Mr. Turner leads London Film Critics’ Circle nominations

Mr. Turner is the film to beat at the upcoming London Film Critics’ Circle Awards after landing seven nominations. The biopic of painter J.M.W. Turner is nominated for Film of the Year, British Film of the Year and Director of the Year for Mike Leigh, while Timothy Spall earns nods in the Actor of the Year and British Actor of the Year categories. Marion Bailey is also recognised for her supporting role.
Mr. Turner is closely followed by Birdman with six nominations. Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and Under the Skin all have five. They are all nominated for Film of the Year, alongside Whiplash, Nightcrawler and foreign language movies Ida and Leviathan.
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) join Spall in both male acting categories. Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) and Michael Keaton (Birdman) round out the Actor of the Year category, while Tom Hardy (Locke, The Drop) and Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Starred Up) complete the British Actor of the Year nominees.
Julianne Moore has two nominations for best actress for her roles in Maps to the Stars and Still Alice. She will compete against Marion Cotillard for Two Days, One Night, Scarlett Johansson for Under the Skin and Essie Davis for horror movie The Babadook.
Emily Blunt (Into the Woods), Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) will battle it out for the British Actress of the Year prize.
Other nominees for Director of the Year include Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) and Richard Linklater (Boyhood).
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 18 January (15).