The perky, pastel-hued jazz musical La La Land quick-stepped into an awards-season lead on Tuesday, gaining 11 nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, the UK equivalent of the Oscars. The sweet-tempered Ryan Gosling-Emma Stone romance is up for best picture, director, actor and actress at the British awards, which are considered a strong indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s prize-giving next month. La La Land director Damien Chazelle: the shy musician who’s become a Hollywood darling The nominations add to the musical’s momentum after it won seven prizes at the Golden Globes on Sunday. Philosophical sci-fi yarn Arrival and psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals have nine nominations each for the UK prizes, known as Baftas. Best-picture nominees are La La Land ; Arrival ; welfare-state drama I, Daniel Blake ; Miami coming-of-age story Moonlight ; and soul-baring domestic drama Manchester by the Sea . Arrival’s Denis Villeneuve and Amy Adams on the challenges of filming sci-fi drama Best-actor nominees are Andrew Garfield for Hacksaw Ridge ; Casey Affleck for Manchester by the Sea ; Jake Gyllenhaal for Nocturnal Animals ; Gosling for La La Land ; and Viggo Mortensen for Captain Fantastic . Best-actress contenders are Amy Adams for Arrival ; Emily Blunt for The Girl on the Train ; Stone for La La Land ; Meryl Streep for Florence Foster Jenkins ; and Natalie Portman for Jackie . Winners of the British trophies will be announced at London’s Royal Albert Hall on February 12, two weeks before the Oscars. The Baftas differ from their US counterpart in having a separate category for best British film. Nominees are I, Daniel Blake ; raucous road trip American Honey ; courtroom drama Denial ; wizarding adventure Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ; documentary Notes on Blindness ; and Iran-set horror film Under the Shadow .
