Film awards: Conclave and The Brutalist share the spoils at the 2025 BAFTAs
The British film industry’s biggest night of the year has come and gone with Conclave and The Brutalist sharing the spoils.
With four wins apiece it was a fantastic night for each feature but acclaim was spread among several nominees.
Film News Blitz’s David Bason breaks down the winners from this year’s BAFTAs.
Conclave takes top honours
Papal drama Conclave was a front-runner coming into the BAFTAs with a leading 12 nominations and it was widely expected this British-produced film would fare well.
That turned out to be the case with Conclave taking a joint-best four awards on the night including the top prize of Best Picture.
Conclave’s wins extended to Outstanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay for writer Peter Straughan and Best Editing.
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Sharing the spoils with Conclave was Director Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which rightly won him Best Director and it was no surprise to see Adrien Brody win yet another Leading Actor Prize.
The Brutalist rightly won Best Cinematography after shooting almost entirely on VistaVision, resurrecting a trope from 1960s Hollywood cinema and the feature picked up the prize for Best Score as well.
Mike Madison and Anora surprise
There was a surprise in store when it came to Anora’s Mike Madison beating Leading Actress frontrunner Demi Moore (The Substance) to the top female acting prize.
Madison paid tribute to sex workers during her acceptance speech, saying “I see you, you deserve respect and human decency. I will always be a friend and an ally and I implore others to do the same.”
A bookie's favourite for Best Picture at the Oscars, Anora added the Best Casting award to its BAFTA collection, standing it in good stead for the forthcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards.
There weren’t any surprises for the two awards heading A Real Pain’s way as Kieran Culkin won for Supporting Actor and Jesse Eisenberg won Best Original Screenplay.
Double delight for several films
A Real Pain wasn’t alone in taking two prizes on the night.
Netflix’s Emilia Perez evaded the clutches of controversy courted by problematic tweets by its lead Karla Sofía Gascón to win two awards from its nominations and those were in non-English language film and Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana, adding to her growing prize collection.
Two of the biggest films of the year, Dune: Part Two and Wicked also picked up two prizes.
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The science-fiction epic won for Visual Effects and Sound whilst Jon M. Chu’s incredible Broadway adaptation won for Costume Design and Production Design.
Finally, the wonderful Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl beat the much-fancied The Wild Robot to Best Animation in addition to winning the inaugural Children’s and Family Film prize.
Celebrating British film
It wouldn’t be the BAFTAs without celebrating British film and in addition to Conclave taking the top prize for a British production, Kneecap’s Rich Peppiatt won Outstanding Debut by a British Director.
But the highest honour at the BAFTAs went to Fellowship recipient Warwick Davis whose emotional speech included a tribute to his late wife and the heartfelt words: “This is probably the best thing that’s happened to me”.
For the full list of winners from the 2025 BAFTAs, consult the list below.
Best Film
Conclave
Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Perez
Outstanding British Film
Conclave
Bird
Blitz
Gladiator II
Hard Truths
Kneecap
Lee
Love Lies Bleeding
The Outrun
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Kneecap - Rich Peppiatt (director, writer)
Hoard - Luna Carmoon (director/ writer)
Monkey Man - Dev Patel (director)
Santosh - Sandhya Suri (director, writer), James Bowsher (producer), Balthazar de Ganay (producer)
Sister Midnight - Karan Kandhari (director, writer)
Film Not in the English Language
Emilia Perez
All We Imagine As Light
I'm Still Here
Kneecap
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig
Documentary
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Black Box Diaries
Daughters
No Other Land
Will & Harper
Animated Film
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Flow
Inside Out 2
The Wild Robot
Children’s & Family Film
Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Flow
Kensuke's Kingdom
The Wild Robot
Director
The Brutalist - Brady Corbet
Anora - Sean Baker
Conclave - Edward Berger
Dune: Part Two - Denis Villeneuve
Emilia Perez - Jacques Audiard
The Substance - Coralie Fargeat
Original Screenplay
A Real Pain - Jesse Eisenberg
Anora - Sean Baker
The Brutalist - Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold
Kneecap - Rich Peppiatt, Naoise O Caireallain, Liam Og O Hannaidh, JJ O Dochartaigh
The Substance - Coralie Fargeat
Adapted Screenplay
Conclave - Peter Straughan
A Complete Unknown - James Mangold and Jay Cocks
Emilia Perez - Jacques Audiard
Nickel Boys - RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes
Sing Sing - Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar, Clarence 'Divine Eye' Maclin, John 'Divine G' Whitfield
Leading Actress
Mikey Madison - Anora
Cynthia Erivo - Wicked
Karla Sofia Gascon - Emilia Perez
Marianne Jean-Baptiste - Hard Truths
Demi Moore - The Substance
Saoirse Ronan - The Outrun
Leading Actor
Adrien Brody - The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet - A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave
Hugh Grant - Heretic
Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice
Supporting Actress
Zoe Saldana - Emilia Perez
Selena Gomez - Emilia Perez
Ariana Grande - Wicked
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist
Jamie Lee Curtis - The Last Showgirl
Isabella Rossellini - Conclave
Supporting Actor
Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain
Yura Borisov - Anora
Clarence Maclin - Sing Sing
Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce - The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice
Casting
Anora - Sean Baker, Samantha Quan
The Apprentice - Stephanie Gorin, Carmen Cuba
A Complete Unknown - Yesi Ramirez
Conclave - Nina Gold, Martin Ware
Kneecap - Carla Stronge
Cinematography
The Brutalist - Lol Crawley
Conclave - Stephanie Fontaine
The Brutalist - Lol Crawley
Dune: Part Two - Greig Fraser
Emilia Perez - Paul Guilhaume
Nosferatu - Jarin Blaschke
Editing
Conclave
Anora
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Kneecap
Costume Design
Wicked
Blitz
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Nosferatu
Make-Up & Hair
The Substance
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Nosferatu
Wicked
Original Score
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Perez
Nosferatu
The Wild Robot
Production Design
Wicked
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Sound
Dune: Part Two
Blitz
Gladiator II
The Substance
Wicked
Special Visual Effects
Dune: Part Two
Better Man
Gladiator II
Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes
Wicked
British Short Animation
Wander To Wonder
Adios
Mog's Christmas
British Short Film
Rock, Paper, Scissors
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
Marion
Milk
Stomach Bug
Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)
David Jonsson
Marisa Abela
Jharrel Jerome
Mikey Madison
Nabhaan Rizwan
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