BAFTA Awards 2025: Winners & Highlights – ‘One Battle at a Time’ Wins Big
- London – Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another dominated the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards, taking home six awards including Best Film and Best Director.
- The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was also recognized for Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Editing.
- Robert Aramayo’s win for I Swear in the Best Actor category was a genuine shock, besting highly favored contenders like Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
London – Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another dominated the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards, taking home six awards including Best Film and Best Director. The win marks a significant achievement for Anderson and signals a potential momentum shift heading into the Academy Awards. The ceremony, hosted by Alan Cumming at the Royal Festival Hall, also saw Robert Aramayo unexpectedly claim the Best Actor prize, adding a layer of surprise to the evening.
The film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was also recognized for Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, and Editing. One Battle After Another led the nominations with a total of 14, solidifying its position as a frontrunner in this awards season. The scale of its BAFTA success underscores its critical and artistic impact.
However, the night wasn’t without its upsets. Robert Aramayo’s win for I Swear in the Best Actor category was a genuine shock, besting highly favored contenders like Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio. This is the first time in 25 years that BAFTA has awarded the prize to a performer who wasn’t also nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, with the last instance being Jamie Bell for Billy Elliot in 2000. Aramayo also received the BAFTA Rising Star Award, a public-voted honor, further cementing his breakthrough moment.
Jessie Buckley secured the Best Actress award for her performance in Hamnet, becoming the first Irish actress to ever receive the BAFTA in that category. Buckley’s win adds to a strong showing this awards season, having already claimed victories at the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globe Awards, positioning her as a potential favorite for the Oscar.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners also enjoyed a successful evening, securing three awards: Original Screenplay, Score, and Supporting Actress for Wunmi Mosaku. Notably, Sinners achieved the highest number of nominations for a film directed by a Black director in BAFTA history, with a total of 13. The film’s recognition is a significant step towards greater representation within the industry.
Sean Penn was awarded Best Supporting Actor for his role in One Battle After Another. The casting for I Swear also received recognition, winning the award for Best Casting, a category introduced in 2019.
Beyond the major awards, the animated film Zootropolis: City of Animals 2 was named Best Animated Film, while Close, starring Renata Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgård, took the award for Best International Film.
A particularly poignant win came in the documentary category, with Mr. Nobody vs. Putin taking home the prize. The film, a collaboration between Danish company Made in Copenhagen and Czech firm Pink, is directed by Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein. The documentary chronicles the story of a Russian teacher who fled Russia after documenting what he perceived as propaganda, and now resides in the Czech Republic. Mr. Nobody vs. Putin is also nominated for an Oscar, with the results to be announced on in Los Angeles.
Talankin previously stated, according to reports, that he would face severe repercussions were he to publicly express his views in Russia, highlighting the film’s courageous and politically charged nature. “For what I say publicly in the Czech Republic, I would have been in prison for many years in Russia,” he said.
The Czech Republic also saw success with another documentary, When the Pigeons Become Gold, directed by Pepa Lubojacki, winning an award at the Berlinale film festival in Germany. The film explores themes of homelessness and addiction within a family, and has garnered critical acclaim.
Helena Třeštíková’s time-lapse documentary René also received international recognition, winning the European Film Award in 2008. These successes highlight the growing prominence of Czech documentary filmmaking on the international stage.
The 2026 BAFTA Film Awards, while celebrating established filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson, also shone a spotlight on emerging talent like Robert Aramayo and Jessie Buckley, and underscored the importance of diverse storytelling through the recognition of films like Sinners and Mr. Nobody vs. Putin. The evening served as a compelling preview of the potential outcomes for the upcoming Academy Awards, and a reminder of the power of film to both entertain and provoke thought.