Conclave and The Brutalist win big at 2025 BAFTA awards - as absent Gascón nomination met with rousing applause

17 February 2025, 12:26

We're now halfway through the marathon of awards season that kicks off with the chaotic fun of the Golden Globes and ends two months later with the ultimate in awards season glory of the Oscars.

So last night's BAFTA Awards are an interesting point at which to reflect of what's shaping up to be a pretty mixed bag of a year.

Papal thriller Conclave went into the night with the most nominations - and ended it with the top two prizes of Best Film and Outstanding British Film.

Ralph Fiennes' long wait for a Best Actor BAFTA continues though as that went to Adrien Brody for his portrayal of a Hungarian architect in The Brutalist.

Brady Corbet's three and a half hour magnum opus was an early awards season favourite and still a likely contender for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Brady won Best Director last night too; and told me on the red carpet he'd had to fight 'legions of people' to keep his film the length he dreamed.

The 15-minute intermission he included has proved surprisingly popular with cinema audiences though - perhaps a trend to look out for in 2025?

Read more: Conclave wins Best Film at BAFTAs as Adrien Brody named Best Actor

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Audiences might also have been a little disappointed to miss out on Demi Moore's second Best Actress acceptance speech following her headline-grabbing turn at the Golden Globes, but Anora's Mikey Madison is a worthy winner and definitely one to watch in the future.

A month ago Emilia Perez was the genre-defying musical explosion of a film that everyone thought would sweep the board at awards season.

The fact that lead actress Karla Sofía Gascón was the first openly trans woman to ever be nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA in the same month that Trump had taken office and announced his DEI rollbacks didn't hurt its chances in a Hollywood still licking its post-election wounds.

However, that was before an enterprising journalist in the States trawled back through years of her tweets and discovered she had held some pretty unsavoury views on people of colour, Muslims and even (very awkwardly for someone nominated for one) increased diversity at the Oscars.

Gascón's now been effectively erased from the Netflix awards campaign; airbrushed from the film's posters and reportedly denied funding to attend red carpets and events.

Interestingly last night though her co-star Zoe Saldana and her director Jacques Audiard both made a point of thanking her in their acceptance speeches; and her name was applauded by the room when announced in the Best Actress nominations list.

We all know how much Hollywood loves a redemptive story arc, so perhaps after some more suitably fulsome public apologies and a respectful interlude of silence that might not be the last we hear of Gascón.

The only project that perhaps had the right to feel a little snubbed last night was (so far) perennial awards season bridesmaid A Complete Unknown.

Despite star Timothee Chalamet and plus one Kylie Jenner lending their full wattage star power to the front row (even gamely joining in on a David Tennant gag at one point) the team again left empty handed despite their clutch of nominations.

The window for Oscars voting closes today; so any undecideds may have been watching for last nights' results to steer them - but with a fortnight still to go there remains no obvious frontrunners in the 2025 race.