LONDON - All eyes will be on papal thriller "Conclave" and immigrant epic "The Brutalist" at Britain's BAFTA awards on Sunday, after an awards season crash-out for rival "Emilia Perez".
Until last month, French director Jaques Audiard's surreal musical, which got the second-most BAFTA nominations and had already won big at Cannes and the Golden Globes, was expected to be a frontrunner at the British film awards.
But old racist and Islamophobic tweets by lead actor Karla Sofia Gascon surfaced at the end of January, crashing the campaign for "Emilia Perez" and shaking up the race days before the London ceremony, just weeks before the Oscars.
Demi Moore, Timothee Chalamet and Ariana Grande are among the stars set to attend the glitzy night hosted by "Doctor Who" and "Good Omens" star David Tennant, which will set the tone for Hollywood's biggest night on March 2.
British cinema will be in the spotlight, with "Bird" by Andrea Arnold, "Blitz" by Steve McQueen, "Gladiator II" by Ridley Scott, and the new "Wallace and Gromit" all nominated in a dedicated category.
An underdog success story already awarded at Sundance, "Kneecap", a docu-drama about an audacious trio of Northern Irish rappers, could also cause a stir in the six categories where it is nominated.
But "Conclave" is leading the pack with 12 nominations, unlike the Oscars and Golden Globe shortlists which favoured "Emilia Perez" and "The Brutalist".
The BAFTAs -- the biggest night of the year for the British film industry -- regularly diverge from the films favoured by the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
This year, the BAFTA has thrown its weight behind the papal drama "Conclave" by German-born director Edward Berger, who won big in London two years ago with "All Quiet on the Western Front".
But "The Brutalist", a three-hour epic about a Holocaust-survivor and architect portrayed by Adrien Brody, promises to be formidable competition in nine categories.
They will compete for the best film award with the Palme d'Or winner "Anora", the Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown", and "Emilia Perez", which tells the story of a Mexican drug lord's transition to a woman.