One Battle After Another beats Hamnet and Sinners at Baftas as I Swear’s Robert Aramayo takes best actor | Baftas 2026

One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture comedy about a washed-up revolutionary trying to protect his daughter from a ruthless military officer, dominated the Baftas, taking home six awards, including best film, best director, best cinematography, best editing, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay.

The film, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was nominated for 14 awards for Sunday’s ceremony, the most of any contender – including nods for stars Leonardo DiCaprioSean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor.

Anderson said: “Anyone who says that movies aren’t good anymore can piss off right now, because this is a great fucking year. We have a line from Nina Simone that we stole in our film. She says, ‘I know what freedom is, it’s no fear.’ Let’s keep doing things without fear.”

Anderson earlier accepted the award for best director and also paid tribute to the film’s late producer, Adam Somner, who died in 2024. “You might think your biggest exports were Alfred Hitchcock or Charlie Chaplin, but for me it was Adam Somner,” he said.

“Three weeks into our film, he found out he was sick, and he made it through production. If you’ve ever worked with someone who’s very sick, it’s very miraculous, it makes you pay attention and it reminds you of the privilege of this work that we do. Thank you for sending him to me.”

Meanwhile, Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller that explores racial and cultural erasure, took home three awards, for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Supporting Actor.

Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the Maggie O’Farrell novel about William Shakespeare, his wife Agnes and the tragic death of their son, took home two awards, including Outstanding British Film and Lead Actress for Jessie Buckley.

Buckley is the first Irish performer to win a lead actress Bafta. Critics have widely praised her raw and intimate portrayal of a mother grieving the loss of her 11-year-old son. She is also up for a best actress award at the Oscars in March.

“It’s such an incredible honor,” she said. “I love what I do, I love film. I believe in storytelling to bring us together as a community, I believe in women’s voices to tell us those stories. Chloé Zhao, you are making history tonight as a storyteller, thank you for your uncompromising artistry. And Maggie O’Farrell, thank you for this gift of a role.”

Buckley said she shares the award with her daughter, who “has been with me since she was six years old on this journey. It’s the best role of my life, being your mom, and I promise to continue to disobey so you can belong in a world in all your crazy, complex, wildness as a young woman.”

In one of the biggest upsets of the night, Robert Aramayo beat the favorite Timothée Chalametas 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 the writer and campaigner John Davidson.

Through tears, a clearly shocked Aramayo, who earlier won the EE Bafta Rising Star Award, said: “I absolutely can’t believe it, I can’t believe I’m in the same category as you don’t mind standing here.”

I Swear, which was nominated in five categories, also won the award for casting. Cumming thanked the audience for their understanding after a number of outbursts from Davidson during the show, including shouting the n-word when Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for best visual effects to Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Cooller was the first Black winner in the Best Original Screenplay category. “I didn’t expect that,” he said. “Joachim (Trier) was my mentor, he showed me how to be a better writer and filmmaker.”

Coogler expressed gratitude for being a part of communities that loved 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.

The British-Nigerian actor Wunmi Mosaku won best supporting actress for her role as a hoodoo practitioner and healer in Sinners, beating the likes of Taylor – the favorite for her role in One Battle After Another – and Carey Mulligan. “I found a part of myself in Annie,” she said. “Part of my hope, my ancestral strength and connection, a part of myself that I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in.”

Mosaku said her character gave her the ability to hope in the face of grief and this “hard” world. “Ryan (Coogler), like preacher’s son, your gift comes from home, and it’s big. Conjuring gifts from past and future, I felt the presence of the ancestors’ pride and joy on your set daily. Your commitment to artistry, truth and humanity is to be cherished and protected at all costs.”

Penn won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as cold-blooded military villain Colonel Steven J Lockjaw in One Battle After Another. His win was one of the biggest upsets of the night, in a category that also included Paul Mescal and Stellan Skarsgård. He was not present to collect his award.

The Bafta for Best Documentary went Mr. Nobody Against Putinabout a Russian teacher, Pavel Talankin, who secretly documented his school becoming a war recruitment center during the Ukraine invasion. 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 me that no matter how dark things get, whether in Russia or the streets of Minneapolis, we are always faced with a moral choice. No matter who we are, there is strength in our actions, to quote JRR Tolki found in other places.”

The award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer went to Akinola Davies Jr. My Father’s shadow. “I recognize the path that my ancestors past, present and future laid before me and I am eternally grateful,” said the director. For those watching at home, he said: “Archive your loved ones, archive your stories, yesterday, today and forever. For Nigeria, for London, the Congo, for Sudan, free Palestine.”

Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which received eight nominations, won three on the night, for costume design, production design and makeup and hair.

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 became only one of them in an award, for best film not in the English language. “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 being thrown at us at a rapid speed. Many of these images are trying to sell us ideas, ideology.” The films this year, Trier said, were “made for deep, humanistic viewing” and encouraged empathy and curiosity.

The ceremony was opened by Cumming, who took over the reins from David Tennant this year. He said watching this year’s films was “like participating in a collective nervous breakdown”, before listing some of the biggest awards season contenders.

“Then I thought, I know, I’ll watch a nice animated film to relax and cheer myself up. Do you know the plot of Zootropolis 2?” he said. “Lies, corrupt leaders, poisoning and persecution of a race. Too soon, Disney. Let’s cut it here. Whatever happened to escapism? I’m exhausted. It’s almost as if there are events going on in the real world that affect filmmakers. Ring any bells for you Americans in particular?”

Zootropolis 2 later won the award for best animated film. Director Jared Bush told stories “have incredible power, they can bring joy, excitement and wonder”, something the world needs right now. “We wanted to tell a story about differences, and the fact that sometimes in this world now we can be made to think that our differences are something bad, or insurmountable or a problem,” he said.

Clare Binns, creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, has been awarded the Bafta for outstanding contribution to film. “I was told to keep this short, which is advice I’d like to give to filmmakers,” she said to cheers and applause from the audience. comments she first made to the Guardian.

Donna Langley, the British film executive behind hits such as Oppenheimer and Wicked, has been awarded the Bafta Scholarship, the organisation’s highest honour, from Prince William. She is the first Hollywood studio boss to receive the award.