“Conclave,” Edward Berger’s thriller about the selection of a new pope, received the most nominations on Wednesday for this year’s EE British Academy Film Awards, known as the BAFTAs.
The movie secured 12 nods, including one for best film, a category in which it is up against Sean Baker’s dramedy “Anora” and “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody.
Also competing for the main best film prize are “A Complete Unknown” and “Emilia Pérez,” which secured 11 nominations — the second highest number.
The number of nominations for “Conclave” will likely surprise some Award-season observers. Just over a week ago, the movie secured only one Golden Globe at a ceremony in which “Emilia Pérez” and “The Brutalist” were the big winners.
Yet it will give “Conclave” momentum going into this year’s Oscars, although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has repeatedly delayed the announcement of the prize’s nominees because of the Los Angeles wildfires. The Academy is now scheduled to announce the nominations on Jan. 23.
Anna Higgs, the chair of BAFTA’s film committee, said that BAFTA, which has many Los Angeles-based members, had not seen any drop in voting because of the fires.
This year’s BAFTA ceremony is scheduled to take place on Feb. 16 in London, and Higgs said it was “too early to speculate” on whether the wildfires would have any further impact on the ceremony, which will be broadcast in the United States on BritBox.
In individual artist categories, the competition on the night will be wide open.
In the best director category, Berger is up against Baker (“Anora”), Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist”) and Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Pérez”), as well as Denis Villeneuve for his sci-fi sequel “Dune: Part Two” and Coralie Fargeat for “The Substance,” a body-horror gross-out about a washed-up TV star, played by Demi Moore.
In the leading actress category, Moore, who won a Golden Globe for that performance, will compete against Cynthia Erivo for “Wicked,” Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths,” Mikey Madison for “Anora,” and Saoirse Ronan for her role as a recovering alcoholic in “The Outrun.”
The leading actor category sees Adrien Brody (“The Brutalist”) up against Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”), Hugh Grant (“Heretic”), Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”).
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