'Lincoln' leads race for British Academy Awards

The Associated Press, Wednesday, January 9, 2013, 12:06am (PST)

LONDON (AP) — Historical biopic "Lincoln" leads the race for the British Academy Film Awards, with 10 nominations at the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars.

Epic musical "Les Miserables" and boy-meets-tiger saga "Life of Pi" received nine nominations each, while James Bond adventure "Skyfall" got eight — rare awards recognition for an action movie — and Iran hostage thriller "Argo" took seven.

Lincoln's nods, announced Wednesday, include best picture and three acting nominations — Daniel Day-Lewis for leading actor, Sally Field for supporting actress and Tommy Lee Jones for supporting actor. But there was nothing for the film's director, Steven Spielberg.

The best picture nominees are "Lincoln," ''Les Miserables," ''Life of Pi," ''Argo" and Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty."

Ben Affleck is nominated both as director of "Argo" and as its leading actor. The other male acting contenders are Day-Lewis, Bradley Cooper for "The Silver Linings Playbook," Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables" and Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master."

The best-actress shortlist includes Emmanuelle Riva for "Amour," Helen Mirren for "Hitchcock," Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook," Jessica Chastain for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Marion Cotillard for "Rust and Bone."

In recent years, the awards, known as BAFTAs, have helped underdog films including "Slumdog Millionaire," ''The King's Speech" and "The Artist" gain momentum for Oscars success.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on Feb. 10, two weeks before the Hollywood awards.