’Conclave’ leads the pack and struggling ’Emilia Pérez’ faces a take a look at at Britain’s BAFTA movie awards

Papal thriller “ Conclave ” led the race for the 78th British Academy Movie Awards on Sunday, with genre-bending musical “ Emilia Pérez ” going through a take a look at of whether or not a multi-pronged backlash has made the previous prize favourite an awards-season longshot.

“Conclave” is nominated in 12 classes, together with finest image, finest director for Edward Berger and finest actor for Ralph Fiennes, taking part in a cardinal corralling conniving clergy as they elect a brand new pope.

“Emilia Pérez” has 11 nominations, together with finest image and finest director for Jacques Audiard, and received an early enhance by profitable the prize for finest movie not within the English language.

Finest actress nominee Karla Sofía Gascón, who stars because the titular transgender ex-cartel boss in “Emilia Pérez,” wasn’t on the ceremony. Gascón has withdrawn from selling the movie, which has 13 Oscar nominations, amid controversy over her social media posts disparaging Muslims, George Floyd and variety on the Oscars.

Audiard has condemned these feedback, however in his acceptance speech thanked Gascón and her co-stars Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez.

“I’m deeply pleased with what we now have all achieved collectively,” he mentioned.

Stars together with Cynthia Erivo, Hugh Grant, Ariana Grande, Lupita Nyong’o, Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan walked the crimson carpet at London’s Royal Pageant Corridor for the awards, generally known as BAFTAs.

The prizes are intently watched for clues about who will triumph at Hollywood’s Academy Awards on March 3, in an unusually hard-to-call awards season.

Additionally they have a distinctly British accent. The ceremony kicked off with its kilt-wearing host, Scottish actor David Tennant, main the viewers in a rousing singalong of The Proclaimers’ anthem “I’m Gonna be (500 Miles).”

The very best-film contenders are “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” Brady Corbet’s 215-minute structure epic ” The Brutalist,” the James Mangold-directed Bob Dylan biopic “ A Full Unknown ” and Sean Baker’s Brighton Seashore tragicomedy “ Anora.”

“Anora,” about an unique dancer entangled with a Russian oligarch’s son, is rising as a finest image favourite after profitable the highest prizes final week on the Producers Guild Awards and the Administrators Guild Awards.

“The Brutalist” has 9 BAFTA nominations, whereas “Anora,” the sci-fi epic “Dune: Half Two” and musical “Depraved” have seven every. “A Full Unknown” and Irish-language hip-hop drama “Kneecap” acquired six nominations apiece.

Nominees within the class of excellent British movie embrace Andrea Arnold’s “Fowl,” Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II” and animated journey “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl,” which gained the award for finest household and kids’s movie.

The main actor favourite is “The Brutalist” star Adrien Brody, who faces stiff competitors from Fiennes and Chalamet, who performs the younger Dylan in “A Full Unknown.”

The opposite male actors nominated are Grant for his creepy function within the horror movie “ Heretic,” Colman Domingo in real-life jail drama “ Sing Sing ” and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a younger Donald Trump in “ The Apprentice.”

Stan, who can be Oscar nominated, mentioned it was “extremely validating” to get recognition for the movie, which initially struggled to seek out an American distributor. It is an origins story that focuses on Trump’s relationship with ruthless energy dealer Roy Cohn, performed by Jeremy Robust.

“We had been advised this was going to be a thankless job that was by no means going to result in something,” Stan mentioned, describing the film as a “honest” depiction of the president.

Whoever takes the very best actress award might be a first-time BAFTA winner.

Nominees are Gascón, Demi Moore for body-horror movie “ The Substance,” Mikey Madison for “Anora,” Ronan for “The Outrun,” Erivo for “Depraved” and Marianne Jean-Baptiste for the Mike Leigh drama “Arduous Truths.” Erivo or Jean-Baptiste could be the primary non-white performer to win the main actress BAFTA.

British stars on the crimson carpet had excessive reward for Jean-Baptiste’s blistering efficiency as a lady beset by despair, and for Moore, already a Golden Globe winner for “The Substance.”

“I’m very excited for Demi Moore tonight,” mentioned “Sport of Thrones” and “Severance” star Gwendoline Christie. She mentioned Moore’s “visceral” efficiency “transcends so many alternative boundaries.”

Britain’s movie academy launched modifications to extend the awards’ variety in 2020, when no ladies had been nominated as finest director for the seventh 12 months working and all 20 nominees within the lead and supporting performer classes had been white.

Most winners are chosen by members of the 8,000-strong U.Okay. academy of business professionals, with one — the Rising Star Award —- chosen by public vote from a shortlist of nominees. This 12 months’s contenders are performers Mikey Madison, Marisa Abela, Jharrel Jerome, David Jonsson and Nabhaan Rizwan.

“Willow” and “Return of the Jedi” actor Warwick Davis will obtain the academy’s prime honor, the BAFTA Fellowship, for his display profession and work to create a extra inclusive movie business.

BAFTA chairwoman Sara Putt despatched a message of power to everybody hit by final month’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires. Jamie Lee Curtis, a supporting actress nominee for “The Final Showgirl,” was absent as a result of the fires delayed filming on her present work. Co-star Pamela Anderson will settle for the prize for Curtis if she wins.

The occasion was with out a sprint of royal glamour this 12 months. Neither Prince William, who’s honorary president of the British movie academy, nor his spouse Kate are attending. The awards coincide with college holidays for his or her three youngsters.

The present will embrace a efficiency by grown-up boyband Take That, whose 2008 hit “Best Day” options on the “Anora” soundtrack. “Depraved” wizard Jeff Goldblum will play piano in the course of the ceremony’s tribute to individuals who have died up to now 12 months.