12 Friday 22nd January 2010

VLONDON (AP) - Sci-fiextravaganza ‘Avatar,’ Iraqdrama “The Hurt Locker” andcoming-of-age story “AnEducation” earned eight nom-inations apiece Thursday inthe race for the BritishAcademy Film Awards,Britain’s equivalent of theOscars.

The three films are upfor best picture alongside“Up in the Air” and“Precious: Based on theNovel Push by Sapphire.”

The British awards,known as BAFTAs, arehanded out two weeksbefore the AcademyAwards in Hollywood andconsidered an importantindicator of likely Oscarsuccess.

South African alienthriller “District 9”received seven BAFTAnominations, whileQuentin Tarantino’s“Inglourious Basterds” andJason Reitman’s “Up in the

Air” got six each.The nominations boost

the Oscar hopes of JamesCameron’s “Avatar,” anastronomically expensiveeco-adventure that hasalready taken more than$1.6 billion (euro1.13 bil-lion) at the global boxoffice. “Avatar” - Cameron’sfirst narrative feature sincethe Oscar-sweeping“Titanic” in 1997 - hasalready won Golden Globesfor best drama and director.

It faces strong competi-tion from two much small-er films: “The HurtLocker,” a claustrophobicstudy of a bomb-disposalteam in Iraq, and “AnEducation,” the piquanttale of a teenager’s senti-mental education in 1960sLondon.

Cameron is competingfor best director against hisex-wife, “The Hurt Locker”director Kathryn Bigelow.The other director nomi-nees are Neill Blomkampfor “District 9,” LoneScherfig for “AnEducation” and QuentinTarantino for “InglouriousBasterds.”

The best actor race pitsGeorge Clooney, for “Up inthe Air,” against “The HurtLocker” star JeremyRenner, Jeff Bridges for“Crazy Heart,” Colin Firthfor “A Single Man” andAndy Serkis for his por-trayal of musician IanDury in “Sex & Drugs &Rock & Roll.”

Meryl Streep receivedher 13th BAFTA nomina-tion for “Julie & Julia.” Theother best-actress nominees

are Carey Mulligan for “AnEducation,” Audrey Tautoufor “Coco Before Chanel,”Irish actress Saoirse Ronanfor “The Lovely Bones” andnewcomer Gabourey Sidibefor “Precious.”

Nominees for outstand-ing British film are “AnEducation”; “Fish Tank”;“In the Loop”; “Moon” and“Nowhere Boy.”

Five films are compet-ing for best foreign-lan-guage film - fashion biopic“Coco Before Chanel,”Pedro Almodovar’s lush“Broken Embraces,”Swedish vampire story “Letthe Right One In,” JacquesAudiard’s prison drama “AProphet” and MichaelHaneke’s chilling “TheWhite Ribbon.”

The British prizes - offi-cially the Orange BritishAcademy Film Awards -will be awarded during aceremony at London’sRoyal Opera House on Feb.21.

Last year, DannyBoyle’s underdog picture“Slumdog Millionaire” wonseven BAFTAs, includingbest film; it went on to wineight Oscars.

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Congratulations

‘Avatar’ gets 8 noms for British film

From left, Sam Worthington, director James Cameron, ZoeSaldana, producer Jon Landau, and Sigourney Weaver posewith the award for best motion picture drama for “Avatar”backstage at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards onSunday, Jan. 17, 2010, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)

Lionsgate’sfamilyaction

comedy “The Spy Next Door”stars Jackie Chan as Bob Ho, an

undercover CIA superspy who decidesto give up his career in espionage to settle

down with hisnext-door neighbour

and girlfriend, Gillian(Amber Valletta). But Bob has

one more mission to completebefore Gillian agrees to marry him:winning over her three opinionatedkids.

When Gillian suddenly has toleave town, Bob volunteers tobabysit the children so he can earntheir approval. But when one of thekids mistakenly downloads a top-secret formula from his comput-er, Bob’s archenemy, a Russianterrorist, moves in for theattack, forcing Bob to jugglethe roles of spy and prospec-tive stepfather in the mostchallenging mission of hiscareer!

Martial arts superstarJackie Chan is joined by an talented supporting cast fea-turing Amber Valletta (PREMONITION, TRANSPORTER 2,HITCH), George Lopez (BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA,SWING VOTE, “George Lopez”), Billy Ray Cyrus(“Hannah Montana”), Magnus Scheving (LAZYTOWN),Madeline Carroll (SWING VOTE), Will Shadley (“DirtySexy Money”), and Alina Foley. THE SPY NEXT DOORis directed by Brian Levent (ARE WE THERE YET?,SNOW DOGS, THE FLINTSTONES) from a screenplayby Greg Poirier (NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OFSECRETS). The film is produced by RobertSimonds and Ryan Kavanaugh

Starring: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid,Tyrese Gibson, Doug Jones, JonTenney, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas

Black, Kate Walsh, Adrianne Palicki, KevinDurand, Willa Holland

Director: Scott StewartU.S. Opening Date: January 22nd, 2010THEY SAYAfter a terrifying biblical apocalypse

descends upon the world, a group ofstrangers stranded in a remote truck stopdiner in the Southwest unwittingly becomehumanity’s last line of defense when theydiscover the diner’s young waitress is preg-nant with the messiah.

Apparently God has lost faith in humani-ty and sends his legion of angels to wipeout the human race for the second time.Now mankind’s only hope lies in the groupof misfits holed up in a diner in the desertwho is aided by the archangel Michael.Production Status:In Production/Awaiting ReleaseGenres:Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy,Suspense/Horror and ThrillerRelease Date:January 22nd, 2010 (wide)