Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and Sophie Ellis-Bextor hit Baftas red carpet

Irish actor Murphy, who is nominated for best actor for playing theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic Oppenheimer, was wearing a dark outfit at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

His co-star Downey Jr, who is up for supporting actor, opted for a grey suit with a starfish-shaped brooch.

London-born director Nolan’s Oppenheimer, about the father of the atomic bomb, could be the favourite on the night with 13 nominations, while there are 11 nods for Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s surreal tale Poor Things, based on a 1992 novel by Scots artist and writer Alasdair Gray.

Murphy faces competition from fellow Irishman Barry Keoghan, who took on the role of a student at Oxford in high-society thriller Saltburn, and Canadian actor Ryan Gosling for blockbuster success Barbie.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was asked on the red carpet by the PA news agency how it would be received if Keoghan recreated his naked dance in Saltburn.

She said him performing again to her hit Murder On The Dancefloor “may be a bit much” for the ceremony but she was looking forward to seeing him again.

She also said she “felt very complimented” by director Emerald Fennell choosing her 2001 song for the film.

Saltburn actor Richard E Grant told PA that “a number of grandmothers” had written to complain about the film which contains explicit and sexual imagery.

He said the women claimed they had been “told to watch it as a family film before Christmas”, and joked that “their false teeth fell out so it was a great response”.

British actress Claire Foy said she has been “overwhelmed” at the response to All Of Us Strangers, the film for which she earned her Bafta best supporting actress nomination.

Speaking to the PA news agency, she said: “I think I’ve been so overwhelmed with the response the film’s had, just (going) out and about every day, and it’s amazing to have been part of something that has had that impact.

“I’m just so thrilled… something I never thought I would get from my job, which is really amazing.”

Actress Samantha Morton told PA that she “sobbed” during the interval of a London play when she found out she would receive the Bafta fellowship, the film academy’s highest honour.

She added: “I was going to see My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican, which is incredible, by the way, and it’s enough to cry out anyway.

“My family had got up (for) ice cream at the interval and I was just sobbing and I was like, people probably thought I had really bad news, but no, it was good news.”

There are also nine nominations each for Martin Scorsese’s western Killers Of The Flower Moon and Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust film The Zone Of Interest, as well as three nods each for How To Have Sex and Past Lives.

Actress Mia McKenna-Bruce told PA that the goal of How To Have Sex was to “start the conversation” around the film’s themes to do with sex, consent and more.

McKenna-Bruce, nominated for the Bafta Rising Star award, also said that if more people see it because of the Baftas it will make a “wider difference”.

All Of Us Strangers actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, who is nominated in the best supporting actor category, also took to the red carpet.

The Prince of Wales, who is president of Bafta, will be attending the event – his first high-profile royal engagement since his wife’s operation.

At the prestigious film event last year, William was accompanied by the Princess of Wales, who will not be attending this time as she continues her recovery.

The Bafta film awards is hosted by Scottish actor David Tennant and will feature performances by Ellis-Bextor and Hannah Waddingham.

The ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer from 7pm.