Take That to Perform at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards, New Category to Debut

The BAFTAs return for another year, with the first of two annual events arriving just after Valentine's Day. The British Academy Film Awards, the first of the two events covering British Film and Television, is now nearly 80 years in and continues to honor the best work on screen by British artists (and a few Americans they let have a statue every year). As has become tradition, BritBox will carry both ceremonies live*, streaming simultaneously on both sides of the pond here in the U.S. while it streams on iPlayer in the U.K. 

(*Like the Emmys, the British Television Awards don't happen until after the "TV season" is over, though the BAFTAs hold its version right away in May instead of waiting until September.)

The traditional "Awards Season" has been in a complete muddle for the past few years since the 2020 pandemic upended large gatherings. The timing was poor, as the season's final event, the Academy Awards, had just completed a slow but steady shift from its early March date to the first weekend in February. This was the second time the Oscars had moved up the calendar, having already moved from the original April spot a good decade or so prior, in order to shorten costly campaigns. 

But as it is the last event of the season, the Academy Awards moving up meant everyone else had to as well, from the Guild Awards to the overseas events like the BAFTAs, all having to squish themselves into a five-week period in January. The pandemic put a quick stop to that madness, forcing the Oscars back to April, where it has since, once more, slowly started the process of moving back to February. This year, the ceremony has made it back to the first weekend of March, putting the BAFTAs the weekend after the American Super Bowl, though at least this year, it's not doubled up with the Critics Choice Awards or the Grammys.

When BritBox first live-streamed the BAFTAs in 2022, the event was still held in London’s Royal Albert Hall. However, in 2023, the award show moved house to the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and continues to be broadcast from that location. Also, as we previously reported, the BAFTA Film Awards are bringing back David Tennant (Rivals) to host the show for the second year running. Tennant has everything you want in a host — a globally recognized superstar whose face is known worldwide thanks to his two stints as the Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors on Doctor Who. He’s got comedy chops, musical chops, dancing chops, and his BFF Michael Sheen in the audience. 

However, changes are happening this year to the BAFTA awards lineup. The organization confirmed that, for the first time since 2020, it will debut a brand new category: Best Children’s and Family Film. (This is pretty on trend; the TCA Awards did something similar in 2024.) The press release stated the new category will “celebrate the very best films appealing to inter-generational audiences.” 

The BAFTA Awards do not announce presenters weeks ahead of time like the Academy Awards. However, this year’s ceremony will have one up on “Hollywood’s Biggest Night”: musical acts. Britain’s longest-serving boy band, Take That, has been tapped to perform their single “Greatest Day,” which features prominently in Anora. The awards ceremony will also have Wicked’s Jeff Goldblum play piano during the In Memoriam segment.

The initial "longlist" for the 2025 BAFTAs debuted on Friday, January 3, 2025, just under two weeks before the nominations themselves on January 15. As is tradition, the BAFTA EE Rising Star award was revealed separately ahead of the film nominations on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. The top nominees for 2025 include Conclave with 12 nominations, Emilia Pérez with 11, and The Brutalist with nine. (Anora, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked tied with seven a piece; A Complete Unknown and Kneecap each got six; and Nosferatu and The Substance got five apiece.)

The final round of voting before the ceremony itself is ongoing, closing on Tuesday, February 11, 2025. According to those who track such things, current favorites to win include The Brutalist for Best Picture, Ralph Fiennes for Leading Actor in Conclave, Demi Moore for Leading Actress in The Substance, Kieran Culkin for Supporting Actor category in A Real Pain, and Zoe Saldaña for Supporting Actress in Emilia Pérez. We should note that should either Cynthia Erivo or Marianne Jean-Baptiste win (they are nominated in the Leading Actress category for Wicked and Hard Truths, respectively), it would be the first time the BAFTAs have given the Lead Actress award to a Black actor. 

(Also, if Fiennes does not win, he will tie Albert Finney and Robert De Niro for the most BAFTA nominations with zero to show for it.)

Here are the official 2025 BAFTA Film Award Nominees:

Best Film

• Anora 
• The Brutalist 
• A Complete Unknown 
• Conclave 
• Emilia Pérez

Best Director

• Sean Baker for Anora 
• Brady Corbet for The Brutalist 
• Edward Berger for Conclave
• Denis Villeneuve for Dune: Part Two
• Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez
• Coralie Fargeat for The Substance

Leading Actress

• Cynthia Erivo for Wicked 
• Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez
• Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths
• Mikey Madison for Anora
• Demi Moore for The Substance
• Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun

Leading Actor

• Adrien Brody for The Brutalist 
• Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown
• Colman Domingo for Sing Sing
• Ralph Fiennes for Conclave
• Hugh Grant for Heretic
• Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice

Supporting Actress

• Selena Gomez for Emilia Pérez
• Ariana Grande for Wicked
• Felicity Jones for The Brutalist
• Jamie Lee Curtis for The Last Showgirl
• Isabella Rossellini for Conclave
• Zoe Saldaña for Emilia Pérez

Supporting Actor

• Yura Borisov for Anora
• Kieran Culkin for A Real Pain
• Clarence Maclin for Sing Sing
• Edward Norton for A Complete Unknown
• Guy Pearce for The Brutalist
• Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice

Outstanding British Film

• Bird 
• Blitz 
• Conclave 
• Gladiator II 
• Hard Truths 
• Kneecap 
• Lee 
• Love Lies Bleeding 
• The Outrun 
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer/Director/Producer

• Hoard
• Kneecap
• Monkey Man
• Santosh
• Sister Midnight

Best Original Screenplay

• Anora
• The Brutalist
• Kneecap
• A Real Pain
• The Substance

Best Adapted Screenplay

• A Complete Unknown
• Conclave
• Emilia Pérez
• Nickel Boys
• Sing Sing

Best British Short Film

• The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
• Marion
• Milk
• Rock, Paper, Scissors
• Stomach Bug

Best British Short Animation

• Adiós 
• Mog's Christmas
• Wander to Wonder

EE BAFTA Rising Star Award*

• Marisa Abela
• Jharrel Jerome
• David Jonsson
• Mikey Madison
• Nabhaan Rizwan

*(voted for by the public)

Best Animated Film

• Flow
• Inside Out 2
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
• The Wild Robot

Best Children & Family Film

• Flow
• Kensuke's Kingdom
• Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
• The Wild Robot

Best Documentary

• Black Box Diaries
• Daughters
• No Other Land
• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
• Will & Harper

Best Film Not in English

• All We Imagine As Light
• Emilia Pérez
• I'm Still Here
• Kneecap
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Best Original Score

• The Brutalist (Composer: Daniel Blumberg)
• Conclave (Composer: Volker Bertelmann)
• Emilia Pérez (Composer: Camille & Clément Ducol)
• Nosferatu (Composer: Robin Carolan)
• The Wild Robot (Composer: Kris Bowers)

Production Design

• The Brutalist
• Conclave
• Dune: Part Two
• Nosferatu
• Wicked

Best Costume Design

• Blitz
• A Complete Unknown
• Conclave
• Nosferatu
• Wicked

Best Makeup & Hair

• Dune: Part Two
• Emilia Pérez
• Nosferatu
• The Substance
• Wicked

Best Sound

• Blitz
• Dune: Part Two 
• Gladiator II
• The Substance
• Wicked

Best Casting

• Anora
• The Apprentice
• A Complete Unknown
• Conclave
• Kneecap

Best Cinematography

• The Brutalist
• Conclave
• Dune: Part Two
• Emilia Pérez
• Nosferatu

Best Editing

• Anora
• Conclave
• Dune: Part Two
• Emilia Pérez
• Kneecap

Best Visual Effects

• Better Man
• Dune: Part Two
• Gladiator II
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Wicked

The 78th British Academy Film Awards, aka the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards, will be held on Sunday, February 16, 2025, at 7 p.m. BT on BBC One and BBC iPlayer and at 2 p.m. ET on BritBox. The 45-minute red carpet preshow begins at 5:45 p.m. BT/12:45 p.m. ET on iPlayer and BritBox respectively.