Six talking points from the Bafta 2025 film awards longlists

While Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez and Edward Berger’s Conclave lead the way on the longlists for the Bafta Film Awards, closely followed by films including James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Sean Baker’s Anora, beyond the headlines some interesting choices have been made by Bafta voters – and juries.

Screen explores some of the micro-narratives at play in this year’s longlists. 

There were many surprise inclusions and disappointing omissions

Film teams that will be particularly happy with the Bafta longlist outcomes: The Substance, Kneecap, The Apprentice. 

Film teams that will be among the disappointed: Maria, Nickel Boys, The Piano Lesson, Blitz.

The Substance was considered a strong contender for categories including director (Coralie Fargeat), leading actress (Demi Moore) and make-up and hair – but making 11 longlists including best film will give cheer to the film team and distributor Mubi.

Curzon’s Kneecap was deemed likely to be longlisted for outstanding British film, outstanding British debut and film not in the English language – but Rich Peppiatt’s film has made seven Bafta longlists including best film and original screenplay.

Arguably even more surprising is Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice making six Bafta longlists, including best film. The tale of Donald Trump’s ascent to success as a real-estate mogul has underperformed at the North American box office, but done much better overseas, including in the UK and Ireland for distributor Studiocanal. That enthusiasm from audiences is now reflected in the choices of Bafta voters. The Apprentice is longlisted for best film, plus original screenplay, leading actor (Sebastian Stan), supporting actor (Jeremy Strong), casting and make-up and hair.

However, Studiocanal’s Maria has not fared so well – Pablo Larrain’s film about Maria Callas proved a total wipeout with Bafta voters, although Angelina Jolie is nominated at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for her lead performance.

Other films overlooked by Bafta voters are Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of the August Wilson stage play The Piano Lesson, starring Danielle Deadwyler, and RaMell Ross’s Colson Whitehead adaptation Nickel Boys, the latter longlisted for adapted screenplay only. Like Jolie, both films are picking up multiple nominations from US awards bodies.

Apple’s Blitz has made the longlists for outstanding British film and six craft categories – a decent tally, but Steve McQueen’s film missed out on key categories such as best film, director, original screenplay and performance.

Additionally, September 5, Saturday Night and, perhaps most oddly, Pedro Almodovar’s Venice Golden Lion-winner The Room Next Door missed out on every single longlist. 

Universal leads the longlisted distributors 

Universal dominates the longlisted titles this year, with 42 spots – 18 more than any other distributor – from eight titles. The 11 nods for Corbet’s The Brutalist, which releases on January 25 in the UK and Ireland, lead the way, followed by 10 for musical blockbuster Wicked.

Other strong performers for the studio include Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora with nine; and Robert Eggers’ horror Nosferatu with five.

Studiocanal has put in a strong showing. Its 24 spots are evenly spread across eight titles: The Apprentice (six), Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun (five), Ellen Kuras’ Lee (released with Sky Cinema, on four), and Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Back To Black and Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths with three apiece.

Disney has the highest number of longlisted films, with 10 titles and 22 nods. Mangold’s Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown makes up half of these, including best actor for Timothee Chalamet. Warner Bros has six titles in the running, with 21 spots, led by Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.

As the most-listed title with 15 mentions, Netflix’s Emilia Perez – which had an awards-qualifying theatrical release in late October 2024 – is the standout success among the US streamers. It is one of seven longlisted titles for the company, with animated titles including Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (co-distributed with the BBC) and documentary The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin.

Apple has just the one title in Bafta contention this year, McQueen’s Blitz (seven spots), while Amazon is absent as a theatrical distributor, although it does have streaming rights to I Am: Celine Dion.

Black Bear, Mubi, Curzon and Entertainment Film Distributors have reason to cheer among independent distributors. Black Bear split its 17 nods between Conclave (14) and Sing Sing (three), while Mubi’s The Substance is the joint-third most-listed title, with its 11 mentions contributing to 15 in total for the company.

Curzon has 13 across four titles, including seven for Bifa-winner Kneecap; while Entertainment’s 12 spots across five titles include six for Alex Garland’s Civil War.

UK performers break through in acting categories

While Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Daniel Craig (Queer), Kate Winslet (Lee) and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) have long been considered major contenders, a number of more surprising UK names pepper the four performance longlists.

Heretic’s Hugh Grant is joined in leading actor by Dev Patel for his revenge action film Monkey Man (which Patel also wrote, directed and produced), Jude Law as Henry VIII in Firebrand (in the US, Law is being more strongly pushed for his performance in The Order) and Kingsley Ben-Adir in the title role of Bob Marley: One Love.

In leading actress, the UK’s Jean-Baptiste, Erivo and Winslet are joined by Marisa Abela for her performance as Amy Winehouse in Back To Black. Across the 20 names in the two leading performance longlists, 10 are UK actors.

In supporting actor, Harris Dickinson is a relative surprise as the world’s most sexually confident intern in Babygirl. And in supporting actress, Michele Austin has been widely admired for Hard Truths, but risked losing out due to the attention paid to Jean-Baptiste’s powerful work in the same film.

Jones and Austin are joined by Emily Watson on the supporting actress longlist – playing the intimidating antagonist of Small Things Like These. 

Female representation loses pace

Just one film by a female director made the best film longlist of 10 – French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat for the English-language The Substance. In 2024, three spots went to women, none from the UK.

In terms of racial diversity in this category, there has been a smidge of improvement. For the past two years, only one Black, Indigenous, or Person of Colour (Bipoc) filmmaker has been longlisted, and this year, there are two, both male: Ali Abbasi for The Apprentice and Jon M. Chu for Wicked.

Women once again fare better in the outstanding British film category, with six spots: Taylor-Johnson’s Back To Black, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Kuras’ Lee, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding, Fingscheidt’s The Outrun and Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters. This is in line with recent years (five in 2024, six in 2023).

In the best director category, which has an intervention at the longlist stage to guarantee gender parity, none of the five female filmmakers are from the UK.

The film not in the English language longlist includes two by female filmmakers: Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light and Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera. This compares to three films in 2024’s longlist directed or co-directed by women. Documentary has shown improvement, with five out of 10 helmed by women, up from last year’s three.

Animation only has one female filmmaker – Moana 2, co-directed by Dana Ledoux Miller – as per last year. In the new children/family category, one of eight is from a female director: Vicky Jenson’s Spellbound.

In leading actress, Emilia Perez’s Karla Sofía Gascón is the first openly trans actress to be longlisted in this category. 

Irish films and talent enjoy strong showing

The borders are fluid at Bafta this year. Kneecap – a UK-Ireland co-production about an Irish-language Republican hip-hop trio from Belfast, directed by a Belfast-based, UK-born filmmaker – has secured spots in best film, outstanding British film and outstanding British debut, plus four further categories.

In outstanding debut, the UK’s Chris Andrews, whose west of Ireland-set debut Bring Them Down stars Barry Keoghan and is partly in the Irish language, has been longlisted for outstanding British debut. Tailored Films is the Irish producer on Bring Them Down and The Apprentice, which has been longlisted in six categories, including best film, while Saoirse Ronan has been named in the leading actress category for The Outrun. 

Paul Mescal has not been longlisted in the leading actor category for his part in Gladiator II, although the film is well represented overall, with nine nods. 

Clodagh from UK-Irish filmmaker Portia A. Buckley, which tells the story of a young Irish dancer, is listed in the short film category, alongside Italian-Irish filmmaker Roisin Agnew’s The Ban, a documentary that examines dubbing practices during the Northern Ireland conflict.

Despite a healthy box office run, Small Things Like These has only cut through in the supporting actress category, for its UK star Emily Watson.

Outstanding British debut has international flavour

Perhaps a positive testament to the strides the UK film industry is making in terms of representation for the country’s diverse population is the outstanding debut longlist. As well as the two Irish co-productions listed above, Kneecap and Bring Them Down, both partially shot in the Irish-language, there are three films based in India: Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight.

On Falling is the Scotland-set directorial debut of Portuguese filmmaker Laura Carreira, plus there is Chloe Abrahams’ documentary memoir The Taste Of Mango, which dives into her difficult family history back in Sri Lanka, as well as Palestine-UK filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s West Bank-set The Teacher.

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