Nominations for the "British Academy Film Awards"

BRIT 'COLD' FRONT
Mon Jan 19, 7:00 PM ET

ADAM DAWTREY

LONDON (Variety) --- "Cold Mountain" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" lead the race for this year's British Academy Film Awards, with 13 nominations for Anthony Minghella (news)'s Civil War drama and 12 for the final part of Peter Jackson (news)'s J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy.



All that separates the two is a nomination for "Cold Mountain" in the British film category, for which "Return of the King" is not eligible.


"I'm delighted and honored that the British Academy has been so generous in its support for 'Cold Mountain,' " Minghella said. "This has been an odyssey, both in front of the camera and behind it, and I'm thrilled that a wonderful cast and crew has been acknowledged."


Those two pics are competing for the film prize with Sofia Coppola (news)'s "Lost in Translation" (eight noms), Peter Weir (news)'s "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (also eight) and Tim Burton (news)'s "Big Fish" (seven).


Peter Webber's "Girl With a Pearl Earring" grabbed 10 nods, despite missing out in the film and director categories.


Scarlett Johansson (news) was nominated twice in the actress race, for "Girl With a Pearl Earring" and "Lost in Translation." Sean Penn (news) had the same honor in the actor category, where he was nominated for "Mystic River" and "21 Grams."


Johansson is running against local veteran Anne Reid ("The Mother"), Naomi Watts (news) ("21 Grams") and Uma Thurman (news) ("Kill Bill Vol. 1").


Penn is up against Benicio Del Toro (news) ("21 Grams"), Bill Murray (news) ("Lost in Translation"), Johnny Depp (news) ("Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl") and Jude Law (news) ("Cold Mountain").


A few days after Oscar nomination voting closed, the BAFTA tallies gave "Cold" and "Rings" reason for optimism. "Cold's" Minghella missed out on a Directors Guild of America nom, and each film scored only one nom in the Screen Actors Guild (news - web sites) noms.


"Rings" had a good week, since it won the Producers Guild Award Saturday evening.


Like the SAG nominations in the U.S., BAFTA's nominations make a statement (intended or not) about screeners. The only movie from a major studio to be sent out on videotape was "Big Fish," which scored an impressive number of noms. The film has yet to open in Blighty.


BAFTA voters bypassed other major studio offerings such as "Seabiscuit"; "Mystic River" only managed three noms.


There were no mentions for "Calendar Girls" on its home turf. Its failure to make a mark even in the actress or supporting actress category, where British thesps usually are heavily favored, was particularly surprising.


Other surprising omissions in BAFTA voting included "Cold Mountain's" Nicole Kidman (news), winner last year for "The Hours," but not nominated this year in the actress race, despite the film's virtual clean sweep in the other sections.


Also missing is Russell Crowe (news), another recent BAFTA winner, for "Master and Commander," though his co-star Paul Bettany (news) was nommed.


Testifying to Quentin Tarantino (news)'s perennial popularity in Britain, "Kill Bill Vol. 1" picked up five nods, as did "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "21 Grams." "Love Actually" earned three.


The ceremony for the awards, monikered the BAFTAs after organizers the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, takes place Feb. 15 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

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cool johnny is a nominee :D

Yep glad that Uma, Bill Maurray and Johnny Depp got nominations...I also wished that Sean Astin had been nominated his performance in The Return of the King was brilliant....

It's great to see Uma and Naomi get nominations. Hopefully they will get nominated at the Oscars as well. The scene in Kill Bill when the bride wakes up from the coma was one of the best acting moments of the year. Charlize Theron would have been nominated if it weren't for the fact that Monster hasn't been released over here yet.

I'm VERY happy that Nicole Kidman didn't get a nomination. Her performances are getting worse and worse every year. Dogville looks promising though.

The best actor nominations are all well deserved except for maybe Jude Law (I love him but he wasn't really that great in Cold Mountain). It's depressing that Johnny had to go mainstream to get the attention that he deserves but I'm happy for him. Hopefully Bill Murray wins at the Oscars this year because he might not get another chance in the near future.

Overall the acting nominations are great but film nominations are kinda disappointing just like they were for the last three years. But I get the feeling that everything will pick up next year. [img]graemlins/orbit.gif[/img]

[Jocasta]

Hopefully Bill Murray wins at the Oscars this year because he might not get another chance in the near future.

Is that why young actors don't generally win the Oscar for Best Actor?

Maybe but I think he truely deserves to win this year because his performance in LIT was better than the rest of the nominees.

too bad, i didn't watch it... [img]graemlins/ohwell.gif[/img]