Awards ceremonies take centre-stage early next week with more than 70 News UK nominations.

Leading the way are a whopping 50 shortlisted entries for the industry ‘Oscars’ on Tuesday March 22 – the British Press Awards.

The previous evening, there are two other awards ceremonies featuring a total of 23 News UK nominations.

• The Sunday Times leads the way in The Press Awards nominations with 22.

The Times gained 18 nominations and The Sun 10 for the prestigious awards being held at the London Hilton Hotel on March 22.

This tally smashes the 41 total for News UK achieved in the previous year’s nominations, mainly due to The Sun rising from two to 10 shortlisted entries.

All three of our national titles are shortlisted in the blue ribbon Newspaper of the Year and News Team of the Year categories.

The Sunday Times dominates the Broadsheet Interviewer of the Year section with four of the six finalists.

The Sun’s Oliver Harvey takes on five Daily Mail journalists in the Popular Feature Writer of the Year section.

• The Sunday Times and The Times have a bumper 20 nominations between them for the annual LSL Property Press Awards. The Sunday Times received 11 nominations and The Times nine. Our leading individual was Carol Lewis of The Times with nominations in four categories. The awards are being held in London on March 21.