BAFTA Scotland 2025: The Winners

Scotland’s film and TV talent was out in force last night (17 Nov) in Glasgow for the annual BAFTA Scotland ceremony. James McAvoy, David Tennant and Alan Cumming all walked the red carpet, while Ewan McGregor was in town to pick up the biggest award of the night for Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television.

During his acceptance speech, McGregor confirmed that he’s now back living in Scotland with his wife, the American actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and said the pair of them were available for casting.

“I love to work with [Mary]," said the Trainspotting star. "We’ve been lucky enough to act together three times, and I want to do it more and more… We are now here in Scotland, so to save us the pain of having to be apart, maybe you could come up with lots of Scottish films that we can be in together.”

Hopefully some of the filmmakers in the room take McGregor up on the offer. By my reckoning, the last film he made here was David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense, which was 14 years ago, so it would be wonderful to see one of our biggest stars back in a Scottish production.

On Falling and The Outrun win big

There was a fierce tussle for the major film awards between two exceptional features: On Falling, Laura Carreira’s beautifully crafted portrait of a young woman caught in a cycle of poverty and loneliness while trapped working in the gig economy, and The Outrun, Nora Fingscheidt’s heady adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s book that's both a memoir detailing her fight with alcohol addiction and a celebration of the ferocious beauty of Orkney, starring Saoirse Ronan.

The accolades were pretty evenly distributed between the two films. Fingscheidt picked up Best Director and Ronan won Best Actress, winning ahead of the likes of Tilda Swinton (for The End), Karen Gillan (for Douglas Is Dead) and Izuka Hoyle (for Big Boys). Carreira, meanwhile, won for Best Writer and the On Falling team took home the Best Feature Film prize. Good, judicious work from the BAFTA judges. Carreira's win also gave us one of the most powerful speeches of the night, a rousing call for solidarity in the face of the cruel mechanisms of late-stage capitalism she depicts in her film. 

"[The rich and powerful] want us isolated, divided and afraid of each other," she said. "They want us to believe there isn’t enough for everyone, while they keep hoarding it all in their doomsday bunkers. And they want us to think that we’re just self-interested individuals and that in this world, we are on our own. But that is not our nature, and it has never been. And the truth is, we are only getting through these insane levels of inequality because we are refusing to let one another fall. Without that care and that solidarity, none of us would be here very long." 

James McArdle beats big names to Best Actor

One of the most competitive categories of the night was Best Actor. Usually, there are only three or four nominees in the BAFTA Scotland acting categories each year but this year there were six, and the Best Actor lineup was particularly stacked. There were three Doctor Whos for starters: David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and the current doctor, Ncuti Gatwa. Add to this trio James McAvoy for his sinister turn in Speak No Evil and rising star Ruaridh Mollica for his breakthrough role in Sebastian.

The top prize went to the most humane performance on the list: James McArdle for the warm comedy Four Mothers. It’s another fine pick by the BAFTA judges, but McArdle was clearly surprised he was their choice. While accepting his prize, he said, “My mum and dad are gonna kill me. I told them, ‘Don’t bother coming, I’m not going to win and the tickets [to the ceremony] are a fortune’.”

We were also chuffed to see Lisa Clarkson win Best Short Film prize for her bruising mini-drama Paternal Advice, based on a Janice Galloway short story. We wrote a bit about Paternal Advice when it won Best Scottish Short at Glasgow Short Film Festival earlier in the year. For the full rundown of BAFTA Scotland winners, head to bafta.org/awards/scotland