Cold Mountain has emerged as the front runner for this year's Baftas, taking an impressive 13 nominations including best film and best director.

Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King is just behind with 12 nominations, while Girl With A Pearl Earring has ten, Lost In Translation and Master And Commander eight each, and Big Fish seven. The nominations were announced this morning at 9.00am in London.

Five films have made it into the best film category - Big Fish, Cold Mountain, The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, Lost In Translation and Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World.

Big Fish, which is not released until this Friday (Jan 23) in British cinemas is perhaps the most surprising entry on this shortlist, taking its place at the expense of highly fancied awards' contenders such as Mystic River and Seabiscuit. Tellingly Big Fish was one of the few screener tapes to be sent out to BAFTA voters this year.

Six films were nominated for the Film Not In The English Language Category: The Barbarian Invasions, Belleville Rendez-Vous, Etre Et Avoir, Good Bye Lenin!, In This World and Spirited Away.

Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn have both received multiple acting nominations. Johansson received two nods in the best actress category for Girl With A Pearl Earring and Lost In Translation, while Penn was nominated in the best actor category for his roles in 21 Grams and Mystic River.

Other surprises included Nicole Kidman, last year's Bafta and Oscar best actress winner for The Hours, being overlooked in the best actress category for Cold Mountain. Russell Crowe also got no recognition in the best actor category for his performance in Master And Commander.

British box office hit Calendar Girls was also completely overlooked, not even receiving a nomination in the British Film Of The Year category. Cold Mountain, Girl With A Pearl Earring, In This World, Love Actually and Touching The Void were the five nominees in this category.

Orange British Academy Film Awards nominations:

FILM
Big Fish - Bruce Cohen/Dan Jinks/Richard D Zanuck
Cold Mountain - Sydney Pollack/William Horberg/Albert Berger/Ron Yerxa
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Barrie M Osborne/Fran Walsh/Peter Jackson
Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola/Ross Katz
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World - Samuel Goldwyn Jr/Peter Weir/Duncan Henderson

The Alexander Korda Award for the outstanding British Film of the Year
Cold Mountain - Sydney Pollack/William Horberg/Albert Berger/Ron Yerxa/Anthony Minghella
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Andy Paterson/Anand Tucker/Peter Webber
In This World - Andrew Eaton/Anita Overland/Michael Winterbottom
Love Actually - Duncan Kenworthy/Tim Bevan/Eric Fellner/Richard Curtis
Touching The Void - John Smithson/Kevin MacDonald

The Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British Director/Producer or Writer in their first feature film
Sergio Casci, Writer (for American Cousins)
Jenny Mayhew, Writer (for To Kill A King)
Peter Webber, Director (for Girl With A Pearl Earring)
Emily Young, Director/Writer (for Kiss of Life)

The David Lean Award for achievement in direction
Big Fish - Tim Burton
Cold Mountain - Anthony Minghella
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Peter Jackson
Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World - Peter Weir

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
21 Grams - Guillermo Arriaga
The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) - Denys Arcand
Finding Nemo - Andrew Stanton/Bob Peterson/David Reynolds
Lost In Translation - Sofia Coppola
The Station Agent - Tom McCarthy

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Big Fish - John August
Cold Mountain - Anthony Minghella
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Olivia Hetreed
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Fran Walsh/Philippa Boyens/Peter Jackson
Mystic River - Brian Helgeland

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions Barbares) - Denise Robert/Daniel Louis/Denys Arcand
Belleville Rendez-Vous - Didier Brunner/Sylvain Chomet
Être Et Avoir - Gilles Sandoz/Nicolas Philibert
Good bye lenin! - Stefan Arndt/Wolfgang Becker
In This World - Andrew Eaton/Anita Overland/Michael Winterbottom
Spirited Away - Toshio Suzuki/Hayao Miyazaki

ACTOR in a Leading role
Benicio Del Toro - 21 Grams
Bill Murray - Lost In Translation
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Jude Law - Cold Mountain
Sean Penn - 21 Grams
Sean Penn - Mystic River

ACTRESS in a Leading role
Anne Reid - The Mother
Naomi Watts - 21 Grams
Scarlett Johansson - Girl With A Pearl Earring
Scarlett Johansson - Lost In Translation
Uma Thurman - Kill Bill Vol. 1

ACTOR in a Supporting role
Albert Finney - Big Fish
Bill Nighy - Love Actually
Ian Mckellen - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Paul Bettany - Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Tim Robbins - Mystic River

ACTRESS in a Supporting role
Emma Thompson - Love Actually
Holly Hunter - Thirteen
Judy Parfitt - Girl with a Pearl Earring
Laura Linney - Mystic River
Renee Zellweger - Cold Mountain

THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for achievement in Film Music
Cold Mountain - Gabriel Yared
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Alexandre Desplat
Kill bill vol. 1 - The RZA
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Howard Shore
Lost In Translation - Kevin Shields

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Cold Mountain - John Seale
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Eduardo Serra
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Andrew Lesnie
Lost In Translation - Lance Acord
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World - Russell Boyd

EDITING
21 Grams - Stephen Mirrione
Cold Mountain - Walter Murch
Kill Bill Vol. 1 - Sally Menke
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Jamie Selkirk
Lost In Translation - Sarah Flack

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Big Fish - Dennis Gassner
Cold Mountain - Dante Ferretti
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Ben van Os
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Grant Major
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World - William Sandell

COSTUME DESIGN
Cold Mountain - Ann Roth/Carlo Poggioli
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Dien van Straalen
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Ngila Dickson/Richard Taylor
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World - Wendy Stites
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl - Penny Rose

SOUND
Cold Mountain
Kill Bill Vol. 1
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

ACHIEVEMENT IN SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

Big Fish
Kill Bill Vol. 1
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

MAKE UP & HAIR
Big Fish - Jean A Black/Paul Le Blanc
Cold Mountain - Paul Engelen/Ivana Primorac
Girl With A Pearl Earring - Jenny Shircore
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King - Richard Taylor/Peter King/Peter Owen
Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl - Ve Neill/Martin Samuel

SHORT ANIMATION
Dads Dead - Maria Manton/Chris Shepherd
Dear Sweet Emma - John Cernak
Jojo In The Stars - Sue Goffe/Marc Craste
Nibbles - Ron Diamond/Chris Hinton
Plumber - Randi Yaffa/Andy Knight/Richard Rosenman

SHORT FILM
Brown Paper Bag - Natasha Carlish / Mark Leveson/Michael Baig Clifford W: Geoff Thompson
Bye Child - Andrew Bonner/Bernard McLaverty
Nits - George Issac/Jan Roldanus/Harry Wootliff
Sea Monsters - Matt Delargy/Mark Walker/Raphael Smith
Talking With Angels - Michael Knowles / Janey de Nordwall/Yousaf Ali Khan