BAFTA 2026: 'One Battle After Another' takes six awards, 'Sinners' and 'Frankenstein' win three each

Euronews · Feb 23, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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One Battle After Another, our favourite movie of 2025, has taken six top prizes at the British Academy Film Awards. Paul Thomas Anderson's dynamic politically-charged thriller about a group of revolutionaries in conflict with the state and themselves, won awards for best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and a supporting actor reward for Sean Penn. “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.” Having already won the top prizes at this year's Golden Globes, Anderson's epic further cements its standing as the favourite to win big at Hollywood's Academy Awards on 15 March. The film goes into the contest with 13 nominations although Ryan Coogler's Sinnershas a record 16 nods_._ Coogler did take home prizes for original screenplay, best musical score and Wunmi Mosaku's won best supporting actress for her 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.” 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.” Table-tennis drama Marty Supreme failed to take any prizes. “I absolutely can’t believe this,” he said. “Everyone in this category blows me away.” Much less surprising was the award for best actress going to Jessie Buckley for her role in Hamnet as the grieving mother Agnes Hathaway and wife of William Shakespeare. She also made history as the first Irish performer to win a best actress prize at the BAFTAs Immigration was a topic that was also raised by Akinola Davies Jr. who dedicated his BAFTA award for Outstanding Debut to his immigrant parents who "sacrificed everything" for their children's futures. The director won for My Father's Shadow, a coming-of-age drama set during Nigeria’s 1993 election crisis that follows two brothers navigating Lagos with their troubled father. He also made history at Cannes last year as the first Nigerian film to be selected for the prestigious film festival. “Representing Nigeria to me is a real badge of honour,” Davies Jr. told Euronews Culture. “I am extremely proud to be Nigerian, proud to be African in general, and I think our stories are incredibly universal.” And there was further success for Joachim Trier's dysfunctional family drama Sentimental Value which collected the prize for the best film not in English. Last month it swept the board at the European Film Academy winning a total of six honours including best European film, best director and best actor and actress. In our review of Sentimental Value, we wrote: “Despite a predictable denouement you’ll have guessed by the end of the first act, Sentimental Value does come together as mature ode to trying one’s best and how, in some cases, life and art can converge to create something bigger." Read the full review here. BAFTA awards 2026: Full list of winners Best director Bugonia – Yorgos Lanthimos Hamnet – Chloé Zhao Marty Supreme – Josh Safdie One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson – WINNER Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier Sinners – Ryan Coogler Best leading actor Robert Aramayo – I Swear – WINNER Timothée Chalamet – Marty Supreme Leonardo DiCaprio – One Battle After Another Ethan Hawke – Blue Moon Michael B Jordan – Sinners Jesse Plemons – Bugonia Best leading actress Jessie Buckley – Hamnet – WINNER Rose Byrne – If I Had Legs I’d Kick You Kate Hudson – Song Sung Blue Chase Infiniti – One Battle After Another Renate Reinsve – Sentimental Value Emma Stone – Bugonia Best film Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another – WINNER Sentimental Value Sinners Outstanding British film 28 Years Later The Ballad of Wallis Island Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Die My Love H Is for Hawk Hamnet – WINNER I Swear Mr Burton Pillion Steve Best original screenplay I Swear – Kirk Jones Marty Supreme – Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho Sentimental Value – Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier Sinners – Ryan Coogler – WINNER Best adapted screenplay The Ballad of Wallis Island – Tom Basden, Tim Key Bugonia – Will Tracy Hamnet – Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell One Battle After Another – Paul Thomas Anderson – WINNER Pillion – Harry Lighton Best special visual effects Avatar: Fire and Ash – WINNER F1 Frankenstein How to Train Your Dragon The Lost Bus Best supporting actress Odessa A’zion – Marty Supreme Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas – Sentimental Value Wunmi Mosaku – Sinners – WINNER Carey Mulligan – The Ballad of Wallis Island Teyana Taylor – One Battle After Another Emily Watson – Hamnet Best supporting actor Benicio del Toro – One Battle After Another Jacob Elordi – Frankenstein Paul Mescal – Hamnet Peter Mullan – I Swear Sean Penn – One Battle After Another – WINNER Stellan Skarsgård – Sentimental Value Best film not in the English language It Was Just an Accident The Secret Agent Sentimental Value – WINNER Sirāt The Voice of Hind Rajab Best children’s and family film Arco Boong – WINNER Lilo & Stitch Zootropolis 2 Best production design Frankenstein – WINNER Hamnet Marty Supreme One Battle After Another Sinners Best make up & hair Frankenstein – WINNER Hamnet Marty Supreme Sinners Wicked: For Good EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public) Robert Aramayo – WINNER Miles Caton Chase Infiniti Archie Madekwe Posy Sterling