British Academy Film Awards 2016: Carol, Bridge of Spies score 9 nominations

Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies and lush lesbian romance Carol lead nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, while Eddie Redmayne has a chance to win a second straight best-actor prize with his role as a transgender artist in The Danish Girl.

Bridge of Spies and Carol each have nine nominations for Britain's equivalent of the Oscars, including best picture. Survival saga The Revenant has eight, and dystopian thrill ride Mad Max: Fury Road has seven.

The Danish Girl based on the life of early 20th-century transgender woman Lili Elbe received five nominations Friday, including acting nods for Redmayne and co-star Alicia Vikander. Last year Redmayne won the same prize and an Oscar for the Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything.

• Carol, The Revenant, Room among Golden Globe nominations
• Spotlight named National Society of Film Critics' best picture

Swedish rising star Vikander also received a supporting-actress nomination for sci-fi thriller Ex Machina.

The other best-actor contenders are Bryan Cranston for Trumbo; Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant; Matt Damon for The Martian; and Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs.

Best-actress contenders are Vikander; Brie Larson for Room; Cate Blanchett for Carol; Maggie Smith for The Lady in the Van; and Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn.

Force Awakens earns 4 nominations

Winners of the British trophies, known as BAFTAs, will be announced at London's Royal Opera House on Feb. 14, two weeks before Hollywood's Academy Awards.

The British awards are considered an omen of Oscars success, and the list puts awards-season propulsion behind Steven Spielberg's sturdy Tom Hanks vehicle Bridge of Spies, Todd Haynes's gorgeously shot Carol and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's The Revenant, which stars DiCaprio as a 19th-century fur trapper fighting for survival in the wilderness.

All three filmmakers are nominated for best director at the BAFTAs, along with Adam McKay for financial-crisis drama The Big Short and Ridley Scott for space adventure The Martian.

The best-picture nominees are The Big Short; Bridge of Spies; Carol; The Revenant; and newspaper drama Spotlight. The separate category of best British film pits The Danish Girl against Ex Machina; Irish emigrant tale Brooklyn; Amy Winehouse documentary Amy; marriage drama 45 Years; and quirky sci-fi fable The Lobster.

The year's biggest films at the British box office were relatively overlooked by the film academy. Star Wars: The Force Awakens received four nominations for production design, sound, music and visual effects while James Bond adventure Spectre got nothing.