Baftas 2025: fierce competition faces titles competing for the British-only categories

Beyond the UK’s shores, it is fair to assume that attention is fitful for the outstanding British film Bafta – after all, the category is not indicative for other awards schemes such as the Oscars. However, the international nature of the UK film industry means the category is far from a local backwater.

Take last year, for example, where Poor Things, All Of Us Strangers, Saltburn, Napoleon and eventual winner The Zone Of Interest were all among the 10 nominees. Those films achieved a collective 35 nominations at the Bafta Film Awards and 19 at the Academy Awards, with eight Bafta wins and six Oscars. Bafta voters’ outstanding British films of the year, in other words, were very much at the heart of the overall awards conversation.

Outstanding British film (previously best British film) is one of only two Baftas reserved for UK features – the other being outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer, which is a wholly juried category. For the local industry, the two awards give vital chances for their feature films to shine at a ceremony that, many grumble, is traditionally too dominated by US productions.

For three of the titles nominated for outstanding British film last year, this was their only Bafta nomination: The Old Oak, Wonka and Scrapper. Rounding out the category’s 10 nominees were Rye Lane (which also picked up a best actress Bafta nod for Vivian Oparah) and How To Have Sex (additionally nominated for casting and outstanding British debut).

There are two paths to achieve one of the 10 outstanding British film nominations. A movie could be among the top five titles after round-one voting – that would yield an automatic nomination. Or else it could rank between six and 15 after the first round of voting, and then be among the five films selected by a nominating jury.

The challenge for smaller titles is to make that longlist of 15 in the first place, especially since this year Bafta abolished the opt-in British chapter, meaning every voter has the chance to vote in the category.

Leading the field

The British films that look set to make the most noise across the Baftas as a whole this year, and perhaps at the Oscars too, are Conclave, Blitz, Gladiator II, We Live In Time and Civil War. And Kneecap, which is Ireland’s submission to the international feature Oscar, should be considered a strong contender.

Distributed by Black Bear in the UK and Focus Features in the US, Conclave arrives with a distinctive awards pedigree. Director Edward Berger is fresh from his 2023 Bafta and Oscar triumph with All Quiet On The Western Front. Screenwriter Peter Straughan, adapting from the Robert Harris novel about a conclave of cardinals electing a new Pope, was previously Oscar-nominated for the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy screenplay, and he shared in two Baftas for it (adapted screenplay and best British film). Conclave star Ralph Fiennes has six Bafta nominations and one win, and also two Oscar nominations. Swirling with revelations and intrigue, Conclave is one of the more accessibly entertaining titles considered to be among the awards frontrunners this year, and an outstanding British film Bafta nomination is surely a given.

The same might be said of Steve McQueen’s Blitz, the former Bafta and Oscar winner’s take on the Second World War as told through the eyes of a young biracial child (Elliott Heffernan) and his munitions-worker mother (Saoirse Ronan). Apple Original Films has launched a vigorous campaign and the film has high awareness.

Ditto Paramount’s Gladiator II, directed by Ridley Scott, and written by David Scarpa from a story he co-created with Peter Craig. Films achieve eligibility in this category based on a points system, with particular emphasis on the nationality of the candidates for nomination (director, producer, writer). Additional points are awarded for heads of department, principal cast, setting, source material, post-production and passing the BFI cultural test. The film also must have met the BFI diversity standards.

While Gladiator II might not be everyone’s first thought of a film that manifests Britishness, the same could be said of Scott’s Napoleon and House Of Gucci, both of which achieved outstanding British film nominations over the past few years.

Studiocanal’s We Live In Time is a film that seems British to its core – although director John Crowley is Irish. Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh star in the contemporary London romantic drama from an original screenplay by Nick Payne, while SunnyMarch produces. Validation has already come at the North American box office, where A24’s release currently stands at $24.7m. Crowley’s Brooklyn won the best British film Bafta in 2016.

Box-office validation has likewise come for Alex Garland’s Civil War, which achieved $68.6m from A24’s North American release, and a $126.2m global total. The last time a US-set film won this category was in 2021 with Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, with Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri achieving the same feat in 2018. Garland has one previous best British film nomination, for Ex Machina in 2016.

Last year, The Zone Of Interest became the first foreign-language film to win Bafta’s British film category since Asif Kapadia’s The Warrior in 2003 – back when the category had different voting processes, including jury selection of the winner. This year Kneecap, which has a majority of Irish-language dialogue, will likewise compete in both outstanding British film and film not in the English language. Kneecap led the charge at the British Independent Film Awards (Bifas) this year, with 14 nominations and seven wins including Best British independent film, and it enjoys major voter buzz.

Likely to bubble into the top 10 for the category are Studiocanal’s The Outrun and Back To Black, one adapted from Amy Liptrot’s alcohol-recovery memoir and the other celebrating the life of singer Amy Winehouse. Both may feature in several categories at the awards – Saoirse Ronan and Marisa Abela in leading actress, for example – and should shine here. Back To Black director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh were nominated for the best British film Bafta in 2010 for Nowhere Boy.

Family focus

Since release in April, Back To Black quickly became 2024’s highest-grossing British film at the UK and Ireland box office (with £12.3m/$15.7m), a status it conceded in November to Paddington In Peru (£29.0m/$37.0m to December 8).

Studiocanal’s Paddington franchise is a jewel in the crown of the British film industry, and has generated swathes of goodwill at home. Both of the previous Paddington films were nominated for Baftas in this category.

Paddington In Peru faces competition in the outstanding British category from two other UK family films: Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and fellow animation That Christmas, which is co-scripted by Richard Curtis and adapted from three of his festive tales.

Two films jointly directed by Aardman’s Nick Park previously picked up nods in the category – Chicken Run in 2001 and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, which won in 2006 – and Park, who jointly directs again, is gunning for a third. Curtis has one previous best British film nomination, for Love Actually.

Starring and produced by Kate Winslet, Sky Cinema’s Lee proved a box-office winner in the UK and Ireland (£4.5m/$5.7m), and in many international markets – and Winslet could hardly be a more admired UK film industry figure. Ellen Kuras directs this biographical drama, which focuses on the war-photographer years of Lee Miller.

Studiocanal’s Hard Truths, the latest contemporary London drama from Mike Leigh, is winning plaudits for its cast, led by Marianne Jean-Baptiste (who won best lead performance at the Bifas) and Michele Austin. The film will likely have to rely on the nominating jury to make it through to the 10 nominees for the outstanding British Bafta.

The same might be said for Sandhya Suri’s Santosh, which is the UK’s submission to the international feature Oscar. Launched at Cannes, the critically admired India-set drama about a policewoman earned four Bifa nominations, winning for screenplay and breakthrough producer.

Among UK indies that would almost certainly need to rely on jury enthusiasm to achieve a Bafta nomination in this category is Andrea Arnold’s Bird, returning to similar terrain explored in Fish Tank after a literary period drama (Wuthering Heights), US road movie (American Honey) and documentary (Cow). Fish Tank and American Honey were both nominated for this award, and Fish Tank won in 2010. Bird won the Bifa for Franz Rogowski in supporting performance.

Sally El Hosaini’s The Swimmers was nominated for outstanding British film in 2023, and she competes this year with Unicorns, jointly directed with her partner James Krishna Floyd, who wrote the screenplay. This opposites-attract queer romance starring Ben Hardy and Jason Patel earned seven Bifa nominations but was eclipsed in each category.

Juries have a history of celebrating Rungano Nyoni, who won the fully juried outstanding British debut Bafta in 2018 with I Am Not A Witch. This time she competes with Cannes premiere On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, which won two Bifas: director for Nyoni, and Susan Chardy in breakthrough performance. The challenge for UK distributor Picturehouse Entertainment is to ensure enough voters see the film to have a chance of landing on the category longlist of 15 titles.

The outstanding British film Bafta presents treacherous waters for films that may not make the top five by member vote and may not be among the nominating jury’s top picks. Highly entertaining true tale Wicked Little Letters – yet another title from the prolific Studiocanal this year, and directed by Thea Sharrock – proved a big hit with UK and Ireland audiences (£9.6m/$12.2m), but achieving a Bafta nomination may not be an easy task.

Also potentially occupying an uneasy middle ground are Ben Taylor’s Netflix-backed fertility-treatment drama Joy, Anand Tucker’s novel adaptation The Critic, Karim Aïnouz’s Tudor drama Firebrand and Matthew Brown’s book-to-play-to-film Freud’s Last Session.

Among the 64 titles submitted for outstanding British film this year, 19 are documentaries. It has been five years since a documentary (For Sama) managed a nomination in the category, and this year’s contenders include Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story from Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui (who did achieve an outstanding British nomination with fashion doc McQueen in 2019), and James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay’s Copa 71. A nomination for Grand Theft Hamlet would spice up the category, but outstanding British debut looks like more fertile territory for this high-concept film. 

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