The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (that’s BAFTA to its chums) has just released its list of nominations for its annual awards. Avatar’s hopes of a best picture Oscar nomination have been done no harm by its inclusion here, and it turns up right throughout this list too. But good to see The Hurt Locker and Up In The Air so strongly represented too. They’re both terrific movies, and deserve prizes. Lots of them.

On the downside, it’s doubly depressing that BAFTA has ignored the stunning work of Sam Rockwell in Moon, but more fool the man for daring to put one of the best acting performances of the year in a science fiction movie. That’ll teach him. At least Duncan Jones gets a nomination, and the film is up for Best British Film of the year, along with another of our favourites, In The Loop.

Among the bizarrest of nominations is Alec Baldwin’s lukewarm supporting turn in It’s Complicated, and the screenplay nod for The Hangover. It wasn’t even the best comedy of 2009, yet alone one of the five best original screenplays. Good film, but seriously, some perspective wouldn’t hurt.

Anyway, enough babble from us. Here’s the list of nominations….

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

Make-up & 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

Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart