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Those five pictures earned bids for film and direction in Monday's nomination announcement.
The director nods -- Rob Marshall, Martin Scorsese , Stephen Daldry, Peter Jackson and Roman Polanski -- are an exact echo of the Directors Guild of America shortlist announced last week.
Overall, the nominations make it the most open BAFTA contest for years, without a clear favourite or a rank outsider.
Miramax Films had most to celebrate from the BAFTA nods. It backed the two most lauded movies and has a stake in the third (Miramax has 'The Hours' overseas, while Paramount is handling it domestically). Miramax accounted for an additional 13 nominations, coming from five other pictures it either produced or acquired: 'Frida', 'Dirty Pretty Things', 'The Quiet American', 'The Warrior' and 'The Magdalene Sisters'.
A delighted Daldry told Daily Variety that, like the characters in 'The Hours', he was grabbing his moment of joy. 'Making a film can be very isolating. The best thing about the awards season is that you get to meet all the other filmmakers. And there are so many films out there that I love and admire, that to be included with them is a great honour'.
'I am very honoured', Scorsese said of the 'Gangs' nominations. 'A motion picture is the sum total of the work of many people and we are so pleased to have been acknowledged in this way. British cinema is formative and important to me'.
The actor nods look like a dry run for the Academy Awards (news - web sites), with Daniel Day-Lewis ('Gangs of New York') and Jack Nicholson ('About Schmidt') duking it out with Adrien Brody ('The Pianist'), Nicolas Cage ('Adaptation') and Michael Caine ('The Quiet American').
The actress section has a quirkier look thanks to Halle Berry for her turn in 'Monster's Ball', which snagged her actress honours at the Oscars but didn't qualify for last year's BAFTA. She faces Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep , both nominated for 'The Hours', Renee Zellweger for 'Chicago' and Salma Hayek for 'Frida'.
'Frida' showed well in the BAFTA race, also picking up nods for supporting actor (Alfred Molina ), costume design and makeup/hair.
Kidman said: 'I think this acknowledges the tremendous talent of Stephen Daldry and (scribe) David Hare. It was a joy to work with all of them on such rich material'.
Streep is a double nominee, also competing for the supporting actress prize thanks to her performance in 'Adaptation'.
'I'm thrilled ... but why only two?' Streep joked after learning of the nominations. 'I'm so proud of 'Adaptation' and 'The Hours' and I hope all of these nominations for the films will help us find audiences in the U.K. and all over the world'.
In the supporting race, Streep is pitted against Julianne Moore , her co-star in 'The Hours', Catherine Zeta Jones and Queen Latifah from 'Chicago', and Toni Collette from 'About a Boy'.
Chris Cooper ('Adaptation'), Ed Harris ('The Hours'), Paul Newman ('The Road to Perdition') and Christopher Walken ('Catch Me if You Can') join Molina in the supporting actor stakes.
'The Warrior', barred from competing as the British entry in the foreign-language section of the Academy Awards because it is not set in Britain and Hindi is not a language of the U.K., made the BAFTA shortlist for outstanding British film and for best film not in the English language.
Other contenders for the British film prize are 'Bend It Like Beckham', 'The Magdalene Sisters', 'Dirty Pretty Things' and 'The Hours'.
The foreign-language section also includes Mexico's 'Y tu mama tambien', Brazil's 'City of God', India's 'Devdas' and Spain's 'Talk to Her'.
'Talk to Her' and 'Y tu mama' are nommed for original screenplay, along with 'Dirty Pretty Things', 'Gangs' and 'Magdalene'.
The adapted screenplay section is being contested by 'About a Boy', 'Adaptation', 'Catch Me if You Can', 'The Hours' and 'The Pianist'.
Conrad Hall, who died earlier this month, was posthumously given a cinematography nom for his work on 'Road to Perdition'. He's up against Dion Beebe for 'Chicago', Michael Ballhaus for 'Gangs of New York', Andrew Lesnie for 'The Two Towers' and Pawel Edelman for 'The Pianist'.
Sir Ian McKellen announced the nominations at BAFTA's headquarters on London's Piccadilly. The award ceremony takes place Feb. 23 at the Odeon Leicester Square.
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