The nominees for the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards are locked in, leaving out Denzel Washington’s performance in Gladiator 2 and possibly marking the end of his awards campaign for Best Supporting Actor. While Ridley Scott’s legacy sequel to his critical and commercial hit from 2000 wasn’t strong enough to perform well during awards season as a whole, Washington’s magnetic and charismatic performance as the power-hungry Macrinus was a standout that seemed to have legs. The two-time Oscar winner earned nominations at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Golden Globes for his performance, but has yet to score any wins.
Washington lost the Golden Globe to Kieran Culkin, but the Critics’ Choice Awards have yet to be handed out.
The BAFTA nominations for the 2025 awards ceremony have been announced, and Washington isn’t among the names for Supporting Actor. Instead, the category includes Edward Norton (A Complete Unknown), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), and this awards season’s seeming favorite, Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain). This loss comes a week after the actor wasn’t nominated for a SAG Award, an important and consistent precursor to the Academy Awards.
What This Means For Denzel Washington’s Oscar Chances
History Isn’t Quite On His Side
Washington’s chances at a BAFTA nomination, and even an Oscar nomination, for his performance in Gladiator 2 may have unofficially ended a week ago, when the nominations for the SAG Awards came out. The SAG Awards are historically consistent in the sense that winners of the SAG Awards for Supporting Actor have also been nominated for the same category at the Oscars. There have been exceptions to this trend, like Inglourious Basterds‘ Christoph Waltz winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor without earning a SAG nomination that season.
A Golden Globe win for Washington would have propelled his chances for BAFTA and Oscar nominations, but he lost to Culkin. Unless there’s an upset at next month’s BAFTA Film Awards ceremony, Culkin is likely to earn the award for Best Supporting Actor, establishing his place as the frontrunner of his category for the 97th Academy Awards. With the nominations for the 2025 Oscars coming out January 23, there’s little hope that Washington’s name will come up as a nominee, as this year’s roster for the category is stacked with diverse and unquestionable talent.
Our Take On Denzel Washington’s BAFTA Snub And Dim Oscar Prospects
As a fan of Washington’s work, I am a bit disheartened to see that, throughout his four-decade-long career, the BAFTAs have yet to recognize his talent. However, I can acknowledge that this performance wasn’t the right one to help Washington finally break through that milestone. While his performance in Gladiator 2 was my favorite of the whole movie, the overall potential of the film wasn’t enough to boost Washington’s chances in this year’s awards season, and the category is simply filled to the brim with standout performances.
Source: BAFTA
