Mohammad Rahal " BAFTA 2026 "

 BAFTA 2026 | "One Battle After Another" Wins 6 Awards

"Sinners" Makes History with Three, and "I Swear" Stuns the Audience

Mohammad Rahal :

Paul Thomas Anderson's political thriller "One Battle After Another" won six awards at the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony last night, Sunday, while Ryan Coogler's horror thriller "Sinners" took home three awards, setting a record for the most wins by a Black director. Kirk Jones' comedy-drama "I Swear," which explores Tourette syndrome, stunned the audience at the ceremony hosted by Alan Cumming at London's Royal Festival Hall, winning two awards voted on by film industry professionals and a third chosen by the public. In fact, the film's star, Robert Aramayo, left the ceremony with two awards: one for Rising Star and the other for Best Actor, a category that boasts a stellar lineup. His win was met with great surprise and admiration from the audience. "I Swear" also garnered an award in the Best Casting category. The BAFTA nominations set the stage for a fierce competition at the British Academy Awards, with "Battle by Battle" receiving 14 nominations, narrowly edging out "Sinners" with 13. Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Shakespeare's "Hamnet" and Josh Safdie's "Marty Supreme" each received 11 nominations. At the end of the evening, "Battle by Battle" celebrated its six BAFTA wins: Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn. The Best Supporting Actress award went to Wonmi Musako for "Sinners," which also won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for Coogler and Best Original Score. With this, "Sinners" extended its record as the most nominated film by a Black director in the history of the British Academy Film Awards, winning three awards. Coogler became the first Black director to win the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay. Frankenstein also won three BAFTA awards: Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling. Hamnet took home two awards: Best British Film of the Year, and its star, Jessie Buckley, won Best Actress. Sarah Butt, BAFTA Chair, opened the 2026 awards ceremony on Sunday evening, praising this year's nominees and thanking them for giving audiences "windows into other worlds and, sometimes, yes, a refuge from our own." Director David Bornstein accepted the award for Best Documentary for his film "Mr. Nobody vs. Putin," referring to the United States, saying, "No matter how bad things get, whether in Russia or on the streets of Minneapolis, we are always faced with a moral choice." Among other political comments during the BAFTA awards ceremony, director Akinola Davis Jr., director of "My Father's Shadow," who won the award for Best Debut Work by a British Writer, Director, or Producer with his brother, writer and author Will Davis, concluded his acceptance speech with "Free Palestine!" Also on Sunday, Clare Binns, creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas and Picturehouse Entertainment, and "a driving force in UK film distribution," was honored with the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award. She told the BAFTA audience that the world needs more local cinemas. She also paid tribute to the late Robert Redford for founding the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival, saying, "He knew that above all, we must be prepared to take risks." Donna Langley, the first British woman to head a major Hollywood studio, received a BAFTA Fellowship, the British Academy's highest honor, telling the audience, "Integrity is a superpower."

At the close of the BAFTA Awards ceremony for "Battle After Battle," director Paul Thomas Anderson, to a standing ovation, praised the powerful films of the past year and addressed those who say films are no longer good: "Fuck you!