BAFTA unveils the categories, voting rules and eligibility for the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards

BAFTA confirms the categories, eligibility, voting rules and timeline for the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards.

Entries open today, kicking off the countdown to one of the most anticipated nights in the global film calendar. Earlier this year, three million people tuned into watch the ceremony on BBC One, alongside over 20 million video views across BAFTA’s social platforms, with Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Zone of Interest and The Holdovers leading the wins.

BAFTA reviews all aspects of the EE BAFTA Film Awards annually with BAFTA’s Film Committee and film sector peers. The guiding principles are to celebrate creative excellence, level the playing field, provide a fair and robust process, encourage positive change, and evolve alongside the ever-changing industry landscape.

The 78th edition of the awards will take place on 16 February 2025. Several updates have been introduced. This year’s rulebook includes a new Children’s and Family Film award, a new points system to strengthen eligibility into the Outstanding British Film category, and expanded theatrical requirements for Best Film, alongside evolving the 120+ interventions implemented as part of the 2020 BAFTA Review on the basis of four years’ worth of membership, BAFTA View and voting data.

The full EE BAFTA Film Awards rulebook for 2025 can be found here.

Sara Putt, Chair of BAFTA, said: “Four years ago, we rolled out the most comprehensive set of Awards interventions in BAFTA’s history to level the playing field for talented creatives working in the screen arts. We’ve seen the impact of those changes in the four years of entry and voting data since – from more BAFTA voters watching more films than ever before to more women directors being nominated in the last four years than in BAFTA’s 77-year history. And our membership is now more diverse and better represents the talented people in our industry. There is still a long way to go. The mission we set out in the 2020 BAFTA Review continues to be at the heart of our annual rules, eligibility updates and membership advocacy – so that our Awards remain relevant, that they encourage positive industry change, and continue to champion and celebrate the very best in film making.”

Anna Higgs, BAFTA Film Committee Chair, said: “Four years of data from BAFTA View, voting and our membership shows us a wider range of films are being considered from a broader range of perspectives, resulting in a greater variety of talent and films nominated and winning across the board. This meant that the time was right to review categories where juries have played a significant role in recent years. This is a refreshed rulebook that champions our world-class cinema sector, bolsters our support of the children’s media industry, and creative excellence in British filmmaking. All while continuing to put levelling the playing field at the heart of all we do, because we know it’s still not a fair race from the start. We continue to passionately champion the principle that creative excellence exists in myriad forms. So, whether the work is a blockbuster or a small indie, a debut or a doc, an animation or a film not in the English language – it’s a privilege to help shine a light on these many, magical forms of filmmaking. We can’t wait to see what’s entered.”

TIMELINE

Friday 2 August – Entries open
Friday 6 December – Round One voting opens
Friday 3 January – Longlists publish
Friday 3 January – Round Two voting opens
Wednesday 15 January – Nominations Press Announcement
Wednesday 22 January – Round Three voting opens
Sunday 16 February – EE BAFTA Film Awards

KEY CHANGES

Children’s and Family Film – new category
A new Children’s and Family Film award will celebrate the very best films appealing to inter-generational audiences. This is the first new category to be introduced to the EE BAFTA Film Awards in five years, following the introduction of a Casting award in 2020. As previously set out in autumn 2023, the inclusion of a dedicated award for children and family films will profile the essential creative contributions of the children’s media sector.

Outstanding British Film – voting and eligibility change
Outstanding British Film is a category of national and international significance to BAFTA for showcasing the very best of British-made films. A new points-based system will strengthen the category’s eligibility criteria to provide clearer guidance on how films qualify. The new points system will encompass criteria such as nationality of the candidates for nomination, key department heads and cast, alongside collating information about co-productions, BFI cultural test, setting, source material, and the new Independent Film Tax Credit.

An update to the voting process has also been introduced. Moving forwards, all BAFTA film voters will determine the Outstanding British Film longlist, aligning with Best Film (the only other category that all BAFTA film voters participate in during Round One). Of the 15 longlisted films, the top five will continue to be automatically nominated, and a jury will continue to determine the remaining five nominations (bringing the total number of nominations to 10), whilst all film voters will continue to select the winner.

Best Film – eligibility update
The minimum number of theatrical screenings has been significantly increased to ensure British cinema audiences have ample access to Best Film contenders on the big screen. Films must be theatrically exhibited publicly for the first time on at least 50 commercial screens in the UK for at least seven days – the equivalent of at least 350 screenings. Previously, BAFTA mandated ten screenings per day for seven days to be eligible.

Director – voting update
From 2025, the Directing Chapter will determine the longlist and nominations in entirety. Juries previously determined six out of 16 places on the longlist as well as four out of six nominations. Additionally, the longlist will be reduced from 16 to a maximum of 11 in line with other categories. The gender parity intervention at longlisting stage, which has been instrumental in levelling the playing field for talented women directors since its introduction four years ago will continue. As in previous years, the longlist will comprise of the top women and men directors with gender parity upheld, plus (an update introduced last year) directors who identify as non-binary/gender diverse and any mixed-gender directing teams who rank within the voting results range of the top 10 women/men directors, to a maximum of 11. The number of nominations will remain at six. All film voters will continue to decide the winner.

Leading Actress, Leading Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor – voting update
The performance categories are voted for through a combination of jury, Chapter and all film member voting. From 2025, the longlists will continue to be determined by the Acting Chapter and longlisting jury (who decide three out of 10 places per category). All 24 nominations (six per category) will now be determined by BAFTA’s Acting Chapter. Previously, three out of six nominees per category were determined by nominating juries. The winners will continue to be decided by an all-film member vote.

Documentary – voting and eligibility change
Following a wide sector consultation, the definition of a documentary has been updated in the rulebook. Voters will also be asked to opt-in to the Documentary Chapter afresh. The partial use of a jury will continue at nomination stage (determining three out of five places), and all voters will select the winner in Round Three, not the opt-in chapter as in previous years.

Animation and Film Not In the English Language – voting update
Similar to Documentary, all members will be invited to opt-in afresh to determine the longlist in Round One and nominations in Round Two, whilst all film voters will be invited to determine the winner of both the Animation and Film Not in the English Language categories. Previously all rounds of voting took place via the opt-in chapter.

Screenplay – eligibility update
Moving forwards, screenwriters with ‘story by’ credits will be included as named nominees.

British Short, British Short Animation – eligibility update
A new Qualifying Festivals List for the British Short Animation category will be introduced. Qualifying shorts will need to have screened at one festival from BAFTA’s new British Short Animation Qualifying Festivals to be eligible for entry.

VOTING, CHAPTERS AND JURIES

The EE BAFTA Film Awards voting takes place over three rounds: Longlisting, Nominations and Winners.

• Round One voting will determine the longlists
• Round Two voting will determine the nominations
• Round Three voting will determine the winners

All categories except for the EE Rising Star Award are peer-voted for by BAFTA’s global voting membership, comprising almost 8,000 creatives and industry practitioners from all corners of the British and global film industry. Latest demographic information is here.

Voting takes place through a combination of all film member voting, specialist Chapter voting and juries. Chapters are made up of BAFTA members who hold specialist knowledge in a particular craft. Juries are comprised of BAFTA members with varied industry roles and experience and from diverse backgrounds, gender, location and age groups.

BAFTA encourages voters to watch as many films as possible at the cinema, and in addition makes all qualifying films available to watch on BAFTA’s online viewing platform, BAFTA View. To ensure a level playing field and fair consideration for all titles, regardless of marketing budget, members are allocated a randomly selected sample of 15 films before participating in Round One voting. Additionally, it is compulsory for all voters, including those in Chapters and juries, to watch all longlisted and nominated films in in any of the categories they wish to vote in.