The 2010 BAFTA nominations have been announced, and three films boast a whopping eight nominations, with Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker leading the pack. Just behind is District 9 with seven, followed by Up In The Air and Inglourious Basterds with six.

It's a pretty wide spread for the Awards, which also see Coco Before Chanel, Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire, Nowhere Boy and Up get four nods each. We suspect that wide range will be reflected on the night with a relatively large number of films getting prizes, BAFTA clearly having listened to their collective mother and learned to share the wealth around.

Up for Best Film overall are Avatar (predictably), The Hurt Locker (also predictably, albeit for different reasons), Up In The Air, Precious and An Education. What's perhaps surprising is that only three of these films are also nominated for Best Director: Up In The Air's Jason Reitman and Precious' Lee Daniels lose out to District 9's Neil Blomkamp and Inglourious Basterds' Quentin Tarantino. Still, we're guessing it's still a James Cameron vs. Kathryn Bigelow race for that prize.

In terms of people who haven't been nominated at the Golden Globes or many of the US lists to date, it's nice to see In The Loop up for Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay, Christian McKay up for Best Supporting Actor for his exceptional turn in Me And Orson Welles, Andy Serkis up for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and Duncan Jones nominated for Best British Film and the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director Or Producer for Moon. That category's going to be tough, though: it also includes Sam Taylor-Wood for Nowhere Boy and Stuart Hazeldine for Exam.

Serkis and McKay aside, the male acting categories go largely as you'd expect, with nods for George Clooney in Up In The Air, Golden Globe winner Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart and Colin Firth for A Single Man. The one welcome surprise there is that someone has finally acknowledged that Jeremy Renner's rather good in The Hurt Locker. In the Supporting category, The Lovely Bones' Stanley Tucci and Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz are nominated alongside Alfred Molina for An Education and Alec Baldwin for It's Complicated (that film's sole nomination here).

For the ladies, by-now expected contenders Carey Mulligan (An Education), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) are joined by Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel and Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones. The Supporting category nominates two actresses from Up In The Air - Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga - and two from Nowhere Boy - Kristin Scott-Thomas and Anne-Marie Duff - but surely none of those can beat Mo'Nique for Precious.

The Animated ghetto category has only three nominees, but they're all great films: Fantastic Mr Fox, Coraline and Up (which is also up for Best Screenplay, Sound and Score). Films Not In The English Language is another strong group, with no clear winner: the buzzed-about Cannes winner A Prophet is up against Coco Before Chanel (which BAFTA clearly loves), Let The Right One In (which everyone else loves), Almodovar's Broken Embraces and Haneke's The White Ribbon.

The full list of nominees is below; the ceremony will take place and the results announced on February 21.

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, Davd 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
Jon Lucas, Scott Moore - The Hangover
Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen - A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter - Up

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell - District 9
Nick Hornby - An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche - In The Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner - Up In The Air

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

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: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
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: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Kristin Scott-Thomas - Nowhere Boy

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 - Mauro Fiore
District 9 - Trent Opaloch
The Hurt Locker - Barry Ackroyd
Inglourious Basterds - Robert Richardson
The Road - Javier Aguirresarobe

EDITING
Avatar - Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
District 9 - Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
Inglourious Basterds - Sally Menke
Up In The Air - Dana E. Glauberman

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 (voted for by the public)
Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart

/Empire Online/