With less than a week to go until the Royal Opera house hosts the 2010 BAFTAs ceremony, interest is heating up in who will win the gongs traditionally seen as a British precursor to Hollywood’s Oscars in March.

In the same style as the 2009 ceremony, which saw awards go to the less traditional choices of Slumdog Millionaire, The Wrestler, In Bruges and The Reader, the 2010 nominations hint that the winners may or may not be the films that topped the box office.

The coveted Best Film award will be a five-way fight between James Cameron’s Avatar, Brit-film An Education, acclaimed Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker, alternative festival favourite Precious and urbane recession drama Up In The Air.

Bookies are backing Cameron’s CGI goliath to dominate proceedings with odds being offered of 5/6. The Hurt Locker is deemed mostly likely to cause an upset at 5/2, with An Education posing a mild threat at 3/1, Up In The Air at 10/1 and rank outsider Precious following at 20/1.

The most personal battle of the evening, however, will be between ex-spouses Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron, who will be fighting it out in the Best Director category for their offerings The Hurt Locker and Avatar respectively. Bookies are currently favouring Bigelow to take the award, but only just.

Notable award contenders outside of the Best Film category include Peter Jackson produced sci-fi thriller District 9 and celebrated foreign language entries Coco Before Chanel and A Prophet.

Rewarding UK films and film-makers are the categories Outstanding British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. Notable candidates for the awards include Sam Taylor-Wood, director of John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, and Armando Ianucci’s The Thick Of It spin-off In The Loop.

For the full list of nominees visit the BAFTA website.

The ceremony will be broadcast at 9pm on Sunday 21 February on BBC 1.