Skip to content

All you need to know ahead of the Bafta Film Awards 2026

Emma SaundersCulture reporter
News imageGetty Images Chase Infiniti, Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor at a promo event in London last year. Infiniti is wearing a black PVC jacket, DiCaprio is wearing a black T-shirt and jacket with sunglasses, while Taylor has on a racing-style cream and black zipped jacket.Getty Images
Chase Infiniti, Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor are all nominated for One Battle After Another

Hollywood stars are set to descend on London for the 2026 Bafta Film Awards on Sunday, the biggest night in the British film calendar.

An A-list showdown is expected between Paul Thomas Anderson's darkly comic political thriller One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ryan Coogler's vampire-horror Sinners.

Shakespeare drama Hamnet and table tennis biopic Marty Supreme are also among the films to look out for.

Jessie Buckley, the star of Hamnet, is favourite for best actress, while Marty Supreme's Timothée Chalamet is tipped to pick up best actor.

How to watch

Actor and The Traitors US presenter Alan Cumming is hosting this year's ceremony at London's Royal Festival Hall, picking up the baton from fellow Scot David Tennant, who has been at the helm for the past two years.

You can watch the show in the UK on BBC One and iPlayer from 19:00 GMT.

The ceremony starts at 17:00, two hours before its TV broadcast begins, which means winners will be reported in the news and on social media before being seen on television.

It will be screened in the US on E! at 20.00 ET.

Who are the main contenders?

One Battle After Another leads the pack with 14 nominations, followed by Sinners, Hamnet and Marty Supreme.

News imageA graphic showing the number of nominations the major films received at the Baftas, the top films are One Battle After Another which is leading with 14 nods, followed by Sinners with 13 and Hamnet and Marty Supreme, which both have 11

Chalamet is bookies' favourite to win best actor but faces competition from DiCaprio, Michael B Jordan (Sinners), Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon), Robert Aramayo (I Swear) and Jesse Plemons (Bugonia).

Irish actress Buckley is widely expected to win best actress for playing WIlliam Shakespeare's wife in Hamnet - but Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value), Emma Stone (Bugonia), Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another) and Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) are aiming to cause an upset.

Stellan Skarsgård and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas from Scandinavian family drama Sentimental Value are thought to be the frontrunners for the best supporting actor and actress trophies respectively.

Which Brits are flying the flag?

News imageGetty Images Wunmi Mosaku in a yellow off-the-shoulder dressGetty Images
British-Nigerian actress Wunmi Mosaku is nominated for best supporting actress for her role in US vampire horror Sinners

The only Brit up for best actor or actress this year is Robert Aramayo for I Swear, the critically-acclaimed biopic of Tourette's campaigner John Davidson.

The Hull actor is also one of five actors up for the EE Bafta Rising Star prize.

The best supporting actress category has the biggest British contingent, with Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners), Emily Watson (Hamnet) and Carey Mulligan (The Ballad of Wallis Island) all nominated.

Scottish veteran Peter Mullan is up for best supporting actor, where his competition includes Skarsgård plus Paul Mescal (Hamnet), Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another), Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) and Sean Penn (One Battle After Another).

Although the main categories are often dominated by Hollywood, the Baftas have additional categories that specifically recognise UK talent - outstanding British film and outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.

I Swear, 28 Days Later, Pillion, H is for Hawk, Hamnet and The Ballad of Wallis Island are among the British films acknowledged.

And while Wicked: For Good might have been shut out at the Oscars, it did land two Bafta nominations for British creatives - costume design (Paul Tazewell) and make-up and hair (Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier and Laura Blount).

What does it mean for the Oscars?

If you've got one eye on the Oscars next month, the Baftas might give you a clue as to who might pick up the top acting prizes Stateside.

All of Bafta's acting winners for the past two years went on to triumph in their categories at the Oscars.

In fact, 13 of the last 15 best actor winners at the Baftas have gone on to repeat their success at the Oscars, as well as 10 of the last 12 Bafta best actress winners.

Who is performing and presenting?

K-Pop fans are in for a treat, as Huntr/X singers Jae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami will perform their hit Golden, from animated movie KPop Demon Hunters.

However, unlike the Oscars, there is no best original song category at the Baftas, so the chart-topping track isn't nominated.

Jessie Ware will also take to the stage to perform during the ceremony's In Memoriam section, which pays tribute to the artists and creatives who have died during the past year.

As for the presenters, it's a who's who of famous names, led by none other than Paddington Bear.

Aimee Lou Wood, Bryan Cranston, Cillian Murphy, Riz Ahmed, Delroy Lindo, Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Olivia Cooke, Patrick Dempsey, Sadie Sink, Stormzy, Alicia Vikander and Little Simz will also be among those presenting awards, alongside some of this year's nominees including Michael B Jordan and Kate Hudson.

Meanwhile, this year's Bafta Fellowship honour will go to British-born Dame Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment.

Read more about some of this year's awards season films: