BAFTAs 2025 key moments: Tennant, Take That, and Timothee Chalamet (and Kylie Jenner)
Tears, laughter and some Take That fangirling from a best actress nominee – this year’s BAFTA Film Awards had it all.
Conclave and The Brutalist were the night’s big winners, taking home four awards each – including best picture and outstanding British film for Conclave, and best actor for The Brutalist star Adrien Brody and directing award for its filmmaker, Brady Corbet.
But as always with these big entertainment awards ceremonies, there were plenty of moments to remember outside the big prizes.
Here are our BAFTA 2025 key talking points.
The return of Tennant
Hosts can make or break an awards ceremony, so when you get a good ‘un you want to keep them. After a successful stint in 2024, Doctor Who and Rivals star David Tennant was back to take the helm once again.
This time round, the Scottish actor, sporting a kilt and sporran at first, kicked things off by calling on the “BAFTA gods” – acting legends Dame Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent and Brian Cox, naturally – before a sketch performance of The Proclaimers’ hit I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
Of course, this needed some audience participation – including from US stars Camila Cabello, Colman Domingo and Anna Kendrick, who probably didn’t have a clue what was going on but joined in with gusto.
Tennant joked about actors “freshening up” while they age, after referencing that Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa took on his role in the BBC series, as well as the length of films such as The Brutalist (three-and-a-half hours).
“Who doesn’t like a chance to have a wee halfway through?” he asked, while talking about the film’s much-needed intermission.
Emilia Perez awards despite controversy – and Saldana’s speech
Zoe Saldana was named best supporting actress for her performance in Emilia Perez. Pic: PA
It went into awards season as one of the favourites, but Emilia Perez has been surrounded by controversy in recent weeks.
As stars Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez enjoyed the show, leading actress Karla Sofia Gascon was notably absent from the ceremony following the resurgence of offensive tweets, and the film has also come under fire for its portrayal of Mexico and of trans people.
Despite this, it picked up the BAFTAs for best film not in the English language and best supporting actress for Saldana.
Earlier this month, director Jacques Audiard said Gascon’s tweets were “inexcusable” and that he was “very sad” to see the issue “taking up all the space” around the film.
However, collecting the BAFTA for best film not in the English language, the French filmmaker namechecked all his stars, including Gascon – and blew her a kiss through his translator.
“I’m deeply proud of what we have all achieved together – long live Emilia Perez,” he said.
Read more:
The full list of winners
The BAFTA red carpet in pictures
In her speech, an emotional Saldana said the film defied categorisation and also paid tribute to her co-stars, before realising she was taking too long and being given a countdown. “F***, f***, f***”, she panicked, before continuing with her speech anyway.
Thanking her mother for “being such a selfless person”, she broke down in tears, and added: “Films are supposed to change hearts and challenge minds and I hope Emilia Perez did something like this, because voices need to be heard.”
Kylie Jenner sneaks in
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Timothee Chalamet and Kylie Jenner at the BAFTAs
We didn’t see her on the red carpet, but sneaky old Kylie Jenner, girlfriend of Timothee Chalamet, was most definitely in attendance to show her support.
The Kardashians star was in the audience next to Chalamet, who was nominated for best actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
During a break from awards announcements, Tennant spent time joking with some of the A-listers in the crowd, and the couple didn’t escape from his mic (or the cameras), despite their efforts to keep their appearance lowkey.
Referencing the Chalamet lookalike competition that made headlines in New York last year, Tennant joked about what a good likeness the “second place” doppelganger before him was – and how nice it was to have a Jenner lookalike, too.
Take That perform – and Saoirse Ronan fangirls
Take That performed Greatest Day, from Anora. Pic: BAFTA
If you’ve seen Anora, you’ll know the filmmakers behind it are fans of Take That, specifically the 2008 hit Greatest Day.
The band, now a trio of Gary Barlow, Mark Owen and Howard Donald, performed the hit remix used in the film on stage at the ceremony.
As host Tennant made his way through the crowd afterwards, he came across best actress nominee Saoirse Ronan and her husband Jack Lowden.
Is Ronan a Take That fan? “I’ve seen you twice,” she shouted at the boys as they made their way off stage.
That’s a yes, then.
Kieran Culkin couldn’t attend – so Jesse Eisenberg stepped up
Jesse Eisenberg won the BAFTA for best original screenplay for A Real Pain, and picked up best supporting actor for co-star Kieran Culkin. Pic: PA
Following best supporting actor wins at earlier ceremonies including the Golden Globes, Kieran Culkin has been a favourite when it comes to speeches this awards season.
It was no surprise to see him honoured at the BAFTAs, but as he sadly couldn’t attend the ceremony in person, his co-star and director Jesse Eisenberg stepped up – not only collecting the award on his behalf but also delivering the laughs, too.
In A Real Pain, the pair play two very different cousins on a trip exploring their Jewish grandmother’s roots in Poland.
The BAFTA was “like the fifth” award Eisenberg has picked up for Culkin, he told the audience. “We have a similar life, but his is 20% better than mine,” he added.
Accepting the award for best original screenplay, Eisenberg also joked that his wife had not attended the ceremony as she did not think he would win.
Breakthrough star pays tribute to sex workers
Mikey Madison was named best actress for her performance in Anora. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
After gaining a lot of support throughout the awards ceremony, Demi Moore was a favourite for a prize for her performance in The Substance. However, Mikey Madison had also gained momentum in recent weeks thanks to her breakout role as a young sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch in Anora.
This one is a particularly exciting win as Madison, 25, was also up for the rising star award for up-and-coming talent. Being nominated in a major category in the same year is quite a feat in itself – winning it even more so.
On stage, Madison thanked her mother for driving her “to so many auditions”, as well as her fellow castmates.
She also paid tribute to the sex worker community, after working with many women in the industry to perfect her performance.
“I want to take a second to recognise the sex worker community,” Madison said. “You deserve respect and decency, and I… (urge) others to do the same… I will always be a friend and an ally.”
Kneecap: ‘It’s a movement’
Kneecap do the BAFTA red carpet. Pic: PA
Irish-language film Kneecap, a semi-autobiographical story starring a trio of rappers of the same name from Belfast, picked up the award for outstanding debut for a British filmmaker.
Band member JJ O Dochartaigh always wears a balaclava featuring the Irish flag – but for the BAFTAs he went all out, matching his suit.
The award went to director and writer Rich Peppiatt, who collected the prize on stage.
“Within two weeks of moving to Belfast I met Kneecap and now I’m standing here,” he told the audience, saying his movie was “more than a film, it’s a movement – about how everyone should have their language respected, their culture respected, their homeland respected.
“This award is dedicated to everyone out there fighting that fight.”
British success and a new collab?
Camila Cabello meets Wallace and Gromit… and Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Here’s a look backstage at US singer-songwriter Camila Cabello and the Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl filmmakers Nick Park, left, and Merlin Crossingham.
The pair picked up the prize for best children’s and family film, becoming the first ever recipients of the award, which was presented by Cabello.
We’re hoping this could be the start of a new partnership.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl also took home the animated film trophy, with Park joking on stage: “I didn’t actually write a second speech.”
And there was more recognition for British technical creatives in other categories, too.
Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales picked up the award for best production design, for their incredible visual work on the blockbuster smash Wicked.
Paul Lambert was on the team awarded the BAFTA for best visual effects, for his work on the science fiction blockbuster Dune: Part Two – which also won best sound, with a winning team including British mixer and engineer Gareth John.
Warwick Davis’s emotional speech
Warwick Davis was given the BAFTA fellowship award. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Honoured with the prestigious BAFTA fellowship award, Warwick Davis dedicated the prize to his late wife Samantha, who died in March last year.
Davis, who is known for fantasy film Willow and the Harry Potter movies, received the organisation’s highest honour for his performing and advocacy work.
“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me – and I’ve been in Star Wars,” he joked at the start of his speech, before getting emotional as he talked about his wife and referenced his children, Annabelle and Harrison, who were in the audience.
“Thank you to the support of our wonderful children, I’ve been able to keep engaging in life,” he said.
Davis was born with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, a rare bone disorder that results in dwarfism.
Previous recipients of the fellowship include Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Sir Alfred Hitchcock, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, Ken Loach, Sir Michael Caine, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Lord Laurence Olivier and Dame Judi Dench.
Look out for David Jonsson
David Jonsson is this year’s rising star. Pic: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
British actor David Jonsson was named this year’s BAFTA rising star – the only award voted for by the public.
The 31-year-old recently starred in the film Alien: Romulus and his credits also include TV series Industry as well as the 2023 romantic comedy Rye Lane.
“I’ve got to be honest, this isn’t why I do it,” he told the BAFTA audience in his speech. “Do you know what I mean? I’m just an east London boy.
“I didn’t really see a space for me in this industry. But this award is about people and as long as we can keep telling stories about people I think there’s got to be a space for me.”
Jonsson saw off competition from his fellow Industry and Back To Black star Marisa Abela, American actor Jharrel Jerome, Anora’s Madison and Informer star Nabhaan Rizwan.
Previous winners include Kristen Stewart, Daniel Kaluuya, John Boyega and Tom Hardy, all before they became big names in the industry.
Sing Sing stars visas denied, filmmakers say
Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing. Pic: Dominic Leon
This wasn’t a moment from the ceremony, but on the red carpet ahead of the awards the filmmakers behind Sing Sing, which tells the true story of a group of men who take part in an arts rehabilitation project at a maximum security prison, spoke to Sky News on the red carpet.
While Colman Domingo, an established Hollywood star who was nominated for best actor, was able to attend the ceremony, the real-life person he portrayed in the film, Divine G Whitfield, was not – and neither was his co-star Clarence Maclin.
Maclin is a former inmate who played himself in the film, after being rehabilitated through the programme, and was nominated for best supporting actor.
Both were denied denied entry to the UK earlier this week due to their previous convictions, filmmakers Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley said.
“Their visas were denied to enter the country because they have served prison time, which goes against the grain of everything this movie stands for,” Kwedar told us. “It shows that people have the capacity to grow and to come back into their communities when they leave prison.
“These two particular men have such courage, vulnerability, integrity – and they’re not here tonight and they should be. The story is about them, it was built with them.”
An alleged attack by the Manchester Arena bomb plotter on prison officers at a high-security jail “will stick with” those impacted “for the rest of their lives”, a former officer and colleague of the victims has said.
Hashem Abedi is accused of violently assaulting officers at HMP Frankland in Durham last weekend, using hot cooking oil and an improvised, or homemade, weapon.
He was serving his sentence in a separation unit, known as a “jail within a jail”, after being found guilty of 22 counts of murder for helping his brother Salman Abedi carry out a suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in 2017.
The attack has raised fresh questions about the safety of prison staff.
Inmates inside separation units had access to cooking facilities, which has now been suspended.
Abedi was moved back to Belmarsh after the alleged attack
‘It will stick with them for life’
Matthew, who only wants to be referred to by his first name, worked with the officers who were hospitalised following the attack.
“I’ve spoken to ex-colleagues who I’m still friends with,” he told Sky News.
“They’ve not discussed the specifics of the incident, but they’ve said it will stick with them for the rest of their lives.”
Matthew broke down as he described the “obscene” and “ludicrous” levels of violence that staff face inside prison.
He’s worked at a number of different jails.
“I’ve been there when you’re mopping your colleagues’ blood… when you’ve seen a serious assault, and you don’t know if they’re gonna be OK, and then 10 minutes later, you’ve got to get back on with your day, you’ve got to carry on running the regime,” he said.
“It is difficult, and it is awful.”
Matthew worked with the officers who were hospitalised
‘No adequate protection’
There were 10,496 assaults against prison staff in England and Wales in the 12 months to September – a 19% rise on the previous year.
“The reality is there’s no adequate protections for prison staff, and that’s a great frustration,” the general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association union, Steve Gillan, told Sky News.
Having visited HMP Frankland earlier in the week, and spoken to many of the officers who were involved, Mr Gillan described the mood among colleagues as one of “anger, frustration, and sadness”.
The association, which represents prison officers, is calling for a “reset” – and for staff to be given stab-proof vests and tasers in “certain circumstances”.
Read more:
Prisons now 98.9% full
Fewer criminals to be jailed
Steve Gillan
‘The entire system needs to change’
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she shared “the country’s shock and anger” at the attack.
The government has launched a review that will look at how it was able to happen, and will also consider how separation centres are run.
The Prison Service is also conducting a “snap” review into whether protective body armour should be available to frontline staff.
But ex-officer Matthew said “nobody is ever truly safe” in the prison service, with staff facing “impossible challenges every day”.
“The entire system needs to change,” he added. “From the ground up.”
Unwary travellers returning from the EU risk having their sandwiches and local delicacies, such as cheese, confiscated as they enter the UK.
The luggage in which they are carrying their goodies may also be seized and destroyed – and if Border Force catch them trying to smuggle meat or dairy products without a declaration, they could face criminal charges.
The new jeopardy has come about because last weekend, the government quietly “extended” its “ban on personal meat imports to protect farmers from foot and mouth”.
This may or may not be bureaucratic over-reaction.
It’s certainly just another of the barriers EU and UK authorities are busily throwing up between each other and their citizens – at a time when political leaders keep saying the two sides should be drawing together in the face of Donald Trump’s attacks on European trade and security.
Keir Starmer’s been embarking on a reset with European leaders. Pic: Reuters
The ban on bringing back “cattle, sheep, goat, and pig meat, as well as dairy products, from EU countries into Great Britain for personal use” is meant “to protect the health of British livestock, the security of farmers, and the UK’s food security.”
There are bitter memories of previous outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in this country, in 1967 and 2001.
In 2001, there were more than 2,000 confirmed cases of infection resulting in six million sheep and cattle being destroyed. Footpaths were closed across the nation and the general election had to be delayed.
In the EU this year, there have been five cases confirmed in Slovakia and four in Hungary. There was a single outbreak in Germany in January, though Defra, the UK agriculture department, says that’s “no longer significant”.
The UK imposed bans on personal meat and dairy imports from those countries, and Austria, earlier this year.
Authorities carry disinfectant near a farm in Dunakiliti, Hungary. Pic: Reuters
Better safe than sorry?
None of the cases of infection are in the three most popular countries for UK visitors – Spain, France, and Italy – now joining the ban. Places from which travellers are most likely to bring back a bit of cheese, salami, or chorizo.
Could the government be putting on a show to farmers that it’s on their side at the price of the public’s inconvenience, when its own measures on inheritance tax and failure to match lost EU subsidies are really doing the farming community harm?
Many will say it’s better to be safe than sorry, but the question remains whether the ban is proportionate or even well targeted on likely sources of infection.
Read more: The products you can’t bring into Britain from the EU
No more gourmet chorizo brought back from Spain for you. File pic: iStock
A ‘Brexit benefit’? Don’t be fooled
The EU has already introduced emergency measures to contain the disease where it has been found. Several thousand cattle in Hungary and Slovenia have been vaccinated or destroyed.
The UK’s ability to impose the ban is not “a benefit of Brexit”. Member nations including the UK were perfectly able to ban the movement of animals and animal products during the “mad cow disease” outbreak in the 1990s, much to the annoyance of the British government of the day.
Since leaving the EU, England, Scotland and Wales are no longer under EU veterinary regulation.
Northern Ireland still is because of its open border with the Republic. The latest ban does not cover people coming into Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man.
Rather than introducing further red tape of its own, the British government is supposed to be seeking closer “alignment” with the EU on animal and vegetable trade – SPS or “sanitary and phytosanitary” measures, in the jargon.
A ban on cheese? That’s anything but cracking. Pic: iStock
UK can’t shake ties to EU
The reasons for this are obvious and potentially make or break for food producers in this country.
The EU is the recipient of 67% of UK agri-food exports, even though this has declined by more than 5% since Brexit.
The introduction of full, cumbersome, SPS checks has been delayed five times but are due to come in this October. The government estimates the cost to the industry will be £330m, food producers say it will be more like £2bn.
With Brexit, the UK became a “third country” to the EU, just like the US or China or any other nation. The UK’s ties to the European bloc, however, are much greater.
Half of the UK’s imports come from the EU and 41% of its exports go there. The US is the UK’s single largest national trading partner, but still only accounts for around 17% of trade, in or out.
The difference in the statistics for travellers are even starker – 77% of trips abroad from the UK, for business, leisure or personal reasons, are to EU countries. That is 66.7 million visits a year, compared to 4.5 million or 5% to the US.
And that was in 2023, before Donald Trump and JD Vance’s hostile words and actions put foreign visitors off.
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Trump: ‘Europe is free-loading’
More bureaucratic botheration
Meanwhile, the UK and the EU are making travel between them more bothersome for their citizens and businesses.
This October, the EU’s much-delayed EES or Entry Exit System is due to come into force. Every foreigner will be required to provide biometric information – including fingerprints and scans – every time they enter or leave the Schengen area.
From October next year, visitors from countries including the UK will have to be authorised in advance by ETIAS, the European Travel and Authorisation System. Applications will cost seven euros and will be valid for three years.
Since the beginning of this month, European visitors to the UK have been subject to similar reciprocal measures. They must apply for an ETA, an Electronic Travel Authorisation. This lasts for two years or until a passport expires and costs £16.
The days of freedom of movement for people, goods, and services between the UK and its neighbours are long gone.
The British economy has lost out and British citizens and businesses suffer from greater bureaucratic botheration.
Nor has immigration into the UK gone down since leaving the EU. The numbers have actually gone up, with people from Commonwealth countries, including India, Pakistan and Nigeria, more than compensating for EU citizens who used to come and go.
Editor’s note: Hands off my focaccia sandwiches with prosciutto! Pic: iStock
Will European reset pay off?
The government is talking loudly about the possible benefits of a trade “deal” with Trump’s America.
Meanwhile, minister Nick Thomas Symonds and the civil servant Mike Ellam are engaged in low-profile negotiations with Europe – which could be of far greater economic and social significance.
The public will have to wait to see what progress is being made at least until the first-ever EU-UK summit, due to take place on 19 May this year.
Hard-pressed British food producers and travellers – not to mention young people shut out of educational opportunities in Europe – can only hope that Sir Keir Starmer considers their interests as positively as he does sucking up to the Trump administration.
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