As awards season rumbles ever onwards, Edward Berger’s Conclave takes the top prize at this year’s BAFTA ceremony.
It was the 2025 BAFTA cermony last night and this rather strange awards season continued with Edward Berger’s Conclave taking home the Best Film prize in a category that has been largely dominated by speculation about its rivals. However, the papal election drama landed Best Film, Best British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing gongs.
Also enjoying a good night at the ceremony was The Brutalist with the film scoring four awards – Best Director for Brady Corbet (honestly, filmmakers: get on our podcast. Doubles your chances!), Best Actor for Adrien Brody, not to mention Best Score (and what a score it is!) and Best Cinematography.
Sean Baker’s Anora landed Best Actress for Mikey Madison and Best Casting too. Dune: Part Two was awarded Best VFX and Best Sound, two prizes to honour what was an incredible technical achievement. Wicked won Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. Coralie Fargeat’s delightful body horror, The Substance won for Best Makeup and Hair.
Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain would win both Best Supporting Actor for Kieran Culkin and Best Original Screenplay – the same categories it has been nominated for in the upcoming Oscars. Netflix’s Emilia Perez won Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana and the Film Not in the English Language category.
Also, the terrific Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl won both Best Animated Film and the Best Children’s & Family Film awards. The remarkable Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story – took home the award for Best Documentary.
Alien: Romulus' David Jonsson won the Rising Star Award and Kneecap director, Rich Peppiatt took the award for Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer. Finally, Warwick Davis was honoured on stage with a BAFTA fellowship.
Whilst it’s all utimately subjective and a bit of an excuse to just dress up nice, it’s is heartening to see such a wide range of fantastic films get a moment in the sun. Unlike last year when Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer blocked out the sun during awards season, lots and lots of great films have had a moment to bask in glory this time around and that’s been quite nice to see.
2025’s awards season will conclude with the Oscars at the beginning of March and then we can all go back to the more important discussions around the topic of cinema: which cinematic universe the next Fast & Furious film could crossover with: Mamma Mia or The Flintstones?
