District 9 Nets 7 BAFTA Nomination

For those uninitiated or non-British, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts or BAFTA is England's equivalent to the Academy Awards in the United States.  BAFTA just released their list of nominees and no surprise you find a familiar list to include; Avatar, Precious, Up In The Air, Inglorious Basterds, and The Hurt Locker taking home nominations in various categories. 

At the Golden Globes District 9 netted one nomination for Best Screenplay; however in BAFTA, the South African Science-Fiction film nets 7 nominations!  Including Neill Blomkamp for Best Director, putting him square against the Sci-Fi titan James Cameron. 

Nominations:

• Best Director - Neill Blomkamp
• Best Adapted Screenplay - Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
• Best Editing - Julian Clarke
• Best Cinematography - Trent Opaloch
• Best Production Design - Philp Ivy & Guy Potgieter
• Best Special Visual Effects - Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, & Matt Aitken
• Best Sound - Brent Burge, Chris Ward, Dave Whitehead, Michael Hedges, Ken Saville
  

Congratulations to all those involved.  District 9 definetly is being given the attention it deserves.  I'm hoping it wins for Best Visual Effects, it's going up against much larger compeition to include Avatar, but I think it stands a good chance.  I will admit I was stunned when I saw Blomkamp getting the Best Director nomination.  The man did an excellent job and coming in with your first film with a BAFTA nomination, that's a damn good start.  Winners will be announced on February 21.