Bafta Awards 2018: when is it and who will win best film, actor and actress?

With less than a month to go until this year's Academy Awards, Hollywood comes to London this Sunday for the 71st British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards.

The Shape of Water leads this year’s nominations with 12 nods including best film, best director and best actress for Sally Hawkins.

The fantasy romance, by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro, is up against Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri for best film.

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The fantasy romance, by Mexican film-maker Guillermo del Toro, is up against Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri for best film.

The Baftas, often seen as a bellwether for the Oscars, will be hosted by Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley, the first female to oversee the ceremony since 2001, when Mariella Frostrup co-presented with Stephen Fry, the BBC reports.

“As expected, veteran British actor Gary Oldman, widely considered the front runner for the Oscar, is one of the leading-actor nominees for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour,” says Variety. Oldman won a Golden Globe Award on Sunday.

The other best actor nominees are Daniel Day-Lewis for Phantom Thread, Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out, Jamie Bell for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, and Timothee Chalamet for Call Me by Your Name.

The leading-actress nominees comprise Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Irish actress Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird, Annette Bening for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Frances McDormand for Three Billboards, and Margot Robbie for her portrayal of Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya.

Blade Runner 2049 and Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk were the biggest surprise contenders, with eight nominations each, Sky News reports.

Other British films up for awards include Paddington 2, with three nominations including a best supporting actor nod for Hugh Grant, The Guardian reports. Grant’s competition for best supporting actor are Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson for Three Billboards, and Willem Dafoe for The Florida Project.

Allison Janney, who portrays Tonya Harding's mother in I, Tonya, is among the nominees for best supporting actress, alongside Kristin Scott Thomas for Darkest Hour, Laurie Metcalf for Lady Bird, Lesley Manville for Phantom Thread, and Octavia Spencer for The Shape Of Water.

Away from the screen, there is speculation this year’s red carpet could turn political and see a repeat of the Golden Globes, when many female attendees wore black in support of the Time’s Up campaign founded by leading Hollywood actresses in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Last month US news site Deadline posted a copy of the letter which was circulated around Bafta attendees calling for stars to “continue the incredible movement this side of the Atlantic”.

“We hope that those of us who are privileged enough to have a platform, can use it to raise awareness of the experiences of women beyond our industry, whose experiences are often silenced and marginalised” it read.

But according to the Daily Mail, one person who will not be joining them is the Duchess of Cambridge.

The pregnant royal is due to attend the glittering awards ceremony on Sunday but “faces a difficult choice as royal protocol dictates that she should remain unbiased and avoid making a public political statements”, says the paper.

Fashion experts and political pundits like will be eagerly awaiting the Duchess' arrival to see if she has decided to break with protocol and align herself with the growing movement.

The 71st Bafta Awards will be broadcast on BBC this Sunday from 9pm