BAFTA Awards 2025 Winners: ‘Conclave,’ Mikey Madison Throw Oscar Race Into Chaos

Conclave was named Best Picture at the BAFTA Awards 2025, making good on its leading nominations tally with the British Academy by going home with its biggest prize of awards season so far. The papal thriller took down Golden Globe winners The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez as well as Anora, which was coming off of a busy weekend in Los Angeles that solidified it as the Oscar front-runner.

Not that all was lost for Sean Baker’s lauded tragicomedy: In arguably the biggest upset of the night, Anora’s star Mikey Madison took home best actress over The Substance’s Demi Moore, who had swept the televised circuit to this point, and Hard Truths’ Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the hometown favorite who’d won the equivalent British Independent Film Award late last year. This will keep the race interesting through to the big night; if Moore wins the SAG Award next weekend as is widely predicted, we’ll have a SAG/BAFTA best-actress split going into the Oscars for the fifth year in a row. Last year, the BAFTA winner (Emma Stone) won over the SAG winner (Lily Gladstone); the year before that, the reverse (Michelle Yeoh over Cate Blanchett). Plus, this year’s Oscars have the additional wildcard of Fernanda Torres, who wasn’t nominated by any other major group—but whose Brazilian sensation, I’m Still Here, continues to surge.

Otherwise, acting front-runners stayed just that, with The Brutalist’s Adrien Brody, Emilia’s Zoe Saldaña, and A Real Pain’s Kieran Culkin continuing their march toward Oscar. Brutalist auteur Brady Corbet regained momentum in the directing race by winning the BAFTA over Baker (after Baker won last weekend’s DGA Award), while the original screenplay race got that much more interesting with A Real Pain beating WGA champ Anora and the Critics Choice favorite, The Substance. Who wins that race may come down to just how strong Anora proves to be on Oscar night overall.

Which brings us back to Conclave’s win for best picture. The British Academy shares significant overlap with Oscar voters, and signals where the passion rests among international voters. If Edward Berger’s movie were to win anywhere, it would be with BAFTA, but it might just be a slight favorite to take home next weekend’s SAG Award for best ensemble too—a strong harbinger for late-breaking momentum (just ask Parasite or CODA). In that event, we’ll be left with an Oscar best-picture dead-heat between Anora and Conclave. In a year that’s been endlessly tough to pin down, doesn’t that sound like the inevitable conclusion we’re hurtling toward?

The full winners list is below.

BEST FILM: Conclave

DIRECTOR: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

LEADING ACTRESS: Mikey Madison, Anora

LEADING ACTOR: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Peter Straughan, Conclave

CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Brutalist, Lol Crawley

EDITING: Conclave, Nick Emerson

CASTING: Anora, Sean Baker, Samantha Quan

MAKE UP & HAIR: The Substance, Pierre-Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, Frédérique Arguello, Marilyne Scarselli

COSTUME DESIGN: Wicked, Paul Tazewell

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Wicked, Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales

SOUND: Dune: Part Two, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Gareth John, Richard King

ORIGINAL SCORE: The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS: Dune: Part Two, Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Gerd Nefzer, Rhys Salcombe

DOCUMENTARY: SUPER/MAN: The Christopher Reeve Story, Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, Lizzie Gilliett, Robert Ford

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: Emilia Pérez

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM: Conclave, Edward Berger, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael A. Jackman, Peter Straughan

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION: Wander to Wonder, Nina Gantz, Stienette Bosklopper, Simon Cartwright, Maarten Swart

BRITISH SHORT FILM: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Franz Böhm, Ivan, Hayder Rothschild Hoozeer

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER: Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt, Trevor Birney, Jack Tarling, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, JJ Ó Dochartaigh

CHILDREN’S & FAMILY FILM: Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, Richard Beek

ANIMATED FILM: Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham, Richard Beek

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public): David Jonsson

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