The BAFTA Film Awards fans have been left convinced that one particular movie deserves to win the majority of the gongs at the annual ceremony held at London's Festival Hall tonight. The long-awaited awards have begun ahead of the ceremony being broadcast on BBC One later this evening - with Doctor Who's David Tennant hosting the ceremony. This year's awards kicked off with the award for special visual effects, which was won by Timothée Chalamet hit Dune: Part Two.
Meanwhile, Christmas hit Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl took home the BAFTA for children's and family film. Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek accepted the award, with Nick sharing: "It’s such a wonderful privilege to be working at Aardman every day with such obscenely talented artists and crafts people so passionate about creativity and we’re so lucky to have our fabulous cast.".
However, fans have now predicted that Conclave will win Best Film at the awards ceremony tonight. It's already shaping up to be a good night for Conclave with bookies saying it's also the 11/10 favourite for Best Casting. Second favourite is Anora, which is priced at 3/1. Political thriller Conclave had 11 nominations and as many nominations as the box office smash Wicked at the Critics Choice Awards earlier this month. The box office smash features stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini, and John Lithgow.
The thriller is based off a 2016 novel by Robert Harris and is directed by Edward Berger. It centers around a "Conclave," a meeting that is called when Catholic Cardinals gather to elect the new pope. In the film, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) leads the conclave. However, amid his search for a new pope, he uncovers secrets and scandals about the possible candidates to lead the Catholic Church.
The film has also received eight Academy Award nominations - Best Picture; Best Actor for Fiennes; Best Supporting Actress for Rossellini; Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Original Score; Best Editing; Best Production Design; and Best Costume Design. Earlier this year, the film won a Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and was nominated for five other awards - Best Motion Picture Drama; Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Fiennes; Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Rossellini; Best Director; and Best Original Score.
Meanwhile at tonight's BAFTA Awards, superstar Demi Moore is favourite for the Best Actress gong for her role in body horror The Substance. Marianne Jean-Baptiste is 6/4 second favourite for her stunning performance in Mike Leigh drama Hard Truths. And Adrien Brody has won pretty much every award going for his lead role in Holocaust drama The Brutalist and is 10/11 favourite for the BAFTA. It looks like only Ralph Fiennes has a chance of beating him, priced at 6/4 for Conclave.
