BAFTA nominations: "Milk" gets best picture, actor and screenplay nods...

The British Academy if Film and Television announced their award nominations earlier today and they are typically similar to the Oscar nominations which will finally be revealed next week.

I'm mostly interested in "Milk" at this point and the BAFTA nominations were kind to the movie about the slain civil rights leader Harvey Milk. The Gus Van Sant-directed feature was nominated for best picture and will compete with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "The Reader" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

The directorial nominees mirrored best picture with one exception: Van Sant was snubbed! Instead, Clint Eastwood got a nod for "Changeling."

Sean Penn, the Oscar front-runner so far, got an expected best actor nod for "Milk." His competition will be Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"), Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"), Frank Langela ("Frost/Nixon"), and Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire").

I'm thrilled to see that "Milk" screenwriter Dustin Lance Black was nominated for best original screenplay. His competition is: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen ("Burn After Reading"), J. Michael Straczynski ("Changeling"), Philippe Claudel ("I've Loved You So Long"), and Martin McDonagh ("In Bruges").

Congrats also to Steven E. Anderson and Michael White who were nominated in the Make Up and Hair category for "Milk"