'One Battle After Another' wins six prizes at Britain's BAFTA Film Awards

Politically charged action thriller ‘One Battle After Another’ has won six prizes, including ‘Best Picture’ at Britain’s BAFTA film awards. Vampire saga ‘Sinners’ and gothic horror story ‘Frankenstein’ each won three prizes. Paul Thomas Anderson was named ‘Best Director’ for ‘One Battle After Another’. Jessie Buckley won the best actress prize for ‘Hamnet’. Robert Aaramayo took the ‘Best Actor’ prize for the British indie film ‘I Swear’, beating stars including Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet.

The British awards offer clues about who may win at the Academy Awards in Hollywood next month. Hollywood stars and British celebrities, from Paddington Bear to the Princess of Wales, gathered Sunday for the British Academy Film Awards, where politically charged thriller ‘One Battle After Another’ and blues-steeped epic ‘Sinners’ fought it out for the top prizes.

The two films are both up for ‘Best Picture’ and snagged early prizes, with Wunmi Mosaku taking the ‘Supporting Actress’ award for ‘Sinners’ and Sean Penn winning the supporting actor trophy for ‘One Battle After Another’.

‘Sinners’ writer-director Ryan Coogler also won the prize for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, while ‘One Battle…’ filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson took the trophy for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’.

The best film nominees are ‘One Battle After Another’, ‘Hamnet’, ‘Marty Supreme’, ‘Sinners’ and ‘Sentimental Value’.

Shakespearean family tragedy ‘Hamnet’ was named best ‘British Film’ - a separate category - and oddsmakers suggested it could beat the front-runners to best picture if British film industry voters respond to the emotionally rich story, earthy English setting and intense performances in Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell’s historical novel.

Stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close and Ethan Hawke were among those walking the red carpet outside London’s Royal Festival Hall before a black-tie ceremony hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming.

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 is due to present 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 adaptation of the beloved children’s classic.

‘One Battle…’ went into the ceremony with 14 nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and acting nods for five of its cast. ‘Sinners’ was just behind with 13, while ‘Hamnet’ and the ping-pong odyssey ‘Marty Supreme’ each had 11 nominations.

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’.

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. In the Oscar nominations, ‘Sinners’ leads the race with a record 16 nominations, followed by ‘One Battle After Another’ with 13.

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’.

Directing contenders are Anderson for ‘One Battle…’, Josh Safdie for ‘Marty Supreme’, Coogler for ‘Sinners’, Yorgos Lanthimos for dystopian tragicomedy ‘Bugonia’, Joachim Trier for ‘Sentimental Value’ and Zhao for ‘Hamnet’. Zhao will be the first female director to win two BAFTAs if she takes the prize. She won the directing award in 2021 for ‘Nomadland’.

‘Best Leading Actor’ nominees are bookies’ favourite Chalamet for ‘Marty Supreme’, DiCaprio for ‘One Battle After Another’, Ethan Hawke for Broadway biopic ‘Blue Moon’, Michael B Jordan for ‘Sinners’, Jesse Plemons for ‘Bugonia’ and Robert Aramayo for playing an advocate for people with Tourette’s syndrome in biographical drama ‘I Swear’.

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.

Like every year, the world of entertainment lost several artists around the globe in 2025-2026. The ‘In Memoriam’ segment at the BAFTA Awards paid tribute to the departed. Alongside towering Hollywood legends, an Indian actor also featured prominently in the featurette. It was the late legendary Dharmendra, who breathed his last on November 24, 2025.

Dharmendra’s name and picture appeared next to those of German actor Udo Kier and French actor-singer Brigitte Bardot. British singer-songwriter Jessie Ware rendered Barbara Streisand’s title song of Sydney Pollack’s 1973 romantic film ‘The Way We Were’ in memory of the artists who passed away in the last year.

Robert Redford, American actor and filmmaker, who played the lead opposite Barbara in ‘The Way We Were’, also featured prominently in the segment. So did Annie Hall (1977), actress Diane Keaton, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star Catherine O’Hara, ‘When Harry Met Sally’ (1989) director Rob Reiner, ‘The Godfather’ (1972) star Robert Duvall and ‘The French Connection’ (1971) actor Gene Hackman.

Other artists who also featured in the segment at the BAFTAs this year include American actors Diane Ladd and Terence Stamp, British actor Pauline Collins OBE, British screenwriters Tom Stoppard and Graham Greene, among other artists and technicians. One of the longest snippets in the featurette, along with Redford, O’Hara, Keaton and Hackman, was reserved for Val Kilmer, from his memorable exchange with Tom Cruise in Tony Scott’s 1986 blockbuster action film ‘Top Gun’.

However, the internet couldn’t help but point out two major omissions in the BAFTAs’ segment – ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ actor Eric Dane and ‘Dawson’s Creek’ actor James Van Der Beek, both of whom passed away earlier this month. Other Indian actors like Manoj Kumar, Satish Shah, Asrani and others, who passed away last year, were also not featured in the segment.