Radcliffe-born film director Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire received 11 nominations for the Orange British Academy Film Awards today.

Following her US awards success, Kate Winslet had two nominations in the leading actress category - one for The Reader and one for Revolutionary Road.

The Dark Knight had nine nominations and Changeling had eight.

Frost/Nixon received six nominations, The Reader had five and In Bruges, Milk and Revolutionary Road all had four each.

The British film industry is already riding high. Earlier this week, Winslet and Slumdog Millionaire made it a night to remember for the British film community at the Golden Globes.

The star scooped two awards and Slumdog Millionaire, the story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire took home four trophies including best dramatic film. The movie also went down a storm at the recent Critics’ Choice Awards.


Slumdog Millionaire was nominated in the Bafta categories Best Film, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Music, Production Design, Sound and Outstanding British Film.

Former Thornleigh Sal;esian College pupil Danny Boyle has been nominated for Director, 18-year-old Dev Patel for Leading Actor and Freida Pinto received a nomination as Supporting Actress.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was nominated for Best Film, Director for David Fincher, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Make Up & Hair, Music, Production Design and Special Visual Effects.

Those battling it out for Best Film alongside The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire are Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader.

In the Outstanding British Film category were the award-winning Hunger which documents the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, In Bruges, Mamma Mia! - which recently became the highest-grossing film in the UK, and Man On Wire as well as Slumdog.

Teenager Patel will compete against veteran actor Mickey Rourke in the Leading Actor category, for Rourke’s much-hailed comeback role in The Wrestler.

In the same category as the pair were Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn for Milk and Brad Pitt for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Winslet will be going head to head in the Leading Actress category with Angelina Jolie for Changeling, Kristin Scott Thomas for I’ve Loved You So Long and Meryl Streep for Doubt.

Pitt was a double nominee, also nominated in the Supporting Actor category for Burn After Reading.

The late Heath Ledger was also nominated for Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight.

Jonathan Ross will present the Baftas ceremony next month, a fortnight after the BBC lifts his suspension over the Andrew Sachs lewd phone calls row.

Ross used his page on the social networking website Twitter to invite public suggestions for an unlikely word he could incorporate into his Bafta routine.

He wrote: “Thanks for Bafta suggestions. Will whittle them down to a top three then slip one in.”

The BBC announced yesterday that this year’s Baftas at London’s Royal Opera House on February 8 will be shown across three TV channels for the first time.