Baftas winners 2025 — Conclave and The Brutalist share the highest honours

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Within the newest instalment of a bad-tempered movie awards season, the largest spoils on the 2025 Baftas had been shared between Conclave and The Brutalist. However there was additionally success in London for Emilia Pérez — the garish Netflix musical that has helped make this yr among the many most troubled Oscar races in latest reminiscence.

The award for Finest Movie went to Conclave, the favored account of a papal election on the Vatican. (It additionally gained Finest British Movie.) Finest Director, nevertheless, was given to Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, the epic examine of a Hungarian-Jewish architect who leaves postwar Europe for the US. With the Oscars scheduled for March 2, that cut up between the 2 grandest prizes leaves the doubtless course of the Academy Awards no clearer.

In any case, a significant subplot remained the enduring reputation of Emilia Pérez, the story of a Mexican cartel chief who transitions to turn into a girl. The film gained Finest Movie Not In The English Language earlier than Zoe Saldaña was additionally named Finest Supporting Actress. 

In a yr during which a number of awards contenders have been dogged by controversy, director Jacques Audiard’s film had appeared set to derail fully when star Karla Sofía Gascón was discovered to have made inflammatory social media posts regarding race, Islam and the Oscars. She additionally appeared to accuse rival actors of foul play. Amid the fallout, Audiard and Netflix each tried put far between the movie and Gascón who, although shortlisted for a Finest Actress Bafta, didn’t attend the ceremony.

That award was finally gained by Mikey Madison for Anora. The story of a New York intercourse employee and the son of a Russian oligarch, it too has confronted criticism for not utilizing an intimacy co-ordinator whereas capturing intercourse scenes, now extensively seen as greatest observe in Hollywood. 

The prize for Finest Actor went to Adrien Brody for The Brutalist — one other movie the place acclaim has additionally given option to unease. A lot of that has stemmed from the movie’s use of AI in perfecting Brody’s Hungarian dialogue. Nonetheless, Bafta voters clearly responded to the film, in addition to to a forceful awards marketing campaign that positioned it because the closest factor in 2025 to Oppenheimer, the Christopher Nolan movie that final yr swept all earlier than it at a number of awards ceremonies. 

However the Baftas have maintained the sense of this yr in movie as, if nothing else, an open area. Along with the performing awards shared by Emilia Pérez, The Brutalist and Anora, nonetheless one other film offered the Finest Supporting Actor, with Kieran Culkin successful for bittersweet drama A Actual Ache.

As with each Baftas, the night time walked a line between the mirrored glamour of Hollywood, and a narrower celebration of UK movie. But some British expertise may really feel unfairly missed. Conclave’s Ralph Fiennes was handed over as Finest Actor for Brody, and there was no additional recognition for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the lead in veteran director Mike Leigh’s Laborious Truths, who was nominated for Finest Actress.

In the meantime, the actual world past the glitz and gushing appeared solely fleetingly. Internet hosting the ceremony, British actor David Tennant made early reference to Donald Trump as a “villain”, however Bafta voters proved extra risk-averse. Actor Sebastian Stan was additionally nominated as Finest Actor for enjoying the long run US president within the largely unflattering The Apprentice, however in the end additionally misplaced out. 

And a telling second could have include the award for Finest Documentary. Final yr, the prize was gained by 20 Days in Mariupol, the eyewitness report of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then, Ukrainian director Mstyslav Chernov mentioned in his acceptance speech: “Let’s preserve preventing.” Twelve months on, that battle faces an unsure future — whereas the identical award was gained this yr by the transferring however non-political Tremendous/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.