Papal thriller “Conclave” leads the race for the 78th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, with genre-bending musical “Emilia Pérez” facing a test of whether a multi-pronged backlash has made the former prize favorite an awards-season pariah.
A plethora of movie stars — including Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet, Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan — are due on the red carpet at London’s Roya Festival Hall. The awards, known as BAFTAs, will be watched for clues about who will triumph at Hollywood’s Academy Awards next month.
“Conclave” is nominated in 12 categories, including best picture, best director for Edward Berger and best actor for Ralph Fiennes, playing a cardinal corralling conniving clergy as they elect a new pope.
Mexico-set melodrama “Emilia Pérez” has 11 nominations, including best picture and best director for Jacques Audiard.
Best-actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón, who stars as the film’s titular ex-cartel boss, is not expected to attend the ceremony. Gascón has withdrawn from promoting the film, which has 13 Oscar nominations, amid controversy over her social media posts disparaging Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars.
Audiard has called the remarks “absolutely hateful.” The musical, shot in France with a largely non-Mexican cast, has also faced criticism from Mexicans for what some see as its cliched and exploitative depiction of the country.
From the BAFTAs to the Oscars
The British prizes — officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards — may give hints of who will win at the Oscars on March 3, in an unusually hard-to-call awards season.
The best-film contenders are “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” Brady Corbet’s 215-minute architecture epic “The Brutalist,” Sean Baker’s Brighton Beach tragicomedy “Anora” and the James Mangold-directed Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
“The Brutalist” has nine nominations, while “Anora,” the sci-fi epic “Dune: Part Two” and musical “Wicked” have seven each.
“A Complete Unknown” received six nominations, as did the Irish-language hip-hop drama “Kneecap,” whose nominations include best film not in the English language.
Nominees in the category of outstanding British film include Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” and “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” which is also up for best animated feature.
The leading actor favorite is “The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody, who faces stiff competition from Fiennes and Chalamet, who plays the young Dylan in “A Complete Unknown.”
The other male actors nominated are Hugh Grant for his creepy role in the horror film “Heretic,” Colman Domingo in real-life prison drama “Sing Sing ” and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a young Donald Trump in “The Apprentice.”
Whoever takes the best actress award will be a first-time BAFTA winner.
Nominees are Gascón, Demi Moore for body-horror film “The Substance,” Mikey Madison for “Anora,” Ronan for “The Outrun,” Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked” and Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Mike Leigh drama “Hard Truths.” Erivo or Jean-Baptiste would be the first non-white performer to win the leading actress BAFTA.
What's new
Britain’s film academy introduced changes to increase the awards’ diversity in 2020, when no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white
The voting process was changed to add a longlist round in the selection before the final nominees are voted on by the academy’s 8,000-strong membership of industry professionals.
Contenders for the Rising Star award, the only prize decided by public vote, are performers Mikey Madison, Marisa Abela, Jharrel Jerome, David Jonsson and Nabhaan Rizwan.
Last month’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires may cast a pall over the ceremony, hosted by former “Doctor Who” star David Tennant. Jamie Lee Curtis, a supporting actress nominee for “The Last Showgirl,” will be absent because the fires delayed filming on her current work. Co-star Pamela Anderson will accept the prize for Curtis if she wins.
The event will also be without a dash of royal glamour this year. Neither Prince William, who is honorary president of the British film academy, nor his wife Kate are attending.
It will include a performance by grown-up boyband Take That, whose 2008 hit “Greatest Day” features on the “Anora” soundtrack. Jeff Goldblum will play piano during the ceremony’s tribute to people who have died in the past year.
