BAFTA Nominations Revealed: Brave, Frankenweenie and ParaNorman Compete for Animation Award

The nominations for the 66th British Academy Film Awards were announced by BAFTA today - ahead of the reveal of the Oscar nominations tomorrow - and, naturally, as there always is with award ceremonies, there's a little bit of controversy and distaste with some of the categories.

The nominees for Best Animated Film (only three) are Disney and Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, Laika's ParaNorman and Pixar's Brave. Congrats to the talented teams and directors behind these three great animated films for the honour.

No love from the British Film Academy for the very British The Pirates!

Somewhat odd though is the exclusion of one of the main awards frontrunners, Wreck-It Ralph, but it's not surprising that BAFTA have leant towards more artsy films (particularly Frankenweenie, with its black and white motif). What is surprising though is that there's no nomination for The Pirates!. The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists, directed by Aardman co-founder Peter Lord (Chicken Run), is a massively British film, as well as being one of the year's absolute best animated films; it hasn't been getting a lot of awards-love, so it's a real shame to see it snubbed even by its home country.

The directors of the films that were nominated have offered up some comments though: Brave co-director Mark Andrews and Frankenweenie director Tim Burton gave thanks via The Hollywood Reporter. Andrews commented:

"Scotland is the heart of Brave. It inspired our imaginations, moved us with its mystery and magic, and became the perfect host for our adventure. Our story and Scotland became one, a tapestry made of the unique character of the land, and those within our tale. Thank you to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for this honor."

Tim Burton said:

"Creating Frankenweenie was a lengthy and challenging process and was only possible because of the talented team assembled in the U.K.," Burton noted. "I'm very pleased that Frankenweenie has received a BAFTA nomination for best animated film."

ParaNorman co-director Chris Butler was a little more notably excited:

#BAFTA nomination!!!!!
— Chris Butler (@cbutler_butler) January 9, 2013

The Pirates! director Peter Lord and writer Gideon Defoe offered up somewhat disheartened comments on their lack-of-nomination:

@bafta O-Kay now let's just check out those nominations! bafta.org/film/awards/no…- - - - - oh...
— Peter Lord (@PeteLordAardman) January 9, 2013

@a113animation Ah, thanks, but someone's got to lose out. And you'd have to be pretty daft to take any of this stuff seriously.
— Gideon Defoe (@gideondefoe) January 9, 2013

Defoe also tweeted a comical response to the snub.

To quote Kipling: twitter.com/gideondefoe/st…
— Gideon Defoe (@gideondefoe) January 9, 2013

In terms of non-animation, Spielberg's Lincoln leads the charge with ten nominations, Ang Lee's Life of Pi (including a very deserving one for Cinematography) and Tom Hooper's Les Misérables have nine, and Ben Affleck's Argo has seven. The Special Visual Effects nominees (check out the Visual Effects Society nominees here) were The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, Life of Pi (it's got to win, surely?), Avengers Assemble and Prometheus.

What I'm really very happy about though is that Skyfall, the magnificent 23rd entry in the James Bond film series, managed to nab eight nominations! That included Best British Film, Supporting Acting awards (Bardem and Dench) and Cinematography (Roger Deakins) - no nod for Best Film or Director though... Ah well, you can't have everything!

To end on a positive note though, congratulations of the highest order to all the very talented artists, actors and filmmakers who worked on all the great, creative - and now BAFTA nominated - films. Best of luck, also, to them all for tomorrow's Academy Award reveal.

The BAFTAs will be handed out on Sunday 10th February from London's Royal Opera House; the evening will be hosted by Stephen Fry.