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Papal Thriller ‘Conclave’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, Music and Horror Fare Well

Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
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Papal Thriller ‘Conclave’ Leads BAFTA Nominations, Music and Horror Fare Well

Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)
Ralph Fiennes attends the 36th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, in Palm Springs, California, US, January 3, 2025. (Reuters)

Papal thriller "Conclave" led nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards on Wednesday, with music-themed and horror productions also faring well at Britain's top movie honors.

"Conclave," about scheming cardinals deciding who to elect as pope, secured 12 nods including for best film, director for Edward Berger and leading actor for Ralph Fiennes.

Isabella Rossellini was nominated for best supporting actress for playing a nun in the movie, based on the novel by British writer Robert Harris.

Berger's last film, a German remake of the anti-war classic "All Quiet on the Western Front," swept the 2023 BAFTA awards with a historic seven wins.

"Emilia Perez," which mixes the diverse genres of musical and crime, followed "Conclave" with 11 nominations. The Spanish-language film stars Zoe Saldana as a lawyer who helps a Mexican cartel leader, played by Karla Sofia Gascon, fake his death.

Gascon got a leading actress nomination, while Saldana and singer-actor Selena Gomez, who plays the drug lord's wife, were recognized for supporting actress.

One of the top contenders during this year's awards season, "Emilia Perez" also received nods for best film and director for French filmmaker Jacques Audiard.

Fellow musical "Wicked," the hit adaptation of the stage show, and the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown," in which Timothee Chalamet portrays the singer during his rise to fame in the 1960s, were also recognized, with seven and six nominations respectively. Adding to the music theme, "Kneecap," about the rise of an Irish hip-hop trio, also got six nods.

"A Complete Unknown" will also compete at the Feb. 16 ceremony for the top prize of best film, along with "The Brutalist," in which Adrien Brody portrays a Hungarian immigrant seeking to rebuild his life in the United States after World War Two. That movie received nine nominations, including three acting nods.

"Anora," about a young exotic dancer who becomes involved with the son of a Russian oligarch, completes the list for best film. The omission of "Wicked," whose stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande received nominations, surprised fans.

"The pleasant surprise is the range of the types of movies," Anna Higgs, chair of the BAFTA Film Committee, told Reuters.

"We don't just have classic awards dramas ... but we also have sci-fi and horror in the mix as well as a whole heap of musicals and musical-themed movies this year," Higgs said.

HORROR FILMS

Both Chalamet and Brody, who won a Golden Globe this month, were nominated for leading actor, alongside Fiennes, Colman Domingo for the prison drama "Sing Sing" and surprise inclusions Hugh Grant for playing a serial killer in the horror film "Heretic" and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a young Donald Trump in "The Apprentice."

Gascon's leading actress rivals include Golden Globe winner Demi Moore for the body horror film "The Substance," which received five nominations, including for Coralie Fargeat, the only woman to make the best director category. That list did not include any British filmmakers.

Gothic horror film "Nosferatu" also received five nominations, in another boost for the genre.

The leading actress category includes Erivo, Mikey Madison for "Anora," Saoirse Ronan for playing a woman dealing with addiction in "The Outrun," and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman struggling with depression in "Hard Truths."

More than half of the acting contenders - 14 out of 24 - are first-time BAFTA Film Awards nominees.

Observers will be looking at the BAFTAs for indications of Oscar triumphs. Last year's main category winners were the same at both ceremonies.

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Syrian Migrant Drama Opens Berlin Film Festival

German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Syrian Migrant Drama Opens Berlin Film Festival

German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)
German film director Tom Tykwer (C) pose with German actress Nicolette Krebitz (L) and German actor Lars Eidinger during a photo call for the film “Das Licht“ (The light) in the "Berlinale special" section of the 75th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, in Berlin on February 13, 2025. (AFP)

German director Tom Tykwer said Thursday that his latest movie about a Syrian immigrant aimed to encourage people to stop "isolating" themselves, as it opened Berlin's international film festival.

"The Light", screening out of competition at the Berlinale, tells the story of a middle-class Berlin family whose lives are upended when they hire a new domestic worker from Syria.

The movie marks a return to feature filmmaking after a long hiatus for Tykwer, 59, who has been focusing on the acclaimed German television series "Babylon Berlin".

In "The Light", the Engels family -- Tim, Milena and their teenage twins -- are all immersed in their separate worlds as they navigate the complexities of modern life.

But when the enigmatic Farrah, recently arrived from Syria, is placed in their home as the new housekeeper, they find themselves slowly starting to reconnect.

"Everyone is in their own aquarium with their head stuck in it," Tykwer said.

"They are stuck with their heads under water and then some energy comes from the outside and pulls them out and enables them look at each other again."

'Extra urgency'

Tykwer said the film aimed to show that better communication can help people to relate personally but also "politically".

"We have to approach each other again and stop isolating ourselves so much," he said.

The Berlinale, which ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe's top festivals, serves as a key launchpad for films from around the world.

US writer and director Todd Haynes will head up the jury at this year's edition, with 19 pictures vying for the festival's Golden Bear top prize.

Haynes said Thursday that the world was in a "state of particular crisis" and that filmmakers had witnessed the return of US President Donald Trump "with tremendous concern, shock".

Haynes said he hoped the Berlinale, which has a reputation as the most political of the big international film festivals, would serve as a forum for digesting global events.

"This festival has always had a strength of conviction and an openness to a challenging and political discourse and bringing that into the filmmaking, and what's happening in the world right now has put an extra urgency to all of that," he told reporters.

This year's Berlinale winds up on February 23, the same day as a snap election in Germany, called after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition late last year.

The campaign ahead of the election has been bitterly divisive, with the far-right AfD surging in the polls.

'Resistance'

Last year, Berlinale organizers made headlines by barring five previously invited AfD politicians and telling them they were "not welcome".

Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle said cinema could be an act of "resistance... to all of the perverse ideas that many far-right parties across the whole world and across Europe are spreading".

"This is a space where we want to come together and listen to each other and communicate through cinema... I think the very fact we're all here is a resistance," she said.

Films in competition at the Berlinale include "Dreams", from Mexican director Michel Franco, about a Mexican ballet dancer, and "What Does that Nature Say to You", from South Korean arthouse favorite Hong Sang-soo.

Hollywood director Richard Linklater will present "Blue Moon", starring Ethan Hawke, 11 years after Linklater won Berlin's Silver Bear for Best Director for "Boyhood".

Romanian director Radu Jude, who won the Golden Bear in 2021, is in the running with "Kontinental '25", a dark comedy about the rise of nationalism.

And France's Lucile Hadzihalilovic will present "The Ice Tower", a fantasy drama starring Marion Cotillard.

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho will present out of competition his new film "Mickey 17" with Robert Pattinson, and British actor Tilda Swinton will receive a lifetime achievement award.