Stephen Frears‘ The Queen corralled 10 BAFTA (i.e., British Academy of Film and Television Arts) nominations this morning, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Peter Morgan) and Best Actress (Helen Mirren). And Casino Royale tallied nine nominations, including a deserved Best Actor nom for Daniel Craig. Wait….could all this have a little something to do with nationalistic solidarity?

The winners will be named on a BBC telecast of the London award ceremony on Sunday, February 11.
The Queen has it in the bag, of course, but for the sake of phony suspense The Departed, Babel, The Last King Of Scotland and Little Miss Sunshine have also been nominated for Best Film. And the other Best Director nominees besides Frears are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine) and Paul Greengrass (United 93).
Morgan’s Queen script aside (i.e., another slam-dunk), the other Best Original Screenplay noms are for Paul Greengrass‘s United 93 script, Guillermo del Toro‘s Pan’s Labyrinthand Michael Arndt‘s Little Miss Sunshine.
The Best Adapted Screenplay noms are for Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis‘s Casino Royale script in the adapted screenplay section, with William Monahan (The Departed), Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada), Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock (The Last King Of Scotland) and Patrick Marber (Notes On A Scandal) rounding out the pack.
The Best Actor noms are Craig, Peter O’Toole (Venus), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed), Richard Griffiths (The History Boys…forget it), and Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland) .
Best actress will be won by Mirren, of course, but for appearances sake the great Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes On A Scandal), Meryl Streep (“The Devil Wears Prada”) and Kate Winslet (Little Children) have also been nominated.