BAFTA 2025: Conclave Director Shares His Two Cents on Controversies Surrounding Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist

Conclave director Edward Berger reflected on the controversies surrounding Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist while competing against these projects at the BAFTA Awards. Read the details below.

Written by Rashi Desai , Entertainment Journalist

Published on Feb 16, 2025 | 11:38 PM IST | 29.5K

Conclave via YouTube

Conclave director Edward Berger has shared his thoughts on the controversies surrounding the films Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist. While competing against these two films at the BAFTA Awards, the filmmaker provided a fresh perspective and compared how the conversations around each project differed.

In a conversation with Deadline, Berger expressed that when advanced technology is used in a film, it only enhances it. He made this statement in reference to the controversy surrounding the use of AI in The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody.

The BAFTA-nominated filmmaker was asked about his take on Emilia Pérez suffering due to polarizing social media posts by the lead actress of the movie, and The Brutalist facing criticism for its use of AI, which the interviewer said wasn’t worth discussing as it would become normalized in the coming days.

Berger responded, “When new technology emerges, it will always find its way into movies. We did it with sound; we did it with color; we did it with VFX. People probably once said, ‘Look, how can you use computers to generate VFX?’ There was an uproar, and then it just became... progress.”

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He further added, “Technology and progress in film go hand in hand. We’re all under pressure to make movies within a certain budget. If this helps the actor, if it helps get the movie done under ethically correct conditions, and if we ensure that people aren’t losing their jobs left and right, then there will be many more of these advancements in the future.”

Karla Sofía Gascón has been under scrutiny for allegedly hurting the sentiments of certain communities with her old posts following her nomination for Emilia Pérez. Meanwhile, the makers of The Brutalist faced criticism for using AI to adjust the actors’ accents.