On-screen couple Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander have both been nominated for Baftas for their roles in transgender movie The Danish Girl.

The nominations were announced today by TV personality Stephen Fry and actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw at Bafta's central London headquarters in Piccadilly.

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

Redmayne is also an early favourite to secure an Oscar nomination for his role in The Danish Girl as Lili Elbe, one of the first known transgender women to receive 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 at last year's British Academy Film Awards, which saw him winning the best actor gong 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.

File photograph of cast members Blanchett and Mara arriving at the Gala screening of the film "Carol" during the British Film Institute Film Festival in London.

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 Baftas, which are seen as a good indicator of who will achieve Oscar success, will be handed out on Sunday, February 14, at a star-studded ceremony at London's Royal Opera House.

The films leading the nominations with a total of nine nods each are Bridge of Spies and Carol. Star Wars: The Force Awakens has been nominated in four categories.

British director Sir Ridley Scott will be hoping for his first Bafta win in the director category after being nominated for The Martian.

He will be up against Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies), Adam McKay (The Big Short), Todd Haynes (Carol) and Alejandro G Inarritu (The Revenant).

Kate Winslet and Rooney Mara will battle it out in the supporting actress category, ending speculation that Mara would be up for the leading actress category alongside her co-star Blanchett.

Other actresses vying to win the category will be Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Julie Walters (Brooklyn) and Vikander (Ex Machina).

The Bafta EE Rising Star winner will also be announced on the night. The award recognises up and coming talent in the film world, and the five nominees have already been announced.

Star Wars actor John Boyega is among the nominees, and other stars nominated include Fifty Shades Of Grey's Dakota Johnson, Welsh actor Taron Egerton, Brie Larson and Hammersmith-born Bel Powley, who starred in coming-of-age drama The Diary Of A Teenage Girl in 2015.

The documentary on late singer Amy Winehouse, titled Amy, has been nominated for Outstanding British Film as well as in the Documentary category.

Brooklyn, which has picked up six nominations in total, is also nominated for Outstanding British Film alongside 45 Years, The Danish Girl, Ex Machina and The Lobster.

Vikander said she was 'truly honoured' to be nominated.

"The Danish Girl and Ex Machina have been such gifts of projects for me," she said, "The fact that both of these projects were driven from the UK, with a predominantly British cast and crew and that both these films have been so generously recognised by Bafta today, makes this even more poignant for me."

Film critic James King said that, while he would love Redmayne to win again, he was doubtful he would because of competition from DiCaprio.

"I would love to see Eddie Redmayne win again, because I think he's brilliant, but unfortunately there is someone called Leonardo DiCaprio standing in his way," he said.

"Last year Eddie Redmayne was the favourite to win for The Theory Of Everything, but I think it's fair to say that this year he has a few others who perhaps stand a chance."

Talking about the nominee line-up, Fry said he felt "Immense positivity" at the wide sweep of films who made the cut.

"I think a lot of people will feel that this is one of Leonardo DiCaprio's most accomplished and extraordinary performances. It's a physical achievement to have done what he's done," he said of the leading actor category and DiCaprio's role in The Revenant.

"There is a huge amount of affection for him as a liked and respected man, an extraordinary sort of dignity and self-assurance, without any cockiness or conceit or any of the qualities that some people have. I think there will be a strong move to voting for him. But you can't guarantee it, that's the excitement, that's why you've got to tune in on Valentine's Day."

The Revenant director Alejandro G Inarritu said: "I am thrilled our film has been recognised by Bafta and I want to thank them for this honour.

"I am so happy for Leo, Tom and our entire cast and crew, whose passion and hard work on this film was unparalleled."