BAFTA Nominations Announced – Including one for Christopher Plummer playing gay

It’s not often an awards body is criticised for its choices before the nominees are announced, but this year BAFTA has been, after they released their longlist last week, which missed off things such as the much loved by critics but very small gay indie movie, Weekend.

However now we have the final nominations, which are less likely to cause controversy, even if many will feel some of the best of the year have been missed out. The Artist leads the way with 12 nominations, which after its success at the Golden Globes, must make it the frontrunner for the Oscars. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – which has been notable by its absence at other awards ceremonies – is nominated in 11 categories, Hugo has nine nominations, My Week with Marilyn has six and The Help and War Horse are each nominated five times.

Alongside The Artist and Tinker, The Descendants, The Help and Drive will compete for Best Film, with many already noting that The Iron Lady was snubbed in that category (although it did get a nod for Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent’s performances, as well as for Original Screenplay). It’s odd Abi Morgan would get nominated for the much criticised Iron Lady screenplay, but not for her stirling work on Shame, although at least Michael Fassbender will be representing that movie in the Best Actor category.

The lack of Iron Lady noms also means that lesbian director Phylidda Lloyd missed out, but representing the LGBT side, as he has been throughout the awards season, is Christopher Plummer, whose been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for playing gay in Beginners. Glenn Close didn’t pick up a nomination for her much praised performance as a woman living as a man in Albert Nobbs though, surprising many, although bisexual Tilda Swinton was nominated for Best Actress for We Need To Talk About Kevin. Pedro Almodovar scored a nomination for The Skin I Live In, in the Film Not In The English Language category.

However perhaps the strongest category overall is outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, with four of the nominees best known as actors/performers, competing for their very good debut directorial efforts. They include Joe Cornish for Attack The Block, Ralph Fiennes for Coriolanus, Richard Ayoade for Submarine and Paddy Considine for Tyrannosaur.

Take a look below for the full list of nominees in all categories:

BEST FILM
THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann
THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
DRIVE Marc Platt, Adam Siegel
THE HELP Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Simon Curtis, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Adrian Hodges
SENNA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey
SHAME Steve McQueen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Abi Morgan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo, Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay, Luc Roeg, Jennifer Fox, Robert Salerno, Rory Stewart Kinnear

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
ATTACK THE BLOCK Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
BLACK POND Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
CORIOLANUS Ralph Fiennes (Director)
SUBMARINE Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
TYRANNOSAUR Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
INCENDIES Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McGraw
PINA Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
POTICHE François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer
A SEPARATION Asghar Farhadi
THE SKIN I LIVE IN Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar

DOCUMENTARY
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Martin Scorsese
PROJECT NIM James Marsh, Simon Chinn
SENNA Asif Kapadia

ANIMATED FILM
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Steven Spielberg
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sarah Smith
RANGO Gore Verbinski

DIRECTOR
THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE Nicolas Winding Refn
HUGO Martin Scorsese
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
BRIDESMAIDS Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh
THE IRON LADY Abi Morgan
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
THE HELP Tate Taylor
THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
MONEYBALL Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan

LEADING ACTOR
BRAD PITT Moneyball
GARY OLDMAN Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
GEORGE CLOONEY The Descendants
JEAN DUJARDIN The Artist
MICHAEL FASSBENDER Shame

LEADING ACTRESS
BÉRÉNICE BEJO The Artist
MERYL STREEP The Iron Lady
MICHELLE WILLIAMS My Week with Marilyn
TILDA SWINTON We Need to Talk About Kevin
VIOLA DAVIS The Help

SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER Beginners
JIM BROADBENT The Iron Lady
JONAH HILL Moneyball
KENNETH BRANAGH My Week with Marilyn
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Ides of March

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
CAREY MULLIGAN Drive
JESSICA CHASTAIN The Help
JUDI DENCH My Week with Marilyn
MELISSA MCCARTHY Bridesmaids
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Help

ORIGINAL MUSIC
THE ARTIST Ludovic Bource
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
HUGO Howard Shore
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Alberto Iglesias
WAR HORSE John Williams

CINEMATOGRAPHY
THE ARTIST Guillaume Schiffman
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Jeff Cronenweth
HUGO Robert Richardson
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Hoyte van Hoytema
WAR HORSE Janusz Kaminski

EDITING
THE ARTIST Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE Mat Newman
HUGO Thelma Schoonmaker
SENNA Gregers Sall, Chris King
TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY Dino Jonsater

PRODUCTION DESIGN
THE ARTIST Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
HUGO Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
WAR HORSE Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

COSTUME DESIGN
THE ARTIST Mark Bridges
HUGO Sandy Powell
JANE EYRE Michael O’Connor
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jill Taylor
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Jacqueline Durran

MAKE UP & HAIR
THE ARTIST Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
HUGO Morag Ross, Jan Archibald
THE IRON LADY Marese Langan
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jenny Shircore

SOUND
THE ARTIST Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 James Mather, Stuart Wilson, Stuart Williker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener
HUGO Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley
WAR HORSE Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Richard Hymns

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Joe Letteri
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler, David Vickery
HUGO Rob Legato, Ben Grossman, Joss Williams
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White
WAR HORSE Ben Morris, Neil Corbould

SHORT ANIMATION
ABUELAS Afarin Eghbal, Kasia Malipan, Francesca Gardiner
BOBBY YEAH Robert Morgan
A MORNING STROLL Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe

SHORT FILM
CHALK Martina Amati, Gavin Emerson, James Bolton, Ilaria Bernardini
MWANSA THE GREAT Rungano Nyoni, Gabriel Gauchet
ONLY SOUND REMAINS Arash Ashtiani, Anshu Poddar
PITCH BLACK HEIST John Maclean, Gerardine O’Flynn
TWO AND TWO Babak Anvari, Kit Fraser, Gavin Cullen

THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
ADAM DEACON
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
CHRIS O’DOWD
EDDIE REDMAYNE
TOM HIDDLESTON