Awards Season 2025: Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) and BAFTA Film Awards Winners

This past weekend has seen more awards nonsense, so let's get down to business and discuss the latest developments. 

WRITERS' GUILD AWARDS

The Writers' Guild Awards (WGA) were given out on Saturday 15th February. The film winners were:

Original Screenplay: Anora

Adapted Screenplay: Nickel Boys

Documentary Screenplay: Jim Henson: Idea Man

Both Anora and Nickel Boys are nominated in their respective categories at the Academy Awards, so these wins could bode well for their chances at the Oscars. 

That said, due to the WGA's eligibility criteria, several other Oscar-nominated screenplays weren't eligible for WGA consideration: this includes The Brutalist, September 5, and The Substance in the Original Screenplay category, and Conclave, Emilia Pérez, and Sing Sing in Adapted Screenplay.

Personally, Conclave might win Best Adapted Screenplay. But, as we've seen over the past few weeks, Anora seems to be gaining momentum in this awards season - so a Best Original Screenplay win wouldn't be too big a surprise. 

BAFTA FILM AWARDS

On Sunday 16th February 2025, the 78th British Academy Film Awards were given out in a star-studded ceremony, hosted by David Tennant for the second time. 

Here's a full list of BAFTA 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)

Director: Brady Corbet (The Brutalist)

Original Screenplay: A Real Pain

Adapted Screenplay: Conclave

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer: Rich Peppiatt (director/writer) (Kneecap)

Animated Film: Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Documentary: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Film Not In The English Language: Emilia Pérez

Cinematography: The Brutalist

Costume Design: Wicked

Editing: Conclave

Make Up And Hair: The Substance

Original Score: The Brutalist

Production Design: Wicked

Sound: Dune: Part Two

Special Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two

Casting: Anora

Short Animation: Wander To Wonder

Short Film: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Children's & Family Film: Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

Rising Star: David Jonsson

Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema: MediCinema

BAFTA Fellowship: Warwick Davis

Conclave and The Brutalist were the big winners of the evening, with four BAFTAs each; Anora, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Pérez, A Real Pain, Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and Wicked all went home with two. 

Despite multiple nominations, A Complete Unknown, Nosferatu, The Apprentice, Blitz, Gladiator II, Sing Sing, The Wild Robot, and Hard Truths all went away with nothing. 

A couple of surprises here; the big one being Conclave winning Best Picture (which I'm personally overjoyed about, as it is one of my favourite films in contention in this awards season). Sadly, I don't think this is going to be repeated at the Oscars, so I'm going to enjoy this while I can. Mikey Madison's Best Actress win has also come as a bit of a curveball (I think a lot of people were expecting Demi Moore to take it for The Substance, Madison included as her off-the-cuff acceptance speech showed!). No surprises in the supporting categories, nor in the screenplays. I'm very chuffed to see two wins for Wallace And Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, although- again- I don't see this being replicated in two weeks' time.

Congratulations to all winners!

We've got another busy weekend of awards stuff next weekend, as the Independent Spirit Awards get handed out on Saturday 22nd February, and the SAG Awards are on Sunday 23rd February. 

I'll update with the winners as soon as I can after they're announced.

Awards Season 2025: Producers Guild Awards (PGA), and Directors Guild Awards (DGA) Winners

It's a two-for-one on guild awards nonsense today, folks, and it means we are a bit closer to working out what might get Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars in just over three weeks' time. So let's get on with it!

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS

On Saturday 8th February 2025, the Directors' Guild Awards (DGA) were handed out. The film winners are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Films: Sean Baker (Anora)

Michael Apted Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Theatrical Feature Film: RaMell Ross (Nickel Boys)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev (Porcelain War)

Cat, meet pigeons... this is a bit of a surprise for me, as- if you read the last post- you'll know I was fully expecting Brady Corbet to win for The Brutalist (following on from his Golden Globes win and cementing his place as frontrunner for the Little Naked Gold Man). Now this has made things a bit more interesting. Always fun when awards season feels more like a contest and less like a coronation. But surely that's where the surprises end, right?

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PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS (PGA)

The 36th Producers Guild Awards (PGA) were also handed out on Saturday 8th February. The film winners are:

Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures: Anora

Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures: The Wild Robot

Wrong! For both major guilds, whose membership body aligns very closely with the voting members of the Academy, to pick Anora as their winner has shaken things up a bit. Whilst neither guild has a 100% record of going with the Academy's eventual winner, it's telling and gives a bit of pause to those prognosticators and psephologists who may have assumed this was all a done deal. It isn't over until the presenter says "And the Oscar goes to..."

Congratulations to all winners!

Up next this awards season, we have the Writers Guild Awards (WGA) next Saturday (15th February 2025) and the BAFTA Film Awards next Sunday (16th February 2025).  

Awards Season 2025: Critics Choice Awards Winners

Surprise awards season news! 

This passed me by, until I saw some of the winners announced on social media, but yesterday (Friday 7th February 2025) saw the 30th Critics Choice Awards handed out. 

Hosted by Chelsea Handler for the third year in a row, they honoured the best of film and TV in 2024 across 37 categories. Originally due to be handed out on 14th January, the awards were postponed twice (first to 26th January and then to a TBC date in February) due to the L.A. wildfires. Unsurprisingly, and rightly so, many of the acceptance speeches thanked first responders and emergency service personnel for their hard work. 

Here are a full list of the Critics' Choice Awards movie winners: 

Best Picture: Anora

Best Actor: Adrien Brody (The Brutalist)

Best Actress: Demi Moore (The Substance)

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain)

Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez)

Best Acting Ensemble: Conclave

Best Director: Jon M. Chu (Wicked)

Best Original Screenplay: The Substance

Best Adapted Screenplay: Conclave

Best Comedy: A Real Pain and Deadpool & Wolverine (tie)

Best Foreign Language Film: Emilia Pérez

Best Animated Feature: The Wild Robot

Best Score: Challengers

Best Song: "El Mal" (Emilia Pérez)

Best Production Design: Wicked

Best Editing: Challengers

Best Costume Design: Wicked

Best Hair & Makeup: The Substance

Best Visual Effects: Dune: Part Two

Best Cinematography: Nosferatu

Best Young Actor/Actress: Maisy Stella (My Old Ass)

Emilia Pérez, The Substance, and Wicked were the big winners of the night, each taking three awards apiece; behind them are A Real Pain, Conclave, and Challengers with two each. 

There's a definite feel of "all shall have prizes" this time round; there's no one film dominating the awards chatter. Well, that's not strictly true, given the damage limitation the Emilia Pérez PR team are having to do at the moment... It's worth pointing out, however, the winners of these awards have been in place since 10th/11th January, before Karla Sofía Gascón's previous social media posts came to light. I personally don't think Zoe Saldaña has much to worry about; she's the definite frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. But it will be interesting to see if Gascón's previous inflammatory rhetoric dents the film's chances for other categories, most notably Best International/Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. 

I'm pleased to see Conclave getting the Adapted Screenplay and Acting Ensemble awards (it's a stellar cast in a superbly written script). I'm also happy to see Deadpool & Wolverine get a bit of awards love; it was a supremely silly, profane but enjoyable piece of cinema. Jon M. Chu's Best Director win elicited a lot of cheers and applause; I think a lot of people feel he's been unfairly sidelined in the Best Director conversation (in fact, the Critics Choice Awards are his only Best Director nomination in the major movie awards this season). It may be that that gets rectified next year with the release of this year's Wicked: Part 2 (now retitled Wicked: For Good). 

Congratulations to all winners!

Two of the major guilds give out their awards today (Saturday 8th February 2025), so there'll be a post tomorrow with the results of the Directors Guild Awards (DGA) and Producers Guild Awards (PGA). I'm expecting good news for The Brutalist in both sets of awards. Call it a hunch.