2026 BAFTA Awards

British cinema’s night of nights threw up some big surprises and the odd difficult one, too. Overall, though, the BAFTA voters played roughly the tunes everyone expected – with only Marty Supreme and Timothée Chalamet’s loss to Robert Aramayo for I Swear in the Best Actor category counting as the one major surprise.

Elsewhere, Paul Thomas Anderson’s revolutionary caper One Battle After Another picked up one award after another, Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Adopted Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, and Jessie Buckley’s heart-rending performance in Hamnet earned the Irish actress the gong everyone predicted.

But, hey, art isn’t a competition – it’s really about sharing the good word on excellent films (and Marty Supreme is definitely one of those) and this year has thrown up more than a handful of them.

One Battle After Another – Best Film, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Cinematography and Editing.

The night’s biggest winner was Paul Thomas Anderson’s counter-culture thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a burnt-out revolutionary, Chase Infiniti as his firebrand daughter, and Sean Penn as a military type with issues. The film, surely a hot Oscar favourite, won six BAFTAs.

Hamnet - Outstanding British Film and Leading Actress Jessie Buckley was a popular winner for Best Actress for her turn as Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s devastating grief memoir. An international production across the board but filmed entirely in the UK, the film also took away the Outstanding British Film.

I Swear – Best Actor

No question about the night’s big surprise: Robert Aramayo’s triumph in the Best Actor bracket. Already the BAFTA Rising Star winner for this year, the relative newcomer picked up the big prize for his performance as Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson.

Frankenstein – Best Costume Design, Make Up & Hair and Production Design

As expected, Guillermo Del Toro’s monster movie lurched away with big wins in the craft categories, including Costume Design, Make Up & Hair and Production Design.

Sinners – Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Original Score

Ryan Coogler’s blockbusting musical vampire horror missed out on Best Film but won three BAFTAs on the night, including a very popular Best Supporting Actress win for Wunmi Mosaku, Original Score and an Original Screenplay triumph for Coogler himself.

Sentimental Value – Film Not in the English Language

Joachim Trier is a master of modern character dramas and his latest is another quiet gem. It missed out in the acting categories but won in the BAFTAs’ equivalent of Best International

Film. Expect an Oscar to follow.

My Father’s Shadow – Outstanding Debut

Filmmaking siblings Wade and Akinola Davies Jr channelled their own boyhoods in Nigerian into the powerful and personal My Father’s Shadow. It won the pair an Outstanding Debut BAFTA.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin – Documentary

David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin’s penetrating doc, filmed over two years in a Urals primary school, lays bare the levels of state control in Putin’s Russia. The film, which premiered at Sundance last year, won Best Documentary.

Zootropolis 2 – Animated Film

With $1.7 billion clutched in its sweaty paws, Disney’s animated sequel now has awards love to go with all that cashola. Zootropolis 2 won Best Animation. If it wins the same award at the Oscars under its US name of Zootopia, will it be the first film to win under two different names? We’ll look that up.