One Battle After Another defeats Hamnet and Sinners at Baftas, as I Swear’s Robert Aramayo takes best actor | Baftas 2026
Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture comedy War on Each Other, about a washed-up revolutionary trying to protect his daughter from a brutal military officer, dominated the Baftas, taking in six awards, including best film, best director, best cinematography, best editing, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay.
The film was inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland., It was nominated for 14 awards at Sunday’s ceremony; this earned them the most award nominations of any contestant, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor.
Anderson said: “Anyone who says movies aren’t good anymore is quick to get angry, because this is a great year. There’s a line in our movie that we stole from Nina Simone. She says, ‘I know what freedom is, it’s not fear.’ “Let’s continue to do something without fear.”
Anderson, who previously received the best director award, also commemorated the film’s last producer, Adam Somner, who passed away in 2024. “You may think your greatest export is Alfred Hitchcock or Charlie Chaplin, but for me it was Adam Somner,” he said.
“Three weeks after our film, he found out he was sick and went into production. If you’ve ever worked with someone who was very sick, it’s a miraculous thing, it makes you pay attention and reminds you of the privilege of the work we do. Thank you for sending it to me.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners, which explores racial and cultural erasure, took home three awards for best original screenplay, best original score and best supporting actress.
Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the Maggie O’Farrell novel about the tragic deaths of William Shakespeare, his wife Agnes, and their son, received two awards, including outstanding British film and leading actress for Jessie Buckley.
Buckley became the first Irish artist to win a Bafta for leading performance. Critics largely praised her raw and sincere performance as a mother grieving the loss of her 11-year-old son. She’s also in the running for the best actress award at the Oscars this March.
“This is an incredible honor,” he said. “I love what I do, I love cinema. I believe in storytelling to bring us together as a community, I believe in the voices of women who will tell us these stories. Chloé Zhao, you are making history as a storyteller tonight, thank you for your uncompromising artistry. And Maggie O’Farrell, thank you for the gift of this role.”
Buckley said she shared the award with her daughter, who “has been on the road with me since she was six weeks old. This is the best role of my life, being your mother, and I promise to continue to be disobedient so that you can belong as a young woman in a world with all its crazy, complicated and wild.”
In one of the biggest upsets of the night, Robert Aramayo beat out favorite Timothée Chalamet as well as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke and Michael B Jordan in the best actor category for his performance in I Swear, the British Tourette syndrome biopic about author and campaigner John Davidson.
Aramayo, who has previously won the EE Bafta rising star award, said through tears: “I absolutely can’t believe this, I can’t believe I’m in the same category as you, let alone standing here.”
Nominated in five categories, I Swear also won the casting award. Cumming thanked the audience for their understanding after a series of outbursts from Davidson during the show, including Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo shouting one-liners while presenting the award for best visual effects to Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Coogler became the first Black person to win in the best original screenplay category. “I wasn’t expecting this,” he said. “Joachim [Trier] “He was my mentor, he showed me how to be a better writer and filmmaker.”
Coogler expressed his gratitude for being a part of the communities that love him. “For all the writers staring at a blank page, think about who you love, think about someone you see in pain and help them feel better,” he added.
British-Nigerian actor Wunmi Mosaku won best supporting actress for her role as a vagabond enforcer and healer in Sinners, beating out Taylor and Carey Mulligan, who were favorites for her role in One Battle After Another. “I found a piece of myself in Annie,” he said. “I thought I had lost some of my hope, my ancestral power and connection, some part of myself, or tried to obscure it as an immigrant trying to fit in.”
Mosaku said that his character gives him the capacity for grief and hope in the face of this “tough” world. “Ryan [Coogler]Like the preacher boy, your gift comes from home and is big. I felt the presence of the pride and joy of our ancestors on your set every day, evoking gifts from the past and the future. “Your commitment to art, truth and humanity must be valued and protected at all costs.”
Penn won best supporting actor for his role as the chilling military villain Colonel Steven J Lockjaw in One Battle After Another. His win in a category that also included Paul Mescal and Stellan Skarsgård was one of the biggest upsets of the night. He wasn’t there to collect his award.
The Bafta for best documentary was awarded to Mr Nobody Is Against Putin, about Russian teacher Pavel Talankin, who secretly documents how his school has become a wartime recruiting center during the invasion of Ukraine. Co-director David Borenstein paid tribute to Talankin: “Two years ago he was a teacher, now he is a Bafta winner. Thank you for showing us that no matter how dark things are, whether in Russia or on the streets of Minneapolis, we are always faced with a moral choice. Whoever we are, to quote JRR Tolkien, there is power in our actions, courage is found in unexpected places.”
The award for outstanding debut feature by a British writer, director or producer was given to Akinola Davies Jr. for My Father’s Shadow. “I acknowledge the path that the past, present and future of my ancestors have paved before me, and I am eternally grateful,” the director said. He told those watching at home: “Archive your loved ones, archive your stories yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, for Congo, for Sudan, free Palestine.”
Guillermo del Toro’s film Frankenstein, which received eight nominations, won three awards in the categories of costume design, production design, make-up and hair at the night.
Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s Norwegian drama about two sisters’ relationship with their narcissistic, estranged father, played by Stellan Skarsgård, has been nominated for eight Baftas. It turned only one of these into a best non-English language film award. “It’s the first time a Norwegian film has won a Bafta. We’re much better at skiing, but here we are,” Trier said.
He added: “It’s clear that we live in a time where images are thrown at us rapidly. Many of these images are trying to sell us ideas, ideology.” This year’s films “make for deep, humanistic viewing” and encourage empathy and curiosity, Trier said.
The ceremony was opened by Cumming, who took over the reins from David Tennant this year. He said watching this year’s movies was “like taking part in a collective nervous breakdown” and then outlined some of the season’s biggest awards nominees.
“Then I thought, I know, I’ll watch a good animated movie to relax and cheer myself up. Do you know the plot of Zootropolis 2?” he said. “Lies, corrupt leaders, poisoning, and racial persecution. It’s too soon, Disney. Give us a break. What happened to the escape thing? I’m tired. It’s like there are events happening in the real world that affect the filmmakers. Do you resonate with anything in particular for you Americans?”
Zootropolis 2 later won the award for best animated film. Director Jared Bush said stories “have incredible power, they can bring joy and joy and wonder,” and that’s what the world needs right now. “We wanted to tell a story about differences and the fact that sometimes in this world right now we can make people think that our differences are bad or insurmountable or a problem,” he said.
Clare Binns, creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, has been awarded a Bafta award for her outstanding contribution to cinema. “I’ve been told to keep it short, which is advice I’d like to pass on to filmmakers,” he said, to cheers and applause from the audience, repeating comments he had first made to the Guardian.
Oppenheimer and Donna Langley, the British film executive behind hits such as Wicked, have been awarded a Bafta scholarship from Prince William, the organisation’s highest honour. He became the first Hollywood studio boss to receive the award.
