Complaints as new voting system casts Spielberg and Mendes as extras

Spielberg missed out on an directorial nomination (AP)

A member of Bafta is set to complain after this year's change in the voting system left large parts of the academy unable to cast a vote for one of the showpiece categories.

Several producers at today's announcement of nominees for the 2013 Film Awards were perplexed as directors including Steven Spielberg, who made Lincoln; Tom Hooper (Les Miserables); and Sam Mendes (Skyfall) missed out on individual nominations, despite their films garnering eight or more nods.

The disparity is believed to have come after the British Academy for Film and Television Arts changed voting rules for this year's awards. Those voting for the shortlist of directors can now only be drawn from a select group of peers, known as the "director chapter". Previously, all members would be able to have their say before the nominations were announced.

Samantha Horley, managing director of sales, financing and production company Salt, and a Bafta member, said: "I feel a bit patronised that so many of us are apparently deemed unqualified to vote in the first round in categories we are more than qualified to have an informed opinion on."

Several producers suggested the change in voting was responsible for an unusually diverse selection between the best film and director categories in today's nominations.

But Bafta insiders do not believe the voting pattern was "dramatically different", adding that similar results had happened in the past.