The British Academy has announced the nominees for the next Orange British Academy Film Awards to be held on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2006, at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT will compete for the Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year. Its competition includes A COCK & BULL STORY, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, FESTIVAL and PRIDE & PREJUDICE.

Last year’s Oscar short-listed short FALLEN ART from Jarek Sawko, Piotr Sikora and Tomek Baginski received a nomination for Short Animation Film as well this year’s Oscar hopeful and Annecy winner THE MYSTERIOUS GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORATIONS OF JASPER MORELLO from Anthony Lucas, Julia Lucas and Mark Shirrefs. The other nominated animated shorts include Osbert Parker’s FILM NOIR, Sumito Sakakibara’s KAMIYA'S CORRESPONDENCE and Run Wrake’s RABBIT.

In the Achievement in Special Visual Effects category, the nominees are BATMAN BEGINS, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE and KING KONG.

Visual effects heavy films also made appearances in the technical categories. BATMAN BEGINS was nominated for Production Design and Sound. CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY received nods for Production Design, Make-Up & Hair and Costume Design. KING KONG grabbed two of its three noms in Production Design and Sound. HARRY POTTER snatched Production Design and Make-Up & Hair nods while NARNIA nabbed noms in Production Design and Costume Design.