Historical biopic Lincoln leads the race for the British Academy Film Awards, with 10 nominations including best picture at the UK equivalent of the Oscars.
Epic musical Les Miserables and boy-meets-tiger saga Life of Pi received nine nominations each. James Bond adventure Skyfall got eight – rare awards recognition for an action movie – and Iran hostage thriller Argo took seven.
Lincoln focuses on the last months in the life of US president Abraham Lincoln, as he struggled to end the American civil war and pass a constitutional amendment banning slavery.
Britain’s Daniel Day-Lewis is nominated for leading actor for his uncanny embodiment of the iconic president, and there are supporting nominations for Sally Field as his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens. But the film’s director, Steven Spielberg, failed to get a nod.
The best picture nominees are Lincoln, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Argo and Osama bin Laden thriller Zero Dark Thirty.
Les Miserables is also a contender in the separate category of best British film, alongside Anna Karenina, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Seven Psychopaths and Skyfall.
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 Silver Linings Playbook, Hugh Jackman for Les Miserables and Joaquin Phoenix for The Master.