Hot on the heels of last weekend’s Golden Globe Awards come the nominations for the biggest event in the British film calendar. The BAFTAs are the most prestigious awards bestowed by the UK film industry, with the ceremony being held in London on February 21. And three films clearly lead the field, with Avatar, The Hurt Locker and An Education receiving eight nominations each – all three have been nominated for Best Film and Best Director. Not far behind was Neill Blomkamp’s South African thriller District 9, with seven noms, while both George Clooney-starring Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds nabbing six each. Nominations for the main categories are…

BEST FILM
Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Up in the Air

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)

BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron (Avatar), Neill Blomkamp (District 9), Lone Scherfig (An Education), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

BEST 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)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
District 9 (Neill Blomkamo & 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)

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Broken Embraces, Coco Before Chanel, Let the Right One In, A Prophet, The White Ribbon

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox, Up

BEST 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)

BEST 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)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated), Christian McKay (Me & Orson Welles), Alfred Molina (An Education), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

BEST 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)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar (Mauro Fiore), District 9 (Trent Opaloch), The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd), Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson), The Road (Javier Aguirresarobe)

BEST EDITING
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron), District 9 (Julian Clarke), The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski, Chris Innes), Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke), Up in the Air (Dana E. Glauberman)

In addition, the winner of the Orange Rising Star Award will also be announced at the ceremony, and the nominees are Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland), Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Tahir Rahim (A Prophet), Kristen Stewart (Twilight). The public can vote for this award, details are on the BAFTA website.

For a full list of nominees, visit the Official BAFA Website