BAFTA Blesses ‘Conclave’ With 12 Film Awards Nominations, One Ahead of ‘Emilia Pérez’

Lily Ford and Georg Szalai

Wed, January 15, 2025 at 11:58 AM UTC

6 min read

Edward Berger's Vatican drama Conclave leads the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards nominations with 12 nods, including best film and best director.
The BAFTA nominations feature a diverse range of genres, with horror, musical, historical epics, and big-budget action films all earning nods.
Notable nominees include Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini, Adrien Brody, and Ariana Grande, with Emilia Perez and The Brutalist also receiving multiple nominations.

Blessed be Edward Berger , whose Vatican drama Conclave is now officially the front-runner in this year's BAFTA Film Awards nominations.

The Ralph Fiennes- and Stanley Tucci-starring film, based on the novel by Robert Harris, leads the way with 12 BAFTA nominations — ahead of Emilia Pérez 's 11 and The Brutalist 's nine, as unveiled by actors Will Sharpe and Mia McKenna-Bruce from the British Academy's headquarters in London mid-day on Wednesday.

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Among others, Conclave is in the running for best film, outstanding British film, best director for Oscar winner Berger, leading actor for Fiennes and adapted screenplay for Peter Straughan. Isabella Rossellini is also nominated in the supporting actress category.

In 2023 , Berger's World War I drama All Quiet on the Western Front picked up 14 BAFTA nominations, equaling the record for a non-English-language film first set by Ang Lee's wuxia masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . It also ended up with seven wins, including for best film.

It is the most genre-diverse year ever for the BAFTA Film Awards as horror movies Heretic and The Substance , musical (or music-inspired) films such as Wicked and A Complete Unknown , historical epics like Steve McQueen's Blitz and big-budget action fare like Dune: Part Two and Gladiator II all earned nominations on Wednesday.

Competing alongside Fiennes in the leading actor category are Hugh Grant ( Heretic ), Adrien Brody ( The Brutalist ), Colman Domingo for prison drama Sing Sing , Timothée Chalamet for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprentice .

Jacques Audiard's Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez had led the BAFTA longlists, unveiled at the start of the year, but now trails Conclave by just a single nomination. Its three main actresses, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, all received performance nominations. In the best leading actress BAFTA race, Gascón lines up alongside Cynthia Erivo for her Wicked outing — her first-ever main BAFTA award nomination, Marianne Jean-Baptiste ( Hard Truths ), Mikey Madison ( Anora ), Demi Moore ( The Substance ) and Saoirse Ronan ( The Outrun ).

Emilia Pérez director Audiard scored three nods on Wednesday, namely for best director, adapted screenplay and best film not in the English language. Plus, Paul Guilhaume is nominated for cinematography and Camille and Clement Ducol for their original score.

Following that is Brady Corbet's The Brutalist , starring Brody as a Hungarian-Jewish architect immigrating to the U.S. post-World War II. It is the first BAFTA nomination for Corbet, who is also nominated, alongside his partner Mona Fastvold, for best original screenplay. Brody, Pearce and Jones have picked up noms in the acting categories, and Lol Crawley is nominated for cinematography.

Sean Baker 's twisted Cinderella tale Anora got seven BAFTA nominations, including in the leading actress category for Mikey Madison, playing a stripper and sex worker who elopes with a boy from a wealthy Russian family and supporting actor for newcomer Yura Borisov. Baker and his wife, Samantha Quan, are also in the running for a BAFTA for their casting calls, with Baker also scooping up a best editing nomination.

Elsewhere, Golden Globe winner Demi Moore and her director Coralie Fargeat are nominated for body horror The Substance . It's a good year for horror overall at the BAFTAs as Robert Eggers' Nosferatu scored five nominations, in addition to Grant's leading actor nomination for Heretic .

In the supporting actress category, Ariana Grande could be honored for her role as Galinda/Glinda in Jon M. Chu's Wicked , Jones for her portrayal as Brody's disabled wife in The Brutalist , Jamie Lee Curtis for The Last Showgirl alongside Gomez and Saldana ( Emilia Pérez ) and Rossellini ( Conclave ).

Meanwhile, Borisov ( Anora ) lines up alongside Kieran Culkin ( A Real Pain ), Clarence Maclin ( Sing Sing ), Edward Norton ( A Complete Unknown ), Jeremy Strong ( The Apprentice ) and Pearce ( The Brutalist ) in the supporting actor category.

With his Irish hip-hop "print the legend" biopic on Belfast-based rap trio Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt has also made BAFTA history by tying the record for nominations for a debut filmmaker. Kneecap scored six nominations Wednesday, including for outstanding British film, outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer and best casting for stars Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh and JJ Ó Dochartaigh.

Check out the full list of nominations for the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards below. The winners will be unveiled by host David Tennant at the Sunday, Feb. 16, ceremony in London.

Director

ANORA Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST Brady Corbet
CONCLAVE Edward Berger
DUNE: PART TWO Denis Villeneuve
EMILIA PÉREZ Jacques Audiard
THE SUBSTANCE Coralie Fargeat

Leading Actress

CYNTHIA ERIVO Wicked
KARLA SOFÍA GASCÓN Emilia Pérez
MARIANNE JEAN-BAPTISTE Hard Truths
MIKEY MADISON Anora
DEMI MOORE The Substance
SAOIRSE RONAN The Outrun

Leading Actor

ADRIEN BRODY The Brutalist
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET A Complete Unknown
COLMAN DOMINGO Sing Sing
RALPH FIENNES Conclave
HUGH GRANT Heretic
SEBASTIAN STAN The Apprentice

Supporting Actress

SELENA GOMEZ Emilia Pérez
ARIANA GRANDE Wicked
FELICITY JONES The Brutalist
JAMIE LEE CURTIS The Last Showgirl
ISABELLA ROSSELLINI Conclave
ZOE SALDAÑA Emilia Pérez

Supporting Actor

YURA BORISOV Anora
KIERAN CULKIN A Real Pain
CLARENCE MACLIN Sing Sing
EDWARD NORTON A Complete Unknown
GUY PEARCE The Brutalist
JEREMY STRONG The Apprentice

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

HOARD Luna Carmoon (Director, Writer)
KNEECAP Rich Peppiatt (Director, Writer)
MONKEY MAN Dev Patel (Director)
SANTOSH Sandhya Suri (Director, Writer), James Bowsher (Producer), Balthazar de Ganay (Producer)
[also produced by Alan McAlex, Mike Goodridge]
SISTER MIDNIGHT Karan Kandhari (Director, Writer)

Original Screenplay

ANORA Written by Sean Baker
THE BRUTALIST Written by Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
KNEECAP Writer Rich Peppiatt, Story by Rich Peppiatt, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, JJ Ó
Dochartaigh
A REAL PAIN Written by Jesse Eisenberg
THE SUBSTANCE Written by Coralie Fargeat

Adapted Screenplay

A COMPLETE UNKNOWN Screenplay by James Mangold and Jay Cocks
CONCLAVE Screenplay by Peter Straughan
EMILIA PÉREZ Written by Jacques Audiard
NICKEL BOYS Screenplay by RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes
SING SING Screenplay by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Story by Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence
'Divine Eye' Maclin, John 'Divine G' Whitfield

Film Not in the English Language

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT Payal Kapadia, Thomas Hakim
EMILIA PÉREZ Jacques Audiard, TBD
I'M STILL HERE (AINDA ESTOU AQUI) Walter Salles, TBD
KNEECAP Rich Peppiatt, Trevor Birney
THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG Mohammad Rasoulof, Amin Sadraei

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