Conclave is surprise Best Film winner at 2025 BAFTA Film Awards

Conclave was a surprise Best Film winner at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday.

The papal thriller, starring Ralph Fiennes, beat award season favourites The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez to take home the night’s top prize.

Conclave won three other awards, including Outstanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan and Best Editing.

That wasn’t the only surprise during the ceremony. Anora star Mikey Madison was visibly stunned when she was named Best Actress and admitted she hadn’t prepared an acceptance speech because she didn’t expect to need one.

Earlier in the night, she lost the EE Rising Star Award, the only category voted for by the public, to Alien: Romulus and Industry star David Jonsson.

The Brutalist also won four awards, including Best Actor for this year’s favourite Adrien Brody, Best Director for Brady Corbet and Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.

Meanwhile, Zoe Saldaña continued her awards season success by collecting Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez. The star gave a passionate and emotional speech and dedicated her award to her trans nephew in the press room backstage.

Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain. His director and co-star Jesse Eisenberg accepted the award on his behalf and also took home his own BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.

Other double winners included Dune: Part Two, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Wicked and Emilia Pérez.

Elsewhere during the ceremony, Warwick Davis was presented with the BAFTA Fellowship honour by his Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton, while his collaborators Mark Hamill, Ron Howard and George Lucas sent in video tributes.

Meanwhile, Take That performed their hit Greatest Day, which appears in Anora, and Jeff Goldblum played piano during the In Memoriam segment.

The 2025 BAFTA Film Awards were hosted by David Tennant at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Film: Conclave

Outstanding British Film: Conclave

Leading Actor: Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Leading Actress: Mikey Madison – Anora

Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez

Rising Star Award (voted for by public): David Jonsson

Director: Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Original Screenplay: Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain