Full list of Bafta nominations

Watch video interviews with Atonement stars Keira Knightley and Jame McAvoy

He is a dyslexic who left school without qualifications and has gone on to become Britain’s most rapidly emerging film-maker. Yesterday Joe Wright’s second feature film received 14 nominations for the Baftas, Britain’s answer to the Oscars.

Atonement, a screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s award-winning novel about a doomed wartime romance, was nominated in each of the industry’s most coveted categories, including best film, best British film and best director. Its lead stars, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, were nominated for best actress and best actor.

Knightley, who was nominated for a Golden Globe, said: “The Golden Globe was extraordinary, but to be recognised at home is really special. I’m thrilled.”

The 6,000 voting members of the British Academy of Film and Television also nominated Wright’s film for best adapted screenplay and for its music, cinematography, editing, producing design, sound, costume design and make-up and hair.

The 36-year-old director – who made his first film, Pride & Prejudice, as recently as 2005, when he won the Bafta for most promising newcomer – said: “You’ve no idea how happy I am.”

Speaking to The Times from the Hollywood Hills, where he is about to shoot his next film, he added: “There was an extraordinary team effort from everyone on this film. To have the whole team nominated is just the best thing ever. That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Atonement was expected to do well, particularly after it won Best Film at the Golden Globes in America on Monday. With the writers’ strike in Hollywood having cancelled the Globes ceremony, the Baftas have now assumed greater significance as a form guide to the Oscars.

Nominees for the Orange British Academy Film Awards were announced at the academy’s headquarters in London yesterday.

Julie Christie and Daniel Day-Lewis, who won Best Actress and Best Actor at the Golden Globes, were nominated for the same categories.

Christie, who portrayed an Alzheimer’s sufferer in Away from Her, faces Cate Blanchett, for her role in Eliza-beth: The Golden Age; Marion Cotil-lard for her depiction of the French singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Roseand newcomer Ellen Page for Juno. La Vie en Rose has seven nominations. Besides McAvoy, Day-Lewis, who portrays a ruthless oil tycoon in There Will Be Blood, is up against George Clooney, who plays an amoral lawyer in Michael Clayton, and Ulrich Mühe, the German actor who died of stomach cancer last July, who plays a Stasi officer in the Oscar-winning film The Lives of Others. That film has been nominated for five awards. The 13-year-old Irish actress Saoirse Ronan has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Atonement.

Ladbrokes installed Atonement as the favourite to win the best film category. The Baftas ceremony will take place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, on February 10.

Who’ll win - and who should win

Best Film

Joe Wright’s British melodrama Atonement was the surprise winner of the Golden Globe. This underwhelming drama is now red-hot favourite for the Oscar. I hope that Paul Thomas Anderson’s thriller, There Will Be Blood, about a demented oil baron, will cause an upset. The nomination of The Lives of Others highlights a bizarre and, frankly, damaging anomaly. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film has already won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture. It seems barmy to honour it with a Bafta a year later.

Will win: Atonement

Should win: There Will Be Blood

The Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film of the Year

There is only one serious contender: Anton Corbijn’s terrific film Control, about the life and death of the lead singer of Joy Division, Ian Curtis.

Will win: Control.

Should win: Control

Actor in a Leading Role

Daniel Day-Lewis, above, has a chance to win the hat trick (Globe, Oscar, and Bafta) with There Will Be Blood. The late Ulrich Mühe, right, has a chance of spoiling his evening by winning the Bafta for The Lives of Others.

Will win: Ulrich Mühe

Should win: Daniel Day-Lewis

Actress in a Leading Role

This is going to be hardest to call. It will be an almighty scrap on the night between Keira Knightley (Atonement), and Julie Christie (Away From Her). Christie, right, I suspect, will edge it.

Will win: Julie Christie.

Should win: Julie Christie

The David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction

Julian Schnabel is cannily placed, having poached a Golden Globe for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Paul Greengrass is the dark horse, but The Bourne Ultimatum is probably too much of a guilty pleasure for the Academy’s lofty minds. I hope Paul Thomas Anderson nicks it for There Will Be Blood. But my irritable gut says that it will be all Wright on the night.

Will win: Joe Wright.

Should win: Paul Thomas Anderson

Best Film Not in the English Language

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s masterpiece about the East German Stasi, The Lives of Others, will lift the Bafta and give the British Academy an instant headache. I’m lighting a candle for Marc Foster’s gripping thriller The Kite Runner.

Will win: The Lives of Others

Should win: The Kite Runner

James Christopher, Chief Film Critic

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