Wellington’s Wētā FX (founded by Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor) has secured two Bafta nominations for its work on Better Man and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, while pope drama Conclave is the frontrunner. Photo / Supplied
Wellington’s Wētā FX (founded by Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor) has secured two Bafta nominations for its work on Better Man and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, while pope drama Conclave is the frontrunner. Photo / Supplied
Conclave leads with 12 nominations, including Best Film and Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes.
Artists from one of New Zealand’s most awarded visual effects studios have been praised alongside the best of British film talent this week as nominations for the 2025 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) were revealed.
Papal thriller Conclave scored the most nominations with 12, while Wellington’s Wētā FX has also secured two Best Special Visual Effects nods.
Robbie Williams as a CGI chimpanzee in Better Man. Wētā FX was responsible for the majority of the film's visual effects. Photo / Paramount Pictures
Monkey business seemed to play a key role in Wētā‘s success, with Sir Richard Taylor and Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning visual effects studio gaining the nominations for films that starred apes as main characters.
Robbie Williams biopicBetter Man saw artists take responsibility for nearly all of the film’s visual effects, with 226 different costumes and 50 different hairstyles from Williams' life recreated digitally foramotion capture chimpanzee.
Other talented staff also received recognition for their work on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is set generations after the reign of titular character Caesar from the original Planet of the Apes.
Wētā FX was responsible for all of the film’s visual effects, which included a cast of digital ape characters as well as large digital water simulations and environments.
The team from Better Man consisted of Luke Millar, David Clayton, and Keith Herft, while those up for their work on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes are Erik Winquist, Paul Story, Stephen Unterfranz.
“We are incredibly proud of our teams’ work and are delighted to see their commitment, innovative thinking, and creativity recognised on the global stage by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts,” David Wright, interim chief executive of Wētā FX said.
Wētā FX crafted the ape characters in hit film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Photo / Weta FX
Bafta frontrunner Conclave - which stars Ralph Fiennes as a clergyman responsible for the selection of the next Pope of the Catholic Church - has nominations in the major categories, including Best Film, Best Actor for Fiennes, Best Director for Edward Berger and Best Supporting Actress for Isabella Rossellini.
As well as Conclave, the other Best Film nominees are Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown and Emilia Perez.
Fiennes faces competition in the Best Actor category from Adrien Brody for The Brutalist, Timothee Chalamet for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Colman Domingo for Sing Sing, Hugh Grant in Heretic and Sebastian Stan for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice.
Ralph Fiennes: Sheds completely the skins of his previous arrogant heroes in Conclave. Photo / Supplied
To be crowned Best Supporting Actress, Rossellini must beat Jamie Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl), Selena Gomez (Emilia Perez), Ariana Grande (Wicked), Felicity Jones (The Brutalist) and Zoe Saldana (Emilia Perez).
Hot on the heels of Conclave is French Spanish-language crime-musical Emilia Perez, which received a total of 11 nominations.
Epic musical Wicked - which is the unofficial prequel to The Wizard of Oz and an adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical - has received a total of eight nominations, including Best Actress for Cynthia Erivio, Best Supporting actress for Ariana and Best Sound.
Cynthia - who stars as Elphaba in the musical - will go up against Karla Sofia Gascon for Emilia Perez, Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths, Mikey Madison for Anora, Demi Moore for The Substance and Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun.
In the Outstanding British Film category, 10 films have received a nomination; Bird, Blitz, Conclave, Hard Truths, Kneecap, Lee, Love Lies Bleeding, The Outrun,Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and epic Rome era sequel Gladiator II, which was directed by Sir Ridley Scott.
Sir Richard Taylor at the trophy cabinet at Weta Workshop in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The British Academy Film Awards winners will be announced at a ceremony held at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday, February 16.
The 2025 Bafta Awards will be held on Monday 17 February (NZT).
