Viola Davis, Ralph Fiennes, Eddie Redmayne Among the BAFTA Award Nominees

The nominations for the 2012 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) have been announced. The prizes will be presented in a ceremony to be held on February 12 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, hosted by Stephen Fry.

The nominees for Best Film are The Artist, The Descendants, Drive, The Help, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which has also been nominated for Outstanding British Film, along with My Week With Marilyn, Senna, Shame, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

The nominees for Leading Actress include stage veterans Viola Davis (The Help), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin), and Michelle Williams (My Week With Marilyn), along with Bérénice Bejo for The Artist.

Leading Actor nominees include Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and George Clooney for The Descendants, along with Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Michael Fassbinder (Shame), and Brad Pitt (Moneyball).

Nominated for Best Supporting Actor are Kenneth Branagh (My Week With Marilyn), Jim Broadbent (The Iron Lady), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Ides of March), and Christopher Plummer (The Beginners), along with Jonah Hill for Moneyball.

Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer from The Help, along with Judi Dench (My Week With Marilyn), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) and Carey Mulligan (Drive), are nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

Playwright Aaron Sorkin, along with Steven Zaillian, has received a nomination for the Adapted Screenplay award for Moneyball. Also nominated in this category are Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon for The Ides of March, an adaptation of Willimon’s play, Faragut North. In addition stage writers Woody Allen and Abi Morgan have been nominated for the Original Screenplay award for their scripts for Midnight in Paris and The Iron Lady, respectively. And Ralph Fiennes has received a nomination for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for his direction of the film adaptation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.

The nominees for Best Film are The Artist, The Descendants, Drive, The Help, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which has also been nominated for Outstanding British Film, along with My Week With Marilyn, Senna, Shame, and We Need to Talk About Kevin.

As previously announced, the nominees for the BAFTA Rising Star Award are Adam Deacon, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chris O’Dowd, and Eddie Redmayne.

For more information and a complete list of 2012 BAFTA nominees, click here.