Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Atonement carries all before it with 14 entries and is getting that English Patient buzz. This is the classy film that Bafta and Academy voters might feel comfortable about supporting and might garner an Oscar landslide.
It is a sophisticated film, which sports with ideas of narrative, fiction and reality. But for my money it's not as powerful as the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men or Paul Thomas Anderson's extravagantly mad and brilliant There Will Be Blood, which have chalked up fewer nominations.
Overall, the Bafta nominations constitute a heartening list of good, very good and excellent films. The only oddity is the relative absence of nominations for Sweeney Todd, apparently a result of not having advanced copies to send out to Bafta members.
The Lives Of Others is in there, with five nominations. It is an impressive version of the dark heart of East Germany's Stasi state, although my enthusiasm for it has receded a bit after reading the author Anna Funder's argument that redemption for Ulrich Muhe's central Stasi agent is a little lenient.
Daniel Day-Lewis has to have the shortest odds for leading actor. He gives an incredible performance as the brash oilman in There Will Be Blood: it has a delicious dash of theatricality, very rarely seen in screen acting.
However, never underestimate the power of the posthumous award. Muhe, who died this summer, was outstanding as the cold-hearted Stasi man who experiences an epiphany of hope.
Also, I wouldn't rule out a triumph for James McAvoy for Atonement. Allan Hunter in Screen International magazine shrewdly compared him to a 1930s matinee idol such as Robert Donat and he could surprise everyone.
As far as the Best Actress prize goes, the bets are off: this has to be Julie Christie's year.
Her brilliant performance in Sarah Polley's Away From Her raised one of the 21st century's most urgent issues for an ageing population: Alzheimer's disease.
Are there any annoyances in there? Not really, although I was very agnostic about American Gangster, which has an enormously high opinion of itself that radiates from every scene.
The public may also be entitled to be baffled about the Bafta habit of giving nominations to as yet unreleased films, such as There Will Be Blood and Jason Reitman's Juno.
