BAFTA Awards longlists winners and losers: Who’s up and down in the Oscars race?
The Golden Globes officially kick off awards season on Sunday night with the first major televised ceremony of 2025 en route to the Academy Awards on March 2. But the Oscars race was jolted on Friday before the Globes crowned a single winner thanks to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. The group released its annual BAFTA Awards longlists in all categories voted on by the membership. The lists provide a broad overview of where BAFTA voters might eventually go when the BAFTA Awards nominees are revealed on Jan. 15.
The headline news was the strength of Emilia Pérez, which tied the record for most longlist mentions with 15 total — joining All Quiet on the Western Front, Oppenheimer, Barbie, and Killers of the Flower Moon in the history books. Netflix’s top contender — the movie most likely to lead all films when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 17 — landed several longlist mentions, including Best Film, Best Film Not in English, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jacques Audiard, and longlist mentions for all four of its actresses: Karla Sofia Gascon in lead and Zoe Salda?a, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz in supporting.
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Just behind Emilia Perez sat Conclave with 14 mentions. Edward Berger’s papal thriller hit everywhere it was expected to land, including Best Film, Best Director for Berger, and acting mentions for Ralph Fiennes (lead actor), Isabella Rossellini (supporting actress), and Stanley Tucci (supporting actor).
Other films that ran up big totals on the BAFTA longlists included The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, and The Substance (each with 11 mentions), Wicked and Dune: Part Two (with 10 mentions each), and Anora and Gladiator II (with nine mentions each). Of those films, only Gladiator II failed to land on the Best Film longlist.
So, what contenders most benefited from Friday’s BAFTA longlists? And, conversely, which hopefuls hit the skids on the path to Oscar glory? Read on for the winners and losers from the BAFTA longlists.
WINNERS
The Apprentice
Ali Abbasi’s polarizing Donald Trump movie has scuffled with American audiences. But the film proved strong with BAFTA voters, landing on six longlists: Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Casting, Best Makeup and Hair, and two acting mentions for Sebastian Stan (in lead actor) and Jeremy Strong (in supporting actor). For the film’s stars, the BAFTA longlist mentions are key: Stan is competitive for the fifth spot in the Oscars Best Actor race, presumably competing with fellow longlist member Daniel Craig (Queer) and longlist snub Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain). That Stan’s other contending performance — his Golden Globes-nominated turn in A Different Man — failed to land a longlist mention feels notable as well, if only because it means The Apprentice has perhaps finally created distance between the two Stan performances of renown.
A Complete Unknown
With 11 longlist mentions, James Mangold’s Bob Dylan biopic seems closer than ever to cracking the Best Picture field in the Gold Derby combined odds, where it currently sits in 11th place. But A Complete Unknown could overperform with Oscar voters too, landing not just nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet, but Best Supporting Actor for Edward Norton, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Sound. (It hit all of those longlists with BAFTA voters.)
Emilia Pérez
It might seem silly to suggest one of the year’s most acclaimed movies which has set records at the Golden Globes (where it landed the most-ever nominations for a musical/comedy) and BAFTA Awards thus far is being underestimated. But despite loud industry support from actors and filmmakers (including folks like Emily Blunt, Greta Gerwig, James Cameron, and Meryl Streep) and broad international appeal, Emilia Pérez still sits in fifth place in the combined odds for Best Picture. Perhaps after its muscular showing with the BAFTA longlists — results that suggest Emilia Pérez could carry Selena Gomez into the Best Supporting Actress field — the online reticence to accept Emilia as a win-competitive Best Picture contender will begin to ease.
The Substance
Most people probably expected Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Wicked, Dune: Part Two, and even A Complete Unknown to perform well with BAFTA voters in the Round 1 voting phase. But even the biggest fans of The Substance were probably flabbergasted by its 11 longlist mentions. Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror satire has long been seen as competitive in several above-the-line categories at the Oscars — and it notably missed some Oscar shortlist categories where it rated with BAFTA, including score and sound. But its overall longlist performance is indicative of a movie that should overperform with the group and the Academy. That means not just nominations for Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, but potential Oscar bids for Best Editing and Best Production Design as well.
Denzel Washington
Amid the nine longlist mentions for Gladiator II, there was Denzel Washington in the supporting actor field. Washington has rather infamously never been nominated by the BAFTA Awards — an egregious and embarrassing blindspot that reeks of bad taste at best and systemic racism at worst. But he hit the longlist for Gladiator II, which proved surprisingly strong despite missing the Best Film and Best Director fields. Washington should get that BAFTA nomination this year — particularly with six slots available to voters.
LOSERS
Danielle Deadwyler
After Danielle Deadwyler was snubbed by the Oscars for Till, there was some thought that the Academy would recognize her next time she was in contention. Well, this season, Deadwyler is back with an acclaimed turn in Netflix’s The Piano Lesson, but her chances at an Oscar nomination remain uncertain. Deadwyler failed to land on the BAFTA Awards longlist — she would’ve been a lone nominee — and now likely needs to hit next week’s Screen Actors Guild Awards to stay competitive for an Oscar nomination.
Maria
The biggest snub on the BAFTA longlists, however, was Angelina Jolie. Long expected to land among the Best Actress Oscar nominees this year — with some predicting Jolie could win — the Maria star was snubbed. That’s potentially devastating to her future as a 2025 Oscar nominee although recent Best Actress nominees like Andra Day, Penelope Cruz, and Andrea Riseborough were able to overcome longlist omissions during their competition seasons. What was even worse is that as Jolie missed, most of her main competitors didn’t – including upstart hopefuls like Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hard Truths), and Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun). It’s possible BAFTA voters just didn’t warm to Maria — the film also missed the costume design and cinematography longlists, two places where it’s expected to earn Oscar bids later this month — but Jolie really needs a boost from this weekend’s Golden Globes (where she’s favored to win Best Drama Actress) or next week’s SAG Awards (where she’s predicted to receive a nomination) to get back some of her momentum.
Nickel Boys
RaMell Ross’s critical favorite failed to launch at the BAFTA Awards, with just one longlist mention (Best Adapted Screenplay). Nickel Boys always felt like a passion pick for Best Picture — the kind of difficult movie that gets enough No. 1 votes to crack the bottom of the field. But it has been a quiet release so far and hasn’t swept the critics’ groups like one might have expected after its ballyhooed debut at the Telluride Film Festival last year.
A Real Pain
It’s hard to say A Real Pain flopped with BAFTA voters — it landed on the longlists for Kieran Culkin in supporting actor and original screenplay. But the film didn’t secure a spot on the Best Film longlist and Eisenberg was a notable lead actor snub. This still feels like a strong bet to land among the Best Picture Oscar nominees due to its pedigree and subject matter, but a BAFTA boost wouldn’t have hurt.
September 5
When September 5 exited the fall festival corridor, it had some pundits predicting a Best Picture nomination or maybe even a win — following in the footsteps of other ticking-clock thrillers based on real events like Argo or Spotlight. But September 5 has had trouble breaking through this season and was completely shut out by BAFTA voters on Friday.
2025 BAFTA Awards nominations will be announced on Jan. 15.
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