BAFTA 2025: Luca Guadagnino Faces Double Snub as Daniel Craig’s ‘Queer’ and Zendaya’s ‘Challengers’ Is Forgotten in Emilia Pérez’s Limelight
- Queer and Challengers did not manage to secure a nomination at the BAFTA 2025.
- Fans are extremely disappointed with Daniel Craig being left out at the BAFTA 2025.
- Daniel Craig talks about working on Queer.
The 78th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) is scheduled to be held on February 16, 2025, and is going to honor the best national and foreign films of 2024. The ceremony is going to take place at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre. David Tennant returns to host the ceremony. Where the audience was expecting that Luca Guadagnino’s successful releases were going to get their due credit, the nominations are surprising.
Mia McKenna-Bruce and Will Sharpe at BAFTA’s headquarters at 195 Piccadilly, London, announced the nominations. The nominations were streamed live on BAFTA’s YouTube channel. Selena Gomez’s successful movie Emilia Pérez secures the highest number of nominations and ties with last year’s trio Barbie, Killers of the Moon, and Oppenheimer. However, one snub from the British Academy has been unexpected.
BAFTA 2025 snubs Luca Guadagnino’s Queer and Challengers
The highly awaited 78th British Academy Film Awards nominations were announced on January 15, 2025. Where Emilia Pérez, starring Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, and more, secured the second-highest number of nominations after Conclave. Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey-starrer Queer was surprisingly snubbed.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Queer received a positive response from the critics and audience at the time of its release. Craig was nominated for a Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and SAG Awards for his exceptional work as William Lee. Craig’s character in the movie is an outcast American expatriate who becomes infatuated with a younger man portrayed by Drew Starkey.
Upon release, the critics mentioned that Queer is probably one of the best performances of Daniel Craig. Fans have expressed their disappointment with the Academy for leaving out Daniel Craig after his exceptional performance in the movie. X users went on to say, ‘So Daniel Craig got into SAG but missed BAFTA… Seriously, what the hell is happening this season? Another user wrote, ‘No Daniel Craig, are you f***ing kidding me?’
Queer wasn’t the only Luca Guadagnino movie that didn’t receive the credit it deserved, but the Zendaya-starring Challengers also joins the list of movies and actors who were snubbed. The love triangle between an injured tennis star turned coach, her low-circuit tennis player ex-boyfriend, and her tennis champion husband. Upon release, the movie went on to receive positive comments from critics and the audience.
Zendaya was highly praised for her work in the movie as Tashi Duncan, but it seems like the British Academy wasn’t impressed. The actress did not receive a single nomination at the BAFTA 2025, which, similar to Daniel Craig’s snub, surprised the audience.
Daniel Craig described Luca Guadagnino’s movies as ‘exceptional’
James Bond actor Daniel Craig appeared for The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable discussion alongside Colman Domingo, Sebastian Stan, Paul Mescal, Adrien Brody, and Peter Sarsgaard.
During the conversation, he was asked about his reason to be a part of Queer. Craig said,
I had no plan whatsoever. I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll never work again.’ But there’s a movie I did quite a few years ago called Love Is the Devil, which Luca is a big fan of. I play the reverse role in that movie [being the younger man in a gay relationship rather than the older one like Queer].
Craig mentioned that the filmmaker wanted to adapt Queer for many years, and the rights finally came free not that long ago, and he approached him. Daniel Craig noted he’d sweep the floor for that guy because, according to him, all movies of Luca Guadagnino are exceptional and individual.
The actor shared with his contemporaries that every day he had thought that the project was going to fail.
Queer holds a 78% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a special mention for Luca Guadagnino’s direction. Queer is available to rent on Prime Video. The 78th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) will be held on February 16, 2025.
