‘The King’s Speech’ leads BAFTA nominations

LONDON - With as many as 14 nominations in various categories, British royal drama “The King’s Speech” is the leading contender for this year’s British Academy of Films and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, to be announced Feb 13.

“The King’s Speech” is about the stuttering British monarch King George VI. It has been nominated in categories such as best director (Tom Hooper), leading actor (Colin Firth), supporting actor (Geoffrey Rush), supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and original music (Alexandre Desplat).

The technical categories where the film has been nominated are original screenplay (David Seidler), cinematography (Danny Cohen), editing (Tariq Anwar), production design (Eve Stewart and Judy Farr), and costume design (Jenny Beavan), apart from sound as well as make-up and hair categories.

Giving tough competition to “The King’s Speech” are Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” and Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” with 12 and nine nominations, respectively.

Oscar winning British director Danny Boyle is another strong contender with eight nominations for “127 Hours”, for the music of which Indian composer A.R. Rahman has been nominated.

“The Social Network”, which grabbed the maximum trophies at the recently held 68th Annual Golden Globe awards ceremony, follows close on the heels with six nominations.

Others competing for the best actor award apart from Colin Firth are - Javier Bardem (”Biutiful”), Jeff Bridges (”True Grit”), Jesse Eisenberg (”The Social Network”), and James Franco (”127 Hours”).

The actresses in the run for the BAFTA this year include - Annette Bening (”The Kids Are All Right”), Julianne Moore (”The Kids Are All Right”), Natalie Portman (”Black Swan”), Noomi Rapace (”The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”) and Hailee Steinfeld (”True Grit”).

The nominees for the best film category are “Black Swan”, “Inception”, “The King’s Speech”, “The Social Network” and “True Grit”.

Directors Danny Boyle (”127 Hours”), Darren Aronofsky (”Black Swan”), Christopher Nolan (”Inception”), Tom Hooper (”The King’s Speech”) and David Fincher (”The Social Network”) are in the race for the best director award.

While “The King’s Speech” had got maximum nominations at the Golden Globe awards, it ended up with just one victory for actor Colin Firth, out of its seven nominations.

The fate of the film at the BAFTA awards will be known at the ceremony to be held at London’s Royal Opera House.