The British Academy of Television Arts has announced the nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards for 2018, otherwise known as the BAFTAs. Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water leads the pack with 12 nominations, including Best Film, Director, Actress, Score, and Original Screenplay, days after taking home Best Score and Director at the Golden Globes. It’s followed by major Best Picture contender Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Darkest Hour, which both received nine nominations, giving a pretty hefty boost to the latter film as Joe Wright’s Winston Churchill drama has fallen by the wayside a bit with regards to momentum.

But the most pleasant surprise is Blade Runner 2049 scoring eight nominations, tying with Dunkirk. Director Denis Villeneuve’s gorgeously realized sci-fi sequel failed to light the box office on fire domestically, but the love was shared far and wide at the BAFTAs as the film not only scored nominations for Score, Production Design, and Cinematography, but also Best Director for Villeneuve.

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Image via Focus Features

The BAFTAs aren’t a 1:1 match with the Oscars, but they are an important precursor because we see how a voting body made up of industry professionals shares the love come awards time. And they do match up somewhat when it comes to nominees, although last year Best Film went to La La Land and the year before it went to The Revenant, so the winners don’t always match up with Oscar.

Aside from the Blade Runner 2049 love it’s also nice to see Kristin Scott Thomas recognized for her swell work in Darkest Hour. Indeed that film gets the biggest boost this morning, as it’s kind of on the outs for a Best Picture or Best Director Oscar nomination at the moment. It lost out on PGA, WGA, and SAG recognition for the top awards, so the BAFTA love certainly raises its profile as Oscar nomination voting comes down to its final days.

Three Billboards continues to look something like a frontrunner, but the lack of huge love for other frontrunners Lady Bird and Get Out here isn't super surprising as both of those films are distinctly American. Indeed, Three Billboards hails from a British/Irish writer/director and even though it's about the American South, score a "Best British Film" nomination here given that it was produced and created by Brits.

It’s also great to see the critically acclaimed Paddington 2 nominated not just for Best British Film but also Best Adapted Screenplay, and Baby Driver scores well-deserved nominations for Editing and Sound, which I’m increasingly thinking is likely for Oscar as well.

Check out the full list of BAFTA nominations below. The ceremony will be held on February 18th.

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Image via Fox Searchlight

BEST FILM

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Peter Spears

DARKEST HOUR Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski

DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas

THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski

THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider

GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling

LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Alice Birch

PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

THE GHOUL Gareth Tunley (Writer/Director/Producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (Producers)

I AM NOT A WITCH Rungano Nyoni (Writer/Director), Emily Morgan (Producer)

JAWBONE Johnny Harris (Writer/Producer), Thomas Napper (Director)

KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen (Director)

LADY MACBETH Alice Birch (Writer), William Oldroyd (Director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Producer)

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Image via Warner Bros.

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ELLE Paul Verhoeven, Saïd Ben Saïd

FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh

THE HANDMAIDEN Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim

LOVELESS Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky

THE SALESMAN Asghar Farhadi, Alexandre Mallet-Guy

DOCUMENTARY

CITY OF GHOSTS Matthew Heineman

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck

ICARUS Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan

AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk

JANE Brett Morgen

ANIMATED FILM

COCO Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson

LOVING VINCENT Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart

MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE Claude Barras, Max Karli

DIRECTOR

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino

DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan

THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

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Image via Fox Searchlight

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

GET OUT Jordan Peele

I, TONYA Steven Rogers

LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig

THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME James Ivory

THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider

FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh

MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin

PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King

LEADING ACTRESS

ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya

SALLY HAWKINS The Shape of Water

SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird

LEADING ACTOR

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Phantom Thread

DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out

GARY OLDMAN Darkest Hour

JAMIE BELL Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Call Me by Your Name

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Image via Sony Pictures Classics

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya

KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour

LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird

LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread

OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape of Water

SUPPORTING ACTOR

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World

HUGH GRANT Paddington 2

SAM ROCKWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

WILLEM DAFOE The Florida Project

WOODY HARRELSON Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

ORIGINAL MUSIC

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer

DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli

DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer

PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood

THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Roger Deakins

DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel

DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema

THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis

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Image via Sony Pictures

EDITING

BABY DRIVER Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker

DUNKIRK Lee Smith

THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory

PRODUCTION DESIGN

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola

DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis

THE SHAPE OF WATER Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau

COSTUME DESIGN

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran

DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran

I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson

PHANTOM THREAD Mark Bridges

THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira

MAKE UP & HAIR

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn

DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji

I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee

VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips

WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten

SOUND

BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth

DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten

THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

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Image via Lucasfilm

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson

DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson

THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees tbc

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees tbc

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

HAVE HEART Will Anderson

MAMOON Ben Steer

POLES APART Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low

BRITISH SHORT FILM

AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster

COWBOY DAVE Colin O’Toole, Jonas Mortensen

A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Patrick Campbell

WORK Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell

WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

DANIEL KALUUYA

FLORENCE PUGH

JOSH O’CONNOR

TESSA THOMPSON

TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET

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Image via Marvel Studios