nominees, the spotlight was immediately cast on two men who represent the cream of British acting talent, but from vastly different generations and backgrounds.

McAvoy, at 28, is a working-class boy raised by his grandparents in the Drumchapel estate in Glasgow. Three years ago his biggest film part was a cheery faun in Narnia.

It was his performance in Atonement that landed him a Bafta nomination yesterday.

Day-Lewis is the Oscar- winning son of a poet laureate, an English public schoolboy who got his start in My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985. He has re-emerged at the age of 50 to deliver another stunning performance in There Will Be Blood.

"It's a very, very difficult one. It's certainly between those two," said Celia Stevenson, a Bafta voter and film industry veteran at Scottish Screen.

"The Daniel Day-Lewis performance is amazing, it's a tour de force, but James McAvoy's character is so well observed and so affecting that I preferred it, not just because he's a Scot."

The film writer Mark Cousins said: "Daniel Day-Lewis is the Marlon Brando of his generation; he disappears for years and then comes back, and expectations are still high.

"McAvoy is quite the opposite; he hasn't created a mystique around himself. He is immensely talented and will definitely be around in 50 years' time."

The Second World War-era drama Atonement has 14 nominations, including McAvoy and his co-star, Keira Knightley.

Day-Lewis won the best actor Golden Globe for There Will Be Blood. Now both men will be looking beyond the Baftas to the Oscar nominations, with McAvoy dreaming of the first Scottish Oscar in 50 years.

Scots Bafta nominations include Glasgow's Kelly MacDonald, 31, as a supporting actress for her role as an American trailer-park wife in the Coen brothers' thriller No Country for Old Men.

In the same category is Tilda Swinton, playing a lethal lawyer in the thriller Michael Clayton.

Dog Altogether, funded by Scottish Screen and starring Peter Mullan, is up for best short film.

Scotsman film critic ALISTAIR HARKNESS gives his verdict on the two actors...

JAMES McAVOY IN ATONEMENT

IT'S been a great couple of years for Scotland's James McAvoy. Since picking up the inaugural Bafta rising star award in 2006 – ostensibly for The Chronicles of Narnia (the award is voted for by the public) – he's made good on that promise by becoming Britain's hottest actor.

Last year's awards saw him pick up a best supporting actor nomination for The Last King of Scotland, and he shows he's becoming something of a permanent fixture on the awards short-list by picking up a best actor nomination for Atonement.

While not the favourite to win (see Daniel Day Lewis), he's far from an underdog. In Joe Wright's virtuoso adaptation of Ian McEwan's acclaimed bestseller, McAvoy delivers a brilliant, understated turn as Keira Knightley's doomed, lower-class lover, nailing the internal conflict of someone born poor who, through circumstance and hard work, has bettered himself yet remains an outsider.

The film also proves that McAvoy, at only 28, has the gravitas to deliver a grown-up performance without looking like a kid playing dress-up, as is so often the case these days when young actors are cast in period films. It could be his night.

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS IN THERE WILL BE BLOOD

LIKE DeNiro in the 70s, Daniel Day-Lewis is picky about his roles and doesn't do much acting. But when he does he turns heads, mostly those attached to film awards bodies.

A master of Method, he won his first Oscar and his first Bafta for My Left Foot, and picked up a second for his outsized performance as Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York. That explosive role seemed to suggest that his extended absences from acting might actually be necessary to allow him enough time to build up a pressure-cooker-like level of intensity to unleash on screen. If so, he must have been ready to pop when cameras started rolling on There Will Be Blood.

His turn as a ruthless oil tycoon in Paul Thomas Anderson's epic new film has already been lauded as one of the biggest, most theatrical and most audacious lead performances in years. Mainly channelling the late John Huston at his most ostentatious, and tethered to a serious and weighty film, it's the kind of bravura, screen-filling display of unhinged villainy that goes over well with awards voters, which makes him the favourite to pick up the Bafta. Being British won't hurt his chances either.

AND THE BAFTA NOMINATIONS ARE…

BEST FILM: American Gangster Atonement The Lives of Others No Country for Old Men There Will Be Blood

BEST BRITISH FILM: Atonement The Bourne Ultimatum Control Eastern Promises This is England

DIRECTOR: Joe Wright – Atonement Paul Greengrass – The Bourne UltimatumFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck – The Lives of OthersJoel Coen/Ethan Coen – No Country For Old MenPaul Thomas Anderson – There Will Be Blood

LEADING ACTOR: George Clooney – Michael Clayton Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood James McAvoy – Atonement Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises Ulrich Muhe – The Lives of Others

LEADING ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett – Elizabeth: The Golden Age Julie Christie – Away From Her Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose Keira Knightley – Atonement Ellen Page – Juno

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Steven Zaillian – American GangsterDiablo Cody – JunoFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck – The Lives of OthersTony Gilroy – Michael Clayton