Screen International looks at the 2025 Bafta Film Awards nominations, which were revealed today (Jan 15) in London, with Conclave and Emilia Perez leading the way.
Omissions and surprises galore
There are always more contenders than there are spaces on the nomination ballot but of particular note was that Denzel Washington’s Bafta drought continued as he was left out of the best supporting actor shortlist for Gladiator II. Throughout his near five-decade career, Washington has landed 10 Oscar nominations, and two wins – but a Bafta nomination has eluded him. “Did I do something or say something bad?” he asked Screen last year.
UK actors Daniel Craig (Queer), Kate Winslet (Lee) and Michele Austin (Hard Truths) were also left out in the cold, as was Paddington In Peru, which failed to secure a single nomination.
More welcome surprises included that of Hugh Grant who picked up a fourth Bafta film award nomination for his performance in Heretic. The actor has also been nominated for a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award, suggesting an Oscar nomination (his first) is not entirely out of the question.
Possible Oscar impact
The fallout from the Los Angeles fires means the cutoff for Oscar voting has been postponed, twice, and is now set to end on January 17 at 5pm PT. This means Ampas voters could have their attention caught by the Bafta nominees, tipping them into watching one or two final films.
That could be especially good news for titles on Oscar’s documentary and international feature shortlists, now nominated for Baftas – such as Black Box Diaries, Daughters, I’m Still Here and The Seed Of The Sacred Fig. And the six Bafta nominations for Kneecap should concentrate Oscar voter minds on the need to see that film.
Last year, the winners of the Bafta Film Awards and Oscars matched up in virtually every category, but the nominations showed wide variations. This year’s abolition of juries to help determine Bafta nominations in the performance categories may well make the two academies’ sets of nominations more aligned – especially since there is a significant and growing overlap between the two sets of voting members.
The Bafta jury for the director category was likewise abolished this year. Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), Sean Baker (Anora), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) and Edward Berger (Conclave) are considered the Bafta nominees most likely to follow with an Oscar nomination for best director. That would leave Bafta-nominated Denis Villeneuve (Dune: Part Two) and Coralie Fargeat (The Substance) battling for the fifth slot – although the Directors Guild Awards went with James Mangold (A Complete Unknown).
Jon M Chu (Wicked), Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine As Light) and RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys) are also firmly in the mix.
In the acting categories, the more-surprising inclusions at Bafta are Grant for Heretic, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice, and Jamie Lee Curtis for The Last Showgirl – although both Strong and Curtis are nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
The campaigns for Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce in The Brutalist, Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing, Isabella Rossellini in Conclave, Selena Gomez in Emilia Pérez and Saoirse Ronan in The Outrun now bounce back – all nominated at Bafta, having all been overlooked by SAG voters, and thus picking up fresh momentum heading into the final days of Oscar voting.
Cannes films lead the way
If you’re not a Hollywood tentpole, then premiering at an A-list festival is the ideal awards-season fuel to launch your campaign. Of the 42 films that achieved Bafta nominations, 35 bowed first at festivals (and the seven that didn’t were all high-profile studio titles: Wicked, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu, Gladiator II, Inside Out 2, A Complete Unknown and Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes).
The fall festivals ceded ground to Cannes this year, with 10 titles emanating from the arthouse citadel – perhaps no surprise given its sexy and politically charged lineup this year. As per usual, Cannes titles dominate the film not in the English language category with three out of five contenders (Emilia Perez, All We Imagine As Light and The Seed Of The Sacred Fig), but it’s also yielded three of this year’s most potent contenders: Jacques Audiard’s narco-musical (second only to Conclave with 11 nominations), Anora and The Substance.
Venice, meanwhile, was left in the dust. A powerful showing for The Brutalist (nine nominations) is its chief result, and a film not in the English language nod for I’m Still Here. But its Golden Lion winner – Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door – was entirely overlooked at longlist stage, and Volpi Cup winner Nicole Kidman didn’t gain a nomination for Babygirl.
You could blame the Netflix effect, ie, the strikes combined with change at the top of its film division left it without its usual potent Venice slate (and its main contender, Emilia Perez, was a pick-up at Cannes) – but expect the streamer to return in force this year.
Elsewhere, Sundance had a stellar year as always with documentaries (four out of the five nominees started there) but also put wind in the sails for A Real Pain, The Outrun and Kneecap; Telluride was a handy launchpad for Conclave and Nickel Boys; and Toronto was the starting point for Sing Sing (from TIFF 2023), The Wild Robot and Hard Truths. This year’s TIFF audience award winner The Life Of Chuck is nowhere to be seen but may surface in next year’s race with Neon releasing in late spring.
And a nod to BFI London Film Festival, the UK launchpad for several of these titles and their introduction to many Bafta voters – including nine out of 10 of the Cannes premieres (only The Substance was missing which Mubi opened in September) and UK productions Conclave, Blitz and Hard Truths.
Horror films scare up votes
Horror films don’t often get recognition by major awards bodies so it is refreshing to see three lauded genre titles rip up the imaginary rule book. The Substance and Nosferatu each received a healthy five nominations while Grant flies the flag for Heretic with one.
The nominations are across the board, including major categories such as director (Fargeat for The Substance), leading actress (Demi Moore for The Substance), leading actor (Grant) and cinematography (Jarin Blaschke for Nosferatu) as well as technical areas where horror typically excels such as make-up and hair, costume and production design.
But women are missing in key categories…
France’s Fargeat is the only woman nominated as best director, with no films directed by a women nominated for best film. Last year, Anatomy Of A Fall’s Justine Triet was the only woman nominated in the director category, and Anatomy was also the only film directed by a woman in the best film category. No year has come close in terms of female representation to the pandemic-hit record of 2021, when four female directors were nominated in the best director category, while two were nominated for best film.
There are also no female directors in the animated or family categories. In original screenplay, among the nine names listed there’s only Fargeat, and a co-credit for Mona Fastvold for The Brutalist.
In the craft categories, the best cinematography nominees are all male, while the nominees in visual effects, editing, sound and original score are also overwhelmingly male.
One breakthrough in terms of representation has come from Karla Sofía Gascón’s nomination in the leading actress category. She is the first openly trans performer to be nominated in an acting category at Bafta’s film awards.
…as are filmmakers of colour
For the second year, all six nominees for best director are white. The nine individuals on the five original screenplay nominees are also again all white; as are the nominees in the key craft categories of cinematography, editing and production design. Bafta clearly has work to do on representing a range of storytellers, although as film committee chair Anna Higgs notes on the gender imbalance: “It’s not a level playing field from the start.”
There is better representation in the acting categories, with five non-white actors among the 24 nominated performers. Two are in leading actress: Jean-Baptiste and Cynthia Erivo for Wicked.
Of the five rising star nominees (selected by a jury and voted for by the public), two are Black and one is Asian.
Where there is significant diversity is in nationality. The six director nominees were born in four different countries (including two from France); while the 24 actors hail from six countries, including Romania-born Sebastian Stan, Italy’s Isabella Rosselini – and south London UK duo Erivo and Jean-Baptiste.
A mixed year for UK talent
Conclave, the papal thriller shot in Rome, directed by German-born Edward Berger and now holding 12 nominations, qualifies as ‘British’ as it is produced by the UK’s House Productions with the US’ FilmNation and Indian Paintbrush, and has a UK lead in Ralph Fiennes and a UK writer in Peter Straughan.
Elsewhere, UK-Ireland co-production Kneecap has six nods, while UK-US animation Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl has three.
Wicked and Gladiator II both shot in the UK and have seven and three nominations respectively. In the documentary category, the UK is represented by UK-US co-pro Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.
The Brutalist, which shot in Hungary, has several UK co-producers in Brookstreet UK and Joshua Horsfield’s Intake Films; Protagonist Pictures is the international sales agent.
There are no UK filmmakers in best director or film, and no UK actors in the supporting actor category. Actress representation is also down – Erivo and Jean-Baptiste are nominated in leading, matching 2024’s tally in the category, while The Brutalist’s Felicity Jones is flying solo in supporting (a drop from three last year). Ireland is represented across all performance categories this year by Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun, in leading actress.
In the outstanding British debut film category, scripted features have seen a return to prominence. Last year, three of the five were documentaries, whereas this year, all are scripted.
Children’s & family award makes uncertain start
In 2023, Bafta announced that it was abolishing its Children’s Awards, and folding the various awards into existing ceremonies. This year is the first Bafta Film Awards to include a children’s & family film award – keeping the whole process fully juried, as the academy tends to do when introducing a new category.
Nominated for best children’s & family film are four animated titles: Flow, Kensuke’s Kingdom, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot. Three of the quartet are likewise nominated for animated film (alongside Inside Out 2).
This feels a disappointing outcome. Not to diminish any of the nominees, but the introduction of the category to the film awards does not feel additive, apart from the spotlight afforded to Kensuke’s Kingdom, produced by the UK’s Lupus Films.
The jury was evidently hampered by a weak set of submissions to the category, dominated by animations (but oddly not including Inside Out 2 or Moana 2, which were not submitted by Disney). The family-friendly, PG-rated Wicked was not submitted, and nor were inspirational tales about young athletes The Fire Inside and Unstoppable (both rated 12A in the UK), or Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King.
A few documentaries were submitted, including the relevant Blink (about a Canadian family), but both Daughters and Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa – which both have a prominent parent-child theme and are rated 12 – were not submitted.
This category will likely be a topic in Bafta’s annual review of its awards processes. If the academy decides to keep the award, it must surely be asking distributors and streamers to up their game.
Starry starry night
Last year’s film awards recorded the highest overnight viewing figure since 2020, with 3.8 million viewers on BBC One. The broadcaster will hope a nominations list full of younger millennial stars will draw a youthful audience to the Sunday evening show on February 16, hosted again this year by David Tennant.
Selena Gomez (422 million Instagram followers), Ariana Grande (376 million) and Timothée Chalamet (19.5 million) all command colossal fanbases, who will most likely engage with the ceremony online – and, the BBC will hope, tune into the broadcast.
There are also TV stars who have crossed over to film, such as Sebastian Stan (Gossip Girl, Pam & Tommy) and Succession duo Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong who may attract eyeballs.
Universal’s free and clear
Universal stands head and shoulders above all other distributors in the nomination totals with 32 – double the amount of the next-highest, Netflix, with 16. Universal’s nominations are evenly spread across six films in historical drama (The Brutalist), contemporary sex comedy-drama (Anora), musical blockbuster (Wicked), gothic horror (Nosferatu), animation (The Wild Robot) and revenge thriller (Monkey Man).
It is a change from last year, when the studio’s hopes were pinned – successfully – on Oppenheimer, which scored 13 of Universal’s 20 nominations, and converted seven into wins.
Netflix will hope to follow that pattern, with 11 of its 16 nods for Emilia Perez; although Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, distributed with the BBC, will fancy its chances of at least one prize from three nominations.
Black Bear, the UK-Ireland distribution arm of US production and distribution house, will be pleased with its 15 spots across Conclave and Sing Sing. The remaining distributors have an even spread, with Disney scoring 10 spots across four films; Warner Bros with eight across two; and Studiocanal with seven across three.
Baker’s quintuple
Anora director Sean Baker has recorded the second-most nominations for an individual at a single Bafta Film Awards with five: best film, director, original screenplay, casting and editing. He is one behind Alfonso Cuaron, who set the record of six for Roma in 2019.
Baker has maintained his high-control filmmaking process from his low-budget titles through to the mid-range (reported $6m) Anora, and is rewarded with his first Bafta nominations, after missing out himself on previous films including Red Rocket, The Florida Project and Tangerine.
Journalist-turned-filmmaker Rich Peppiatt marks an impressive four individual spots for Kneecap, in outstanding British film, outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, film not in the English language and original screenplay. Peppiatt won two Bifas in December including best debut screenwriter, and was individually nominated for three more.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl directors and producer Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek are each nominated in the outstanding British film, animated film and children’s & family film categories, and will hope their title’s high visibility after a UK Christmas day screening on BBC One will translate to trophies next month.
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