Baftas 2012: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week with Marilyn lead longlist

Baftas 2012: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week with Marilyn lead longlist:

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week with Marilyn earn 16 nominations each
• The Iron Lady, The Artist and War Horse trail with 13, while The Help and Hugo pick up 12
• Disappointment for The Tree of Life and A Dangerous Method with just one apiece

Full list of nominations

Stand by for a grand thesp smackdown: George Smiley and Marilyn Monroe look set to slug it out at this year's Baftas, with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week with Marilyn picking up 16 nominations apiece. Both pictures won nods in the overall film, British film, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing, production design, make up and hair, costume, sound and music categories, but it was the ensemble casts that pushed each production well into double figures.

Tinker Tailor's Gary Oldman is up for best actor as reserved spook George Smiley in Tomas Alfredson's critically-lauded adaptation of the John le Carré cold war thriller, while Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, John Hurt and Kathy Bates have supporting nods. Michelle Williams's lead in Simon Curtis's My Week with Marilyn was predictably applauded; less certain was the recognition for fellow cast members Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench and Zoe Wanamaker.

The runners up were Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady and silent charmer The Artist, which clocked up 13 each, while much-fancied civil rights drama The Help earned 12, as did Martin Scorsese's first family film, Hugo. Earlier this week, it was announced that Scorsese will be honoured with a Bafta fellowship. It will be welcome news for the studio behind the veteran director's first foray into 3D; at the Golden Globe nominations in December, Hugo trailed with a disappointing three nominations, while The Artist helped strenghten its odds for a best picture win at February's Oscars by leading the pack with six.

One major surprise were the 13 nominations showered upon War Horse, Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Michael Morpurgo novel. The first world war-set epic, though tipped as an awards frontrunner earlier in the season, had been hobbled by just two Globe nods, as well as a snub yesterday from the Writers Guild America. Today's backslap (including a supporting actress hat-tip to Emily Watson) looks to give the film a fresh lease of Oscars life. Spielberg has in fact racked up 18 nominations today; his other film of the last year, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, won five. The films will compete against each other in every category except best animated film.

Terrence Malick's apocalyptic Cannes-winner The Tree of Life failed to earn nods in any major category (though Emmanuel Lubezki's cinematography was applauded), and there was disappointment for David Croneberg's adventure in erotic psychiatry: A Dangerous Method was recognised only for its costume design. Richard Ayoade's debut, Submarine also secured only one nomination (for best British film), while Andrew Haigh's Weekend, which won much acclaim for its quiet portrayal of a fleeting gay affair, found no love from Bafta voters.

Steve McQueen's sex addict drama Shame was nominated for four awards but will not, as expected, compete in the race for best director nor for best picture.

Paddy Considine's first full-length feature, Tyrannosaur, fared better with five nominations (best film, best British film, plus nods for Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman and Eddie Marsan). The ratio of tips to wins is expected to be favourable for this hard-hitting romance between a charity shop worker and a troubled alcoholic.

There was cheering news, too, for motor racing documentary Senna – which did not make the 15-strong Oscars documentary shortlist earlier this year but is up for six Baftas, including best film.

The usual suspects cropped up in the lead acting categories – Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron and Glenn Close for best actress, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Jean Dujardin for best actor – but the wide scope of the longlist allowed for some surprise inclusions. Carey Mulligan picked up a leading actress nod for her role in Drive, to add to her supporting nomination for Shame. Ezra Miller was recognised for his portrayal of the teenage Kevin in Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, alongside Tilda Swinton as his mother. That film, which won just one nomination at the Globes (for Swinton), fared much better today, with 10 nominations.

A grand total of 285 films were eligible for entry this year, with the first round of voting whittling these down to 15 in each category, other than documentary. The next round of voting began at 10am today; that will reduce each to a five-strong shortlist, to be released on 17 January. The ceremony itself, hosted this year by Stephen Fry, takes place on 12 February.

More details to follow …


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