Bafta Film Awards 2019: Olivia Colman's The Favourite leads nominations

Olivia Colman's film The Favourite leads the race for this year's Bafta Awards, with 12 nominations.

The announcement comes days after Colman won a Golden Globe for playing Queen Anne in the period comedy-drama.

It's some way ahead of its nearest Bafta rivals Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, First Man and Roma, which have seven nominations each.

Steve Coogan, Christian Bale, Claire Foy, Rachel Weisz and Richard E Grant are the other British acting nominees.

The Favourite is the only production to be up for both best film and outstanding British film. It has also proved popular at box offices, making £4m in the UK and Ireland in its first week.

Colman is nominated for best actress, while her co-stars Weisz and Emma Stone - who vie for the monarch's affections in the film - are both in the running for best supporting actress.

• In full: Bafta nominations 2019

• Olivia Colman's varied career in pictures

• Who was the queen brought to life by Olivia Colman?

Left-right: Emma Stone, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz are all nominated for acting awards

Female-led film leads the way

"There's a lot of love for this film," film critic Jason Solomons told BBC Breakfast. "It's already doing very well at the box office and it's only been out there a week officially.

"Olivia Colman is such a popular figure… I think people are just falling for her performance as Queen Anne, supported brilliantly of course by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone."

Colman has won three Bafta TV Awards in the past - for Broadchurch, Twenty Twelve and Accused - but this is her first nomination in the film section.

Actress Hayley Squires, who helped announce the nominations, said: "After a year of Time's Up and #MeToo and the conversation that was happening so strongly last year, I think it's fantastic that it's a film that's led by three women.

"And also [they're] in roles where they're not necessarily being beautiful, but roles where they get to be quite ugly and vicious and really tear into each other, and into quite a vicious, strong script. I love the fact it's up there with those nominations."

Rami Malek will hope to add a Bafta to the Golden Globe he won for playing Freddie Mercury

Rami Malek is another star who will be hoping to follow a Golden Globe victory with a win at the Baftas.

He is nominated for playing late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, which is also shortlisted for outstanding British film. But it is not in the overall best film category.

Steve Coogan (left) is nominated for best actor for Stan & Ollie

Coogan hasn't been in the running in this year's Hollywood awards season so far, but he is recognised by Bafta for playing Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie, which tells the story of legendary comedy duo Laurel and Hardy's final UK tour.

He has won six Baftas in the past - but none have been for acting in a film.

More notable nominations (and snubs)

Richard E Grant and Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

• After a 30-year career spanning Withnail & I, The Iron Lady and Gosford Park, Richard E Grant has his first ever Bafta nomination for playing the companion of Melissa McCarthy's author-turned-con artist in Can You Ever Forgive Me? (pictured)

• Spike Lee received Bafta's Special Award back in 2002 - but his three nominations this year (for best director, film and screenplay for BlacKkKlansman) are his first competitive Bafta nominations

• One British star to miss out was Emily Blunt for Mary Poppins Returns, which received just three nominations - original music, production design and costume design

• Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón has a whopping six nominations for Roma (best film, foreign language film, director, original screenplay, cinematography and editing) - making him the most-nominated individual in a single year, according to Bafta records

• Bradley Cooper isn't far behind, though, with five for A Star Is Born (best film, director, adapted screenplay, actor and music)

• Coogan, Mary Queen of Scots actress Margot Robbie and Widows star Viola Davis are the only actors to get Bafta nominations but not Golden Globe nominations - but there was nothing for Widows' British director Steve McQueen

• Beast, the thriller starring Johnny Flynn and Jessie Buckley, is the only movie in the outstanding debut British film category to also make it onto the outstanding British film shortlist

• Peter Jackson's They Shall Not Grow Old, in which the director converted First World War footage into colour, is likely to be the film to beat in the best documentary category

Richard E Grant thanked BAFTA on Twitter and said he was "absolutely chuffed to bits" to receive his nomination.

Clare Foy, who is nominated for best supporting actress in First Man, said in a statement that she was "honoured to have been nominated in the category" alongside women she had "watched and admired for so long" in reference to her fellow nominees Amy Adams, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Margot Robbie.

Joanna Lumley will host the Bafta film ceremony for the second time at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 February.

It will be one of the last key ceremonies before the Oscars, which take place in Hollywood on 24 February. The Oscar nominations will be revealed on 22 January.