The Artist, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Top British BAFTA Award Nominees

The BAFTA Awards may be the British equivalent of the Oscars, but in their picks of nominees for their annual film awards they tend to have a far more international slant. Though homegrown products like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and My Week With Marilyn racked up impressive numbers of nominations in today's announcements, the pack was led by The Artist, which picked up 12 nods including Best Film. Tinker Tailor was even nominated for both Best Film and Outstanding British Film, but it still couldn't top The Artist, receiving 11 votes instead.

If you wish the Oscars supported more oddball or indie projects, the BAFTA nomination list might be for you. Among the surprises are nods for We Need to Talk About Kevin's Lynne Ramsay and Drive's Nicolas Winding Refn as Best Director, and a pick for Drive's Carey Mulligan as Best Actress as well. In fact, BAFTA seemed to like Drive more than just about any other awards body so far, nominating it for Best Film as well. The rest of that lineup was chock full of more standard Oscar contenders-- The Aritst, The Descendants, The Help and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy join Drive there. And along with Tinker Tailor in Outstanding British FIlm, you can find awards season contenders like My Week With Marilyn and Shame alongside the documentary Senna and We Need To Talk About Kevin.

Below is a list of the top BAFTA Awards nominees; the ceremony takes place on Sunday, February 12, with the show hosted by Stephen Fry.

BEST FILM

THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann

THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor

DRIVE Marc Platt, Adam Siegel

THE HELP Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Simon Curtis, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Adrian Hodges

SENNA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey

SHAME Steve McQueen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Abi Morgan

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo, Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay, Luc Roeg, Jennifer Fox, Robert Salerno, Rory Stewart Kinnear

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

ATTACK THE BLOCK Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)

BLACK POND Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)

CORIOLANUS Ralph Fiennes (Director)

SUBMARINE Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)

TYRANNOSAUR Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

INCENDIES Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McGraw

PINA Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel

POTICHE François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer

A SEPARATION Asghar Farhadi

THE SKIN I LIVE IN Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar

DOCUMENTARY

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Martin Scorsese

PROJECT NIM James Marsh, Simon Chinn

SENNA Asif Kapadia

ANIMATED FILM

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Steven Spielberg

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sarah Smith

RANGO Gore Verbinski

DIRECTOR

THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius

DRIVE Nicolas Winding Refn

HUGO Martin Scorsese

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius

BRIDESMAIDS Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig

THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh

THE IRON LADY Abi Morgan

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash

THE HELP Tate Taylor

THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon

MONEYBALL Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

LEADING ACTOR

BRAD PITT Moneyball

GARY OLDMAN Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

GEORGE CLOONEY The Descendants

JEAN DUJARDIN The Artist

MICHAEL FASSBENDER Shame

LEADING ACTRESS

BÉRÉNICE BEJO The Artist

MERYL STREEP The Iron Lady

MICHELLE WILLIAMS My Week with Marilyn

TILDA SWINTON We Need to Talk About Kevin

VIOLA DAVIS The Help

SUPPORTING ACTOR

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER Beginners

JIM BROADBENT The Iron Lady

JONAH HILL Moneyball

KENNETH BRANAGH My Week with Marilyn

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Ides of March

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

CAREY MULLIGAN Drive

JESSICA CHASTAIN The Help

JUDI DENCH My Week with Marilyn

MELISSA MCCARTHY Bridesmaids

OCTAVIA SPENCER The Help

Katey Rich

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend