Unlike any other award ceremony on the circuit the BAFTAs celebrate British talent with the Best British Picture category.- Atonement

- The Bourne Ultimatum

- Control

- Eastern Promises

- This is England

Atonement

Atonement has also been nominated for best British Picture to with it's Best Picture nod.Wright has produced a movie that is part love story part war epic combining the literary qualities of the novel with polished acting and high production values.Wright and screenwriter Christopher Hampton have provided a script that has stuck closely to Ian McEwan's popular novel resulting in a very faithful account of the story.British film has, in the past, often been ridiculed as being a poor man's Hollywood and criticised for being able to compete with the big American movie industry,

But this year in particular America has sat up and taken note of the British film industry with this movie leading the way, resulting in a Golden Globe for Best Picture.

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Ultimatum was perhaps the best of this summer's blockbusters, with Pirates, Shrek and Spiderman all enjoying a third release.

Directed by Brit Paul Greengrass, who came of board for Supremacy, Ultimatum picks up where the second film left off.

Ward Abbott (Brian Cox) is dead and Pam Landy (Joan Allen) has the taped confession.

On the surface the Treadstone project appears to be dead bit in the form of Noah Vosen (David Strathairn), who will stop at nothing to kill Bourne, it lives on.

Jason Bourne however continues to stomp his way down memory lane hopping from country to country, city to city visiting Moscow, Paris, London, Madrid, Tangiers and New York in a bid to discover who the real Jason Bourne is whilst trying to out manoeuvre cops, federal and Interpol officers who would prefer him dead.

As sequels go it's fair to say that the first is always the best and it goes steadily downhill from there. But with The Bourne Ultimatum this is trend is well and truly broken.

Greengrass has produced an intelligent, fast paced blockbuster making Bourne the most consistent franchise of the summer, producing three high quality movies.

Matt Damon is once again excellent as the tortured Jason Bourne as he cements himself as a great leading man as well as an all action hero.

But Greengrass has to take some of the credit he doesn't get caught up in the action he keeps his eye firmly on the goal: to give the audience answers but keeping them onside no matter what those answers bring to light about the leading man's character.

While we won't be seeing The Bourne Ultimatum up for Best Picture at next month's Oscars but the stunt performances on the film were recognised by the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Control

The talk of the festival circuit during the summer of 2007, and winner of five prestigious BIFA awards, Control is one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, and a British cinematic triumph.

Recalling Curtis’ aspirations that reached beyond the trappings of small town life in 1970s Northern England, and his desire to emulate his musical heroes, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop, we follow Curtis as he joins a band and begins to thrive.

Married to Deborah at a young age, Curtis is distracted from his family commitments by a new love and the growing expectations of his band.

However, his battle with epilepsy adds to his depression and surrendering to the weight on his shoulders, Curtis finally commits suicide at the age of 23, finally finding the peace that had escaped him in life.

The film introduces us to actor Sam Riley with his first lead role, which seems hard to believe as he gives an outstanding performance and he supported by yet another great turn from Samantha Morton.

His role as the troubled singer has also been recognised by BAFTA with his inclusion into the Rising Star Award category.

Director Anton Corbijn, renowned for his photography and music video work with the bands U2 and Depeche Mode, as well as photography with most of rock’s aristocracy, makes his directorial debut with Control, based on the biographical account Touching from a Distance penned by Curtis’ widow Deborah Curtis, and adapted for the screen by Matt Greenhalgh.

Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg's Eastern promises kicked off this autumn/winter's crime fest in theatres.

When a Russian teenager dies in childbirth, nurse Anna (Watts) begins to hunt for the girl's family to save the baby from foster care.

The girl's diary leads her to 'driver' Nikolai (Mortensen) and the bloody underworld of the Russian Mafia.

Eastern Promises re-unites Cronenberg with his A History of Violence leading man Viggo Mortensen, the director's previous step into the mainstream.

Cronenberg, who is regularly labelled as the King of Venereal Horror, and has long held the belief that violence should bot be glamorised and here it's convincingly gruesome and messy.

The director seems to revel in the intricacies of gangster life and seems to have stamped his mark on the Russian Mafia genre of the gangster movie.

This is a ruthless crime thriller that won the Audience Prize at this year's Toronto International Film Festival and could be Cronenberg's best picture.

This Is England

This is England tells the story of Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), an 11 year old kid growing up in the north of England.

Set during the summer holidays of 1983, it follows his rites of passage from a shaggy haired ruffian grieving the loss of his father into a shaven headed thug whose anger and pain are embraced by the local skinhead fraternity.

The skinheads offer Shaun two things he has been missing, friendship and male role models. Shaun’s own father has been killed fighting in the Falklands war.

If he’s going to be a skinhead like them, he has to get the look. There is a trip with his mum Cynthia (Jo Hartley) to the local shoe-shop.

Unfortunately cherry red Dr Martins don’t come in size fours, but he gets the next best thing. Later that day Lol (Vicky McClure), Woody’s girlfriend, shaves his head.

This Is England won Best British Independent Film and Thomas Turgoose Most Promising Newcomer Award at the British Independent Film Awards as well as awards at the London and Rome Film Festivals.

Writer and director Shane Meadows (Dead Man's Shoes) paces the film brilliantly, and uses a terrific soundtrack that ranges from Percy Sledge and Toots & the Maytals to UK Subs and Culture Club, from Dexy's Midnight Runners and Soft Cell to the Smiths and the Specials, capturing the uneasy times in Thatcherite England.

Tip to win BAFTAs Best British Picture - Atonement

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw