Brits steal limelight.

Byline: By SHERNA NOAH 

THE Constant Gardener, the British film based on the John le CarrA novel, stole the limelight from the Hollywood blockbusters with 10 Bafta nominations yesterday.

Rachel Weisz and Ralph Fiennes, the stars of the pounds 11m romantic thriller set in Africa, are up for best actress and best actor.

Blockbusters like King Kong, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and The Chronicles of Narnia missed out on the main British Academy award categories.

Instead, the likes of gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain, Crash, the movie which caused a stir for tackling the subject of racial tension, and Good Night, and Good Luck, which George Clooney directed, are up for Bafta glory.

Clooney's second film as a director, a true story about a US television producer battling authorities during the anti-communist witch hunt, has been rewarded with six nominations.

They include a best director and supporting actor nomination for Clooney, while the 44-year-old Hollywood star has another shot in the supporting actor category for his role in the politically-charged epic Syriana.

Yesterday's announcement at the Bafta headquarters in London's Piccadilly surprised fans of Keira Knightley, who expected the young actress to get a nomination for her role in the latest Pride and Prejudice.

The film is up for six awards, including a supporting actress gong for Keira's co-star, Brenda Blethyn, for her role as Mrs Bennet.

Other nominees included Memoirs of a Geisha, the film based on the best-selling book, and the drama Capote.

The Baftas, which have enjoyed a new lease of life since they were brought forward before the Oscars, will be hosted by Stephen Fry at the Odeon Leicester Square next month.

Weisz, 34, is up against fellow Briton Dame Judi Dench for best actress, as well as Charlize Theron for North Country, Reese Witherspoon for Walk The Line and Ziyi Zhang for Memoirs of a Geisha.

Fiennes, 43, faces competition in the leading actor category from Good Night And Good Luck's David Strathairn, Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain, Joaquin Phoenix for Walk The Line and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote.

Best film nominees are Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener, Good Night And Good Luck, Capote, and Crash.

Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Clooney (Good Night, And Good Luck), Fernando Meirelles, (The Constant Gardener), Paul Haggis (Crash), and Bennett Miller (Capote) are in the prestigious best director category.

Animation hit Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit has a nomination for British Film of the Year, with Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, Festival, The Constant Gardener, and Pride and Prejudice.

Brokeback Mountain and Crash have nine nominations each, Memoirs of a Geisha has six and Capote has five.

The Constant Gardener is a love story told in flashbacks and set against a backdrop of corruption by the pharmaceutical industry in Africa. Brazilian film-maker Meirelles, who made his name with the awardwinning City of God, filmed the movie in Kenya as well as London. Dozens of Kenyans were paid as extras and a charitable trust was created to build a school and other facilities in some of the poorer areas where filming took place.

Yesterday, Weisz, 34, who plays Tessa, an aid worker married to Fiennes' character, a British career diplomat, said she was delighted.

"What is amazing is that I had the best experience making the film", she said. "To have that and then have the film received so well, life doesn't get any better than that."

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Keira Knightley was left disappointed while Judi Dench is nominated for best actress