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As we get closer and closer to the announcement of the 2010 Oscar nominations on Tuesday, February 2nd, we're finally getting more and more awards being announced, instead of just nominations. However, alongside the Academy Awards, there is one group of relatively important nominations that were announced: the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, or the BAFTAs. We'll discuss those first today, but we'll cap things off with a discussion of the Critics' Choice Awards, which were announced on VH1 this past weekend, beating out the Golden Globes as the first televised film awards ceremony of the year. Most of the awards news here isn't too surprising, as it favors movies like Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and Up in the Air.

First, as I mentioned, let's talk about the BAFTAs, the British version of the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. The BAFTAs, for some reason, are considered a major precursor of what movies are going to show up at the Oscars when the nominations are announced. I say "for some reason" not to bash the British, but to point out the obvious: when it comes to being a solid predictor of Best Picture gold, the BAFTAs aren't very good. Yes, last year's BAFTA winner, Slumdog Millionaire, also won the Best Picture Oscar. However, you'd have to go back to 2003 for another match between Oscar and the BAFTA with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Though past years matched up well, they did omit one notable Best Picture Oscar winner: 1997's Titanic, which ended up losing at the BAFTAs to fellow Best Picture nominee The Full Monty.

So, keep that in mind when we go over the nominations. The nominees for Best Film are Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Precious, and Up in the Air. While the notable exception here, when matching with Oscar contenders, is Inglourious Basterds, let's point out a few things out. First of all, An Education, the movie that takes Inglourious Basterds' place, is a British film through and through, and these are the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. An Education was always considered a top contender at the BAFTAs, even though it's likely to show up among the Best Picture nominees. Also worth noting is that the director of An Education, Lone Scherfig, was nominated for Best Director, and so was Quentin Tarantino. Lee Daniels, the director of Precious, lost out here. At the very least, the mix of nominees between Best Picture and Best Director here is a bit eyebrow-raising.

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