BAFTA Unveils 2026 Film Nominations Across Categories

Richard Lawson
By Richard Lawson
Entertainment
5 Min Read

The BAFTA film nominations are in, and One Battle After Another leads the field with 14 nods, closely trailed by Sinners on 13, with Hamnet and Marty Supreme landing 11 apiece. The announcement, read by actors David Jonsson and Aimee Lou Wood and streamed globally, underscores a year in which auteur-driven dramas and muscular studio releases are both firmly in the awards conversation.

British cinema makes a robust showing: titles like Pillion, 28 Years Later, The Ballad of Wallis Island, and I Swear break through in multiple races after being underrepresented stateside. Notably, Paul Mescal and Chase Infiniti bounce back from high-profile Oscar snubs with BAFTA recognition for Hamnet and One Battle After Another, respectively—another reminder that BAFTA voting often surfaces homegrown talent and distinctive performances overlooked elsewhere.

Table of Contents
BAFTA mask trophy and logo backdrop highlighting film nominations across categories

Leaders and Notable Surprises from the BAFTA Shortlist

With nominations spanning Best Film, Director, and across the crafts, One Battle After Another looks like the technical juggernaut of the season. Sinners matches its Oscar momentum while ceding the top spot by a whisker. Hamnet’s strength across acting and screenwriting reaffirms the film’s broad appeal, while Marty Supreme posts a quietly dominant tally across above-the-line categories.

BAFTA’s embrace of a wider British slate is a meaningful industry signal. Recent academy cycles show strong overlap in winners between BAFTA and the Oscars in headline categories, but the British contingent often charts its own course in nominations, boosting domestic productions and festival breakouts that grew on word of mouth.

A family, including a woman holding a baby, a young boy, and a man, walks through a forest with trees adorned with bones.

Full List of Nominations: Key BAFTA 2026 Categories

Best Film

  • Hamnet
  • Marty Supreme
  • One Battle After Another
  • 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
  • I Swear
  • Mr Burton
  • Pillion
  • Steve

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

  • Pillion
  • The Ceremony
  • Eastman
  • A Want in Her
  • My Father’s Shadow

Director

  • Yorgos Lanthimos (Bugonia)
  • Chloé Zhao (Hamnet)
  • Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)
  • Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)
  • Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)
  • Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

Leading Actor

  • Robert Aramayo (I Swear)
  • Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme)
  • Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)
  • Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)
  • Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)
  • Jesse Plemons (Bugonia)

Leading Actress

  • Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)
  • 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)

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)
  • Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value)

Supporting Actress

  • Odessa A’zion (Marty Supreme)
  • Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (Sentimental Value)
  • Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)
  • Carey Mulligan (The Ballad of Wallis Island)
  • Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)
  • Emily Watson (Hamnet)

Original Screenplay

  • Hamnet
  • One Battle After Another
  • Sinners
  • Bugonia
  • Frankenstein

Adapted Screenplay

  • I Swear
  • Marty Supreme
  • Sentimental Value
  • Sinners
  • The Secret Agent

Documentary

  • 2000 Meters to Andriivka
  • Apocalypse in the Tropics
  • Cover-Up
  • Mr. Nobody Against Putin
  • The Perfect Neighbour

Animated Film

  • Train Dreams
  • Arco
  • Boong
  • Lilo & Stitch
  • Zootropolis 2

British Short Film

  • Welcome Home Freckles
  • Magid / Zafar
  • Nostalgie
  • Terence
  • This Is Endometriosis

British Short Animation

  • Cardboard
  • Solstice
  • Two Black Boys in Paradise

Special Visual Effects

  • Avatar: Fire and Ash
  • F1
  • Frankenstein
  • How to Train Your Dragon
  • The Lost Bus

Context and Takeaways from This Year’s BAFTA Lineup

Blockbusters are firmly in the technical mix—F1 and Frankenstein surface repeatedly in effects and crafts—while authorial voices dominate the top races. That blend reflects a marketplace where audience hits and festival discoveries coexist on BAFTA ballots, a trend industry analysts at organisations like the BFI have noted in recent years with the growth of both high-budget shoots and independently financed features across the UK.

Claire Binns is recognised with a special career honour, underscoring BAFTA’s continued spotlight on champions of British exhibition and distribution. And with a clutch of first-time nominees beside veterans, this year’s field balances discovery with pedigree—an encouraging sign for the pipeline of new talent.

As ever, the nominations map the season’s centre of gravity: One Battle After Another and Sinners front-run across the board, Hamnet and Marty Supreme look poised for multiple wins, and the British categories showcase a deep bench. The stage is set for a closely fought final vote.

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