"The King's Speech" Gets 14 Nominations for British Academy Film Awards

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) Monarchy drama "The King's Speech" leads the race for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.

The made-in-England film received 14 nominations, including best picture.

READ MORE: Full List of Nominees
SPECIAL SECTION: Awards Season
PICTURES: BAFTA Awards 2010

Colin Firth is odds-on favorite for a best actor trophy for his performance as stuttering King George VI, while costar Geoffrey Rush is nominated for best supporting actor as the unconventional speech therapist who treated him. Helena Bonham Carter is up for best supporting actress for playing the king's wife, the Queen Mother Elizabeth.

The nominations were announced Tuesday. "The King's Speech" faces strong competition from Darren Aronofsky's psychosexual ballet thriller "Black Swan," which has 12 nominations, and Christopher Nolan's mind-bending saga "Inception," with nine.

Danny Boyle's endurance story "127 Hours" and the Coen brothers' Western "True Grit" have eight nominations each.

"The Social Network," which took top honors at Sunday's Golden Globe Awards, has six nominations including best picture, Aaron Sorkin's screenplay and David Fincher's direction. Jesse Eisenberg received a best actor nomination for his turn as Facebook's college-student founder Mark Zuckerberg.

As well as "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network," the best-picture nominees are "Black Swan," ''Inception" and "True Grit."

The separate category of best British film pits "The King's Speech" against "127 Hours," ''Another Year," ''Four Lions" and "Made in Dagenham."

The best-actor contenders are Firth, Eisenberg, James Franco for "127 Hours," Javier Bardem for "Biutiful" and Jeff Bridges for "True Grit."

Annette Benning and Julianne Moore are both best-actress nominees for "The Kids Are All Right," along with Natalie Portman for "Black Swan," Noomi Rapace for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit."

Best-director nominees are Fincher for "The Social Network," Boyle for "127 Hours," Aronofsky for "Black Swan," Nolan for "Inception" and Tom Hooper for "The King's Speech."

The British awards, known as BAFTAs, will be handed out Feb. 13, two weeks before the Academy Awards in Hollywood. They are considered an important indicator of likely Oscar success.

Last year, Iraq war drama "The Hurt Locker" won six BAFTAs, including best picture - then went on to win the same award at the Oscars.