Irish stars Saoirse Ronan and Michael Fassbender fly the flag for Ireland with BAFTA nomiations

Irish actors Saoirse Ronan and Michael Fassbender are flying the flag for the nation’s thespians — both have just been nominated for prestigious Bafta awards.

Ronan has been nominated in the category of leading actress for her performance in Brooklyn, an adaptation of the Colm Tóibín novel, while Fassbender is up for leading actor for his title role in the biopic Steve Jobs.

Both have also received nods at the Golden Globes, which will be held tomorrow night in the US, and are tipped to receive Oscar nominations next week.

Brooklyn has received six Bafta nominations. The awards will take place on Valentine’s Day, Sunday February 14, in London’s Royal Opera House.

Room, based on the book by Irish author Emma O’Donoghue, is also up for a number of awards this season. The movie, which centres on a mother and son who have been confined to a small space for a number of years, has attracted two Bafta nominations.

While Dublin’s Domhnall Gleeson isn’t personally up for an award, three of his most recent films have made the cut. He stars alongside Ronan in Brooklyn, with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant, which has eight nominations, and also appears in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which has four.

Meanwhile, on-screen couple Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander have both been nominated for roles in The Danish Girl.

Redmayne will go up against DiCaprio, Fassbender, Matt Damon, and Bryan Cranston in the leading actor award category, while Vikander will face competition from Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Maggie Smith, and Saoirse Ronan for leading actress.

Redmayne is also an early favourite to secure an Oscar nomination for his role as Lili Elbe, one of the first known transgender women to have sex reassignment surgery. He has already been nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for the movie.

The London-born actor will be hoping to reprise his success from last year’s Baftas, which saw him winning best actor for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything.

Vikander has also been nominated in the supporting actress category for her role in Ex Machina.

Blanchett has been widely praised by critics for her role in Carol, an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel which documents the love story between Blanchett’s character, a wealthy, married socialite, and Rooney Mara’s character, a young woman working in a department store.

The films leading the nominations with a total of nine nods each are Bridge of Spies and Carol. The Revenant has eight and Mad Max: Fury Road has seven.

Brooklyn and The Martian are each nominated six times while The Big Short, The Danish Girl, and Ex Machina have five.

The Bafta EE rising star winner will also be announced on the night. The award recognises up and coming talent in the film world. Star Wars actor John Boyega is among the nominees, with Dakota Johnson, Taron Egerton, Brie Larson, and Bel Powley.

The documentary on Amy Winehouse, titled Amy, has been nominated for outstanding British film as well as best documentary, going up against He Named Me Malala, about Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai.

See full list of Bafta nominees HERE