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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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Entertainment

'Den of Thieves 2' Opens at No. 1 as 'Better Man' Flops

This image released by Lionsgate shows Gerard Butler, left, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. in a scene from "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera." (Rico Torres/Lionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Gerard Butler, left, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. in a scene from "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera." (Rico Torres/Lionsgate via AP)
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'Den of Thieves 2' Opens at No. 1 as 'Better Man' Flops

This image released by Lionsgate shows Gerard Butler, left, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. in a scene from "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera." (Rico Torres/Lionsgate via AP)
This image released by Lionsgate shows Gerard Butler, left, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. in a scene from "Den of Thieves 2: Pantera." (Rico Torres/Lionsgate via AP)

On a quiet weekend in movie theaters, while much of Hollywood’s attention was on the wildfires that continue to rage in Los Angeles, Lionsgate’s “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” debuted atop the box office with $15.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Mid-January is often a slow moviegoing period, and that was slightly exacerbated by the closures of about 10 theaters in Los Angeles, the country’s top box-office market, The Associated Press reported.
A sequel to the Gerard Butler 2018 heist thriller, “Den of Thieves 2” performed similarly to the original. The first installment, released by STX, opened with $15.2 million seven years ago. O’Shea Jackson Jr. co-stars in the sequel, which debuted in 3,008 North American theaters.
Butler's films are becoming something of a regular feature in January. He also starred in “Plane,” which managed $32.1 million after launching on Jan. 13 in 2023.
“Den of Thieves 2,” made for about $40 million, was a bit more costly to make. Audiences liked it well enough, giving it a “B+” CinemaScore. Reviews (58% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) weren’t particularly good. But it counted as Lionsgate’s first No.1 opening since “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” in November 2023.
Also entering wide release over the weekend was the Robbie Williams movie “Better Man,” one of the more audacious spins on the music biopic in recent years. Rather than going the more tradition routes of Elton John (“Rocketman”) or Elvis Presley (“Elvis”), the British popstar is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee in Michael Gracey’s film.
The Paramount Pictures release, produced for $110 million and acquired by Paramount for $25 million, didn’t catch on much better than Williams’ previous forays into the United States. It tanked, with $1.1 million in ticket sales from 1,291 locations. Gracey’s previous feature, 2017’s “The Greatest Showman” ($459 million worldwide), fared far better in theaters. Reviews, however, have been very good for “Better Man.”
It was bested by “The Last Showgirl,” the Las Vegas drama starring Pamela Anderson. The Roadside Attractions release expanded to 870 theaters and collected $1.5 million.
Also outdoing “Better Man” was Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.” Coming off winning best drama at the Golden Globes, the A24 postwar epic grossed a hefty $1.4 million from just 68 locations. It expands wider in the coming weeks.
The weekend's lion share of business went to holiday holdovers, including “Mufasa: The Lion King,” “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” “Nosferatu” and “Moana 2.”
In its fourth week of release, Barry Jenkins “Mufasa” continued to do well, adding $13.2 million to bring its total to $539.7 million worldwide. Also on its fourth weekend, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” padded its $384.8 million global total with $11 million. Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu,” the surprise hit of the Christmas period, collected $6.8 million in ticket sales, bringing the vampire tale to $81.1 million domestically.
The Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana 2,” in its seventh week of release, added $6.5 million to bring its global tally to $989.8 million. In the coming days, it will become the third Disney film released in 2024 to notch $1 billion, joining “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool and Wolverine.”