BAFTA Nominations are in

Young Irish actress, and fellow Carlovian, Saoirse Ronan is amongst the nominees for this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards.

Ronan has been nominated in the Best Actress category for her performance in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones, having last week picked up the Best Young Actor or Actress award at the Critics’ Choice Awards in the US. She be slugging it out against fearsome competition including Carey Mulligan for An Education, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia and Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel.
Best Actor is no less hotly contested with Golden Globe winner Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart vying with George Clooney for Up in the Air, Colin Firth for A Single Man, Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker and Andy Serkis for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.

James Cameron’s all-conquering Avatar leads the list of nominees, alongside An Education and The Hurt Locker with 8 nomination each, while my number one movie of 2009, District 9, has 7 and Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air 6.

The BAFTAs will take place in a star-studded affair on Sunday 21 February.

The full list of nominees is as follows:

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

Film not in the English language
Broken Embraces
Coco Before Chanel
Let the Right One In
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Animated film
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
Up

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
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Road

Editing
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Up in the Air

Production design
Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds

Costume design
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
A Single Man
The Young Victoria

Sound
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up

Special visual effects
Avatar
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek

Makeup & hair
Coco Before Chanel
An Education
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Short animation
The Gruffalo
The Happy Duckling
Mother of Many

Short film
14
I Do Air
Jade
Mixtape
Off Season

The Orange Rising Star Award (Public Vote)
Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart