'One Battle After Another' wins 6 prizes including best picture at
Britain’s BAFTA film awards
[February 23, 2026]
By JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — 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.
“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.”
Bookies' favorite 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.”
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.”
“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.”
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.
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.
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Jessie Buckley poses with the award for leading actress for 'Hamnet'
at the 79th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, Sunday,
Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
 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.”
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 U.S. 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 U.K. academy
of industry professionals. The Rising Star award, which is decided
by public vote, went to Aramayo.
Donna Langley, the U.K.-born chairwoman of NBCUniversal
Entertainment, was awarded the British Academy’s highest honor, the
BAFTA fellowship.
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Associated Press writer Hilary Fox contributed to this report.
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