Conclave and Emilia Perez lead the race

Conclave, a film about a gossipy and scheming group of cardinals who gather in Rome to elect a new pope, leads this year’s Bafta film award nominations with 12 nominations.

It is closely followed by Netflix’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez, which tells the story of a Mexican cartel leader who leaves the world of crime to live a new life as a transgender woman.

Favorites in the Bafta acting categories include Cynthia Erivo and Demi Moore for leading actress and Adrien Brody and Timothée Chalamet for leading actor.

But Denzel Washington and Daniel Craig failed to make the shortlist for Gladiator II and Queer respectively.

Hugh Grant’s nomination in the leading actor category for the horror film “Heretic” and Saoirse Ronan’s lead actress nomination for “The Overtake” are among some of the surprises.

Jamie Lee Curtis is nominated in the supporting actress category for The Last Showgirl, but the film’s lead actress Pamela Anderson, who plays an aging Las Vegas performer, missed out on a nomination.

The leading films in the Bafta nominations

12 nominations – Conclave

11 – Emilia Perez

9 – The Brutalist

7 – Anora, Dune: Part Two and Wicked

6 – Full unknown and knee cap

5 – Nosferatu and the Substance

Another film expected to do well in the current awards season is Anora, which has seven Bafta nominations, including Best Picture.

It follows the stormy romance between a New York prostitute and the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

Mikey Madison is nominated for lead actress and is also up for the audience-voted Rising Star award.

Her co-star Yura Borisov is nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and director Sean Baker has his first Bafta Best Director nomination.

Half of the nominees in the Best Director category are first-time nominees and also include The Brutalist’s Brady Corbett, who won the same award at the Golden Globes.

The film, about a Hungarian architect who is hired by a wealthy American after World War II, has a total of nine nominations and is also considered a big contender for the Oscars.

Substance director Coralie Fargeat is another first-time director nominee and is the only woman nominated in the category.

Demi Moore is nominated for best actress for the film, weeks after winning the Golden Globe – putting her in a strong position for the Oscars.

British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s nomination in the same category for her role as an irritable woman struggling with depression in Hard Truths boosted her Oscar nomination.

The Bafta shortlist is often a strong indicator of the Oscars, and last year the winners of the first six categories matched perfectly at the two ceremonies.

Another Oscar-winning film is A Complete Unknown, which follows Bob Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s.

It has six Bafta nominations, including Best Film, with Timothée Chalamet and Edward Norton nominated in the acting categories.

Kneepcap, which tells the story of an Irish-speaking hip-hop trio, also received six nominations, including outstanding British film and film not in the English language.

Blockbuster films fared relatively well in the nominations, with Dune: Part Two and Wicked receiving seven nominations each.

Gladiator II has three nominations – but none are in the acting categories, with Paul Mezcal, Pedro Pascal and Washington missing. Director Sir Ridley Scott was also overlooked.

Erivo and Wicked co-star Ariana Grande have their first Bafta nominations – but Wicked missed out on a Best Picture nomination.

Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña and Carla Sofia Gascon also received their first Bafta nominations for Emilia Perez.

For the first time, children’s and family films have their own special category at the awards.

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot are nominated alongside Michael Morpurgo’s adaptation of Kensuke’s Kingdom and Flow, about animals that must work together to survive a flood.

The dialogue-less film was a surprise Golden Globe winner in the animated category.

The BAFTA Film Awards, hosted by David Tennant, will take place on February 16 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Read more about this year’s nominated films: