AceShowbiz - "An Education" is the toast of London after landing 17 2010 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards nominations. Lone Scherfig's film, starring Oscar hopeful Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard, edged out "Inglourious Basterds", "The Hurt Locker", "Avatar" and "The Lovely Bones" as the most-nominated film when the Academy's initial list of picks was announced on Thursday, January 7.

Mulligan is among the Best Actress candidates and Scherfig is up for Best Director. Quentin Tarantino's "Basterds" landed 15 nods and Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" scored 12. Meanwhile, David Bowie's son Duncan Jones was also recognized for his acclaimed 2009 film "Moon", which picked up 10 mentions.

And the 21 February prizegiving looks set to be a big night for Clint Eastwood - the film icon landed five nominations as producer, director and actor for "Invictus" and "Gran Torino".

The shortlist will be reduced to five nominations in each field and announced on January 21, but the nods for Film Not in the English Language have already been announced - they are for "Broken Embraces", "Coco Before Chanel", "Let the Right One In", "A Prophet" and "The White Ribbon".