The British Academy of Film & Television Artists have announced the nominations for the 2001 Orange British Academy Film Awards. Visual spectacle ruled the list with GLADIATOR and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON receiving 14 nominations each. Both films garnered nominations in the outstanding film, screenplay, music and visual effects categories. Joining the Roman romp and romantic fantasy for best special effects are THE PERFECT STORM, VERTICAL LIMIT and CHICKEN RUN. The poultry powered picture also gained recognition for outstanding British film and will be competing against live-action comedy BILLY ELLIOT, THE GRINCH and GLADIATOR for the Audience Award voted on by the public. In addition, CROUCHING TIGER, now Britain's highest-grossing foreign language film of all time, took home a nod for outstanding film not in the English language. The four films that were nominated for outstanding short animation are Lisbeth Svarling's CLOUD COVER, Michael Dudok De Wit's FATHER AND DAUGHTER, Gareth Love's LOUNGE ACT and Tim Webb's SIX OF ONE. This year's event is the first ceremony held before the Oscar's and will take place on February 25, 2001.