BAFTA Awards 2026 Full Winners List and Highlights: 'One Battle After Another' Wins 6 Trophies, 'Sinners', 'Frankenstein', 'Hamnet', 'I Swear' Win Big

LONDON (JILL LAWLESS), February 23: Politically charged thriller One Battle After Another won six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building momentum ahead of Hollywood's Academy Awards next month. Blues-steeped vampire epic Sinners and gothic horror story Frankenstein won three awards each, while Shakespearean family tragedy Hamnet won two including best British film. BAFTA 2026: India's 'Boong' Clinches Best Children's and Family Film Award, Farhan Akhtar’s Production Makes History.

One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson's explosive film about a group of revolutionaries in chaotic conflict with the state, won awards for directing, adapted screenplay, cinematography and editing, as well as for Sean Penn's supporting performance as an obsessed military officer. "This is very overwhelming and wonderful," Anderson said as he accepted the directing prize. He paid tribute to his longstanding assistant director, Adam Somner, who died of cancer in November 2024 a few weeks into production. "We have a line from Nina Simone that we used in our film, 'I know what freedom is: It's no fear,'" the director said. "Let's keep making things without fear. It's a good idea." BAFTAs 2026: Stunning Alia Bhatt Presents Award in Hindi, Wins Hearts With ‘Namashkar’ (Watch Video).

'One Battle After Another' Director Paul Thomas Anderson Pays Tribute to Late Adam Somner - Watch Video:

Bookies' favourite Jessie Buckley won the best actress prize for playing grieving mother Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet. Buckley, 36, is the first Irish performer to win a best actress prize at the awards, known as BAFTAs. She dedicated her award "to the women past, present and future who taught me and continue to teach me how to do it differently."

Full List of Winners of the 2026 British Academy Film Awards:

Film - “One Battle After Another”

British Film - “Hamnet”

Director - Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”

Actor - Robert Aramayo, “I Swear”

Actress - Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”

Supporting Actor - Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”

Supporting Actress - Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”

Rising Star (voted for by the public) - Robert Aramayo

Outstanding British Debut - Akinola Davies Jr. and Wale Davies for writing and directing “My Father’s Shadow”

Original Screenplay - Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”

Adapted Screenplay - Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”

Film Not in the English Language - “Sentimental Value”

Musical Score - “Sinners”

Cinematography - Michael Bauman, “One Battle After Another”

Editing - Andy Jurgensen, “One Battle After Another”

Production Design - “Frankenstein”

Costume Design - Kate Hawley, “Frankenstein”

Sound - “Sentimental Value”

Casting - Lauren Evans, “I Swear”

Visual Effects - “Avatar: Fire and Ash”

Makeup and Hair - “Frankenstein”

Animated Film - “Zootropolis 2” (released in the U.S. as “Zootopia 2”)

British Short Film - “This is Endometriosis”

British Short Animation - “Two Black Boys in Paradise”

Children’s and Family Film - “Boong”

Documentary - “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema - Clare Binns, Creative Director of PictureHouse Cinemas.

BAFTA Fellowship - NBCUniversal Entertainment chairperson Donna Langley.

BAFTAs 2026: Surprise Win for Robert Aramayo for 'I Swear'

In a major upset, Robert Aramayo won the best actor category for his performance in I Swear, a fact-based British indie drama about a campaigner for people with Tourette syndrome. The 33-year-old British actor looked stunned and called the victory over Ethan Hawke, Michael B Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet "absolutely mad." "I absolutely can't believe this," he said. "Everyone in this category blows me away." BAFTAs 2026: Who Was the First Indian To Receive a BAFTA Award?

Sinners took home trophies for director Ryan Coogler's original screenplay, the film's musical score and for Wunmi Mosaku's supporting actress performance as herbalist and healer Annie. The British-Nigerian actor said that in the role she found "a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and my connection, parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in."

BAFTAs 2026: Stars and Royalty

Hollywood stars and British celebrities, from Paddington Bear to the Prince and Princess of Wales, gathered at London's Royal Festival Hall for the awards. DiCaprio, Chalamet, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close and Ethan Hawke were among the stars walking the red carpet before a black-tie ceremony hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming. BAFTA 2026 Pays Tribute to Dharmendra: Bollywood Legend With Irrfan Khan and Dilip Kumar in ‘In Memoriam’ Hall of Fame (Watch Video).

Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales also attended, three days after William's uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by police and held for 11 hours over allegations he sent sensitive government information to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The scandal has rocked the royal family led by King Charles III, though William and Kate remain popular standard-bearers for the monarchy. William presented an award in his role as president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Among the biggest receptions from gathered fans was for Paddington, the puppet bear who stars in a musical stage adaption of the beloved children's classic.

Oscars Bellwether

The British prizes, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, often provide hints about who will win at Hollywood's Academy Awards, held this year on March 15. Sinners has a record 16 Oscar nominations, followed by One Battle After Another with 13. One Battle went into the BAFTAs ceremony with 14 nominations. Sinners was just behind with 13, while Hamnet had 11.

Ping-pong odyssey Marty Supreme also had 11 nominations but went home empty-handed. Guillermo del Toro's reimagining of Frankenstein and Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value each got eight nominations. Frankenstein took awards for production design, costume design and for the hair and makeup artists who spent 10 hours a day transforming Jacob Elordi into the movie's monstrous creature. Sentimental Value won the prize for the best film not in English.

Cumming told the audience that it had been a strong year for cinema, if not a cheerful one, with nominated films tackling themes including child death, racism and political violence: "Watching the films this year was like taking part in a collective nervous breakdown," he said. "It's almost as though there are events going on in the real world that are influencing filmmakers."

The ceremony was more glitz than gloom, though, including a performance by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami — the voices of animated band HUNTR/X in box office juggernaut KPop Demon Hunters — singing the movie hit "Golden."

Vladimir Putin Critic Wins Best Documentary

The best-documentary prize went to Mr. Nobody Against Putin, about a Russian teacher who documented the propaganda imposed on Russian schools after the invasion of Ukraine. The film's American director David Borenstein said that teacher Pavel Talankin had shown that "whether it's in Russia or the streets of Minneapolis, we always face a moral choice," referring to the protests against US immigration enforcement in Minnesota. "We need more Mr. Nobodies," he said. It beat documentaries including Mstyslav Chernov's harrowing Ukraine war portrait 2000 Meters to Andriivka, co-produced by The Associated Press and Frontline PBS.

Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8,500 members of the UK academy of industry professionals. The Rising Star award, which is decided by public vote, went to Aramayo. Donna Langley, the UK-born chairwoman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, was awarded the British Academy's highest honour, the BAFTA fellowship.

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Associated Press writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 24, 2026 12:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).