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Leave it to the Brits! The BAFTA nominations were announced and they gave us a slightly different look at the awards season! For instance, Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight," the leading Oscar contender in the U.S. just received 3 noms including Best Film, Supporting Actor for Mark Ruffalo and Original Screenplay. No Director nomination for McCarthy.

Meanwhile, Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies," a handsomely-produced period piece led the pack along with Todd Haynes' "Carol," another handsomely-produced period piece. Both films garnered nine nominations each including Best Picture. "Bridge of Spies" and "Carol" will duke it out with "Spotlight," Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's "The Revenant" (eight nominations), and Adam McKay's "The Big Short" (five nominations) for the Best Picture trophy.

So where's "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" you ask? They're relegated to the technical categories. Apparently, sequels, no matter how great they are, can't compete with originals.

Full list of BAFTA nominations; watch the announcement here…BAFTAs 2016:Bridge Of Spies, Carol lead with nine nominations

Suffragette, Spectre, Joy among shutoutsNominees’ reactions

Fox tops distributor nominationsScreen Stars of Tomorrow nominated

Comment: shining a spotlight on British Film

In-depth: Best Film nominees

Galleries: Best Film; Actors

BAFTA chair Anne Morrison was joined by Stephen Fry and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle, Concussion) to announce the nominations for the Ee British Academy Film Awards in London this morning

The awards will take place on Feb 14 and will be held for the tenth year at London’s Royal Opera House.

2015 Nominations

(presented in 2016)Best FilmThe Big Short Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad PittBridge Of Spies Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven SpielbergCarol Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon, Stephen WoolleyThe Revenant Steve Golin, Alejandro G. I?árritu, Arnon Milchan, Mary Parent, Keith RedmonSpotlight Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Michael SugarOutstanding British Film45 Years Andrew Haigh, Tristan GoligherAmy...

Visual effects house Method Studios (via Slashfilm) has released a visual effects reel previewing their work on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. The Method team was supervised by Greg Steele in La and Stephane Naze in London, and over the course of five months, 140 artists produced over 170 shots. A wide range of VFX were required including digital environments, holographic effects and FX simulations, all of which are featured in the following video. Guardians of the Galaxy is set to hit Blu-ray and DVD on December 9 and there's no telling how much focus will be on the visual effects, but there will be a series of making-of featurettes as well as an exclusive first look at the upcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron. Check out the effects reel below and if you want to preorder Guardians of the Galaxy on DVD or Blu-ray click here.

We talk with the Oscar nominated sound team behind Director Peter Berg’s film Lone Survivor which is based on the 2007 nonfiction book of the same name by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson. Featured interviews include Supervising Sound Editor Wylie Stateman, Re-recording Mixer Andy Koyama, Re-recording Mixer Beau Borders, Sound Designer Harry Cohen, Sound Editor Dror Mohar, Supervising Dialogue and Adr Editor Renee Tondelli, and Sound Editor Brandon Spencer. Synopsis Marcus Luttrell, a Navy Seal, and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious al Qaeda leader Ahmad Shahd, in late June 2005. After running into mountain herders and capturing them, they were left with no choice but to follow their rules of engagement or be imprisoned. Now Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare. To read more go to The Sound of...

Today was a busy day for some of the smaller guilds with the Visual Effects Society, the Cinema Audio Society, and the Makeup and Hairstylists Guilds all announcing their nominations for 2013.

First, we have the Ves, whose main category to look at is “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture,” where we find Gravity and four other nominees that are just going to have to be happy with the fact that they got nominated. This is perhaps the easiest category to call in the entirety of awards season, and I don’t mean just here, but for the Oscar as well (Last year’s winner, Life of Pi, easily took this category before going on to claim the Oscar). It’s true that films like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek Into Darkness had outstanding effects as well, but nothing even came close to the amazing,...

The Cinema Audio Society has announced the nominees for the 50th Annual Cas Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for 2013. Winners will be revealed on February 22nd in the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. The Cas Career Achievement Award will be given to Re-recording Mixer Andy Nelson.

Here are the nominations for the 50th Cinema Audio Society Awards:

Motion Picture . Live Action

Captain Phillips

Production Mixer --Chris Munro, Cas

Re-recording Mixer .- Michael Prestwood Smith

Re-recording Mixer -- Chris Burdon

Re-recording Mixer -- Mark Taylor

Scoring Mixer -- Al Clay

Adr Mixer -- Howard London, Cas

Foley Mixer -- Glen Gathard

Gravity

Production Mixer --Chris Munro, Cas

Re-recording Mixer -- Skip Lievsay, Cas

Re-recording Mixer -- Niv Adiri

Re-recording Mixer -- Christopher Benstead

Scoring Mixer -- Gareth Cousins

Adr Mixer -- Thomas J. O'Connell

Foley Mixer . Adam Mendez

Inside Llewyn Davis

Production Mixer -- Peter F. Kurland,...