BAFTAs 2026 film awards - as broadcast
Feb. 23rd, 2026 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI’d only watched a handful of the movies up for nominations, so I wasn’t that invested, but watched it because it’s the most easy-to-watch film award ceremony, as always. [Edited later after catching up on the news.]Alan Cumming was fine as host, with three costume changes, one running gag with Paul Mescal (who is, after all Irish) about him barely knowing the British film luminaries that some awards are named after that got funnier because Mescal missed his cue on one of them. And there was a bit where he went into the audience and handed out British snacks to the main stars, who were polite, but bewildered, with Emma Stone bravely eating a Hula Hoop while it's still awards season, even if this is very much a year where she shows her acting chops by being just delighted at being a nominee.
Of the big films, Marty Supreme got shut out, Hamnet was considered British enough to win Best British Film and Jessie Buckley, of course, won Best Actress – nice that it was handed to her by her countryman Cillian Murphy; Sentimental Value got one award, but Stellan Skarsgard didn’t, despite much being made of it being his first nomination and first time there; Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein got most of the design awards; Sinners got some awards, but by the time they got to Best Film, One Battle After Another had won enough that it looked like the most likely winner, with a few of the speeches honouring the British-born First AD who passed away after production. (I suppose I’ll watch it when it’s on telly I don’t have to pay extra for.)
The big upset was when Robert Aramayo won Best Actor. (I thought Chalamet was favourite, but maybe he and Di Caprio cancelled each other out, and allowed local votes to go to the local, who gave a well-received performance as a Scot with Tourette’s syndrome.) He’d already won Rising Star (which is open to the public to vote, and I chose not to vote because I hadn’t seen any of the nominees’ most recent cinematic performances, and ‘not minding him as young Elrond’ isn’t a good enough reason to vote for someone.) Best Actor was supposed to be for all the Hollywood superstars to duke it out – and they were all there, unlike Sean Penn who won his category. Aramayo’s dad was clearly over the moon (pushing out the victorious costume designer’s daughter for most chuffed family member of the night.) Sometimes, the BAFTAs do this.
After the past week of royal history-making, Prince William was there because he’s the President (heh) of BAFTA and was awarding the Fellowship to Dame Donna Someone who got a very high-powered video (Spielberg! Nolan! Cruise! Emma Thompson!) bigging her up for being a lady studio head. Deep, deep in the subtext of her speech was what could be inferred to be an anti-Trump stance. Although an anti-Putin film won best documentary, it wasn’t really a political night. [ETA: Oh, wait, the Beeb's editing may have wrongly given this impression.] The camera only dared cut to the royals, because Princess Katherine had come too, for the best family and children award. And apparently there was one hugely parsed line about Prince William not having watched Hamnet because of his emotional state.
Unlike the rest of the internet/world, I didn't hear the n-word - that is, I could hear shouty heckling, but couldn't make it out, and didn't connect what was said in Aramayo's first speech or Cumming's apology with the likelihood that the man with Tourette's, who inspired the film I Swear was in the auditorium, and that that was one of the things that he'd involuntarily shouted out because of his condition. Full disclosure, I thought Cumming was talking about clips from the film. The Beeb has subsequently apologised for not cutting it out - when they edited other things that might have caused offence, but on balance were less offensive - and the whole issue of the edited broadcast airing after a couple of hours' delay and less analogue people already know the results has come up.
Of the presenters, I hope Stormzy brings a bit more charisma to his film roles. David Jonsson and Aimee-Lee Wood did seem to have a natural rapport as they co-presented, but Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gillian Anderson were even better, and Kathryn Hahn and Bryan Cranston’s bit was better still.
The camera had to seek out the young people (Jacobi Jupe of Hamnet was the ceremony’s tokeniest kid) for the K-Pop Demon Hunter singers’ performance. Jessie Ware sang a fabulous cover of ‘The Way We Were’ for the In Memoriam section, making the vocal her own, despite all the breaks for pictures and clips of all the big stars lost this year.
I loved that one of the K-Pop Demon Hunters singers wore what I take is traditional Korean costume, I loved the director(?) of the award-winning Family and Children film’s jewel-toned outfit, with more than a nod to Indian costumes. The colour blue (royal? electric?) did well in that the two winning actresses wore different versions. I liked Gillian Anderson’s patterned gown and Kathryn Hahn’s less revealing burgundy gown, but not so much the more structural gowns that some presenters wore.
Of the big films, Marty Supreme got shut out, Hamnet was considered British enough to win Best British Film and Jessie Buckley, of course, won Best Actress – nice that it was handed to her by her countryman Cillian Murphy; Sentimental Value got one award, but Stellan Skarsgard didn’t, despite much being made of it being his first nomination and first time there; Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein got most of the design awards; Sinners got some awards, but by the time they got to Best Film, One Battle After Another had won enough that it looked like the most likely winner, with a few of the speeches honouring the British-born First AD who passed away after production. (I suppose I’ll watch it when it’s on telly I don’t have to pay extra for.)
The big upset was when Robert Aramayo won Best Actor. (I thought Chalamet was favourite, but maybe he and Di Caprio cancelled each other out, and allowed local votes to go to the local, who gave a well-received performance as a Scot with Tourette’s syndrome.) He’d already won Rising Star (which is open to the public to vote, and I chose not to vote because I hadn’t seen any of the nominees’ most recent cinematic performances, and ‘not minding him as young Elrond’ isn’t a good enough reason to vote for someone.) Best Actor was supposed to be for all the Hollywood superstars to duke it out – and they were all there, unlike Sean Penn who won his category. Aramayo’s dad was clearly over the moon (pushing out the victorious costume designer’s daughter for most chuffed family member of the night.) Sometimes, the BAFTAs do this.
After the past week of royal history-making, Prince William was there because he’s the President (heh) of BAFTA and was awarding the Fellowship to Dame Donna Someone who got a very high-powered video (Spielberg! Nolan! Cruise! Emma Thompson!) bigging her up for being a lady studio head. Deep, deep in the subtext of her speech was what could be inferred to be an anti-Trump stance. Although an anti-Putin film won best documentary, it wasn’t really a political night. [ETA: Oh, wait, the Beeb's editing may have wrongly given this impression.] The camera only dared cut to the royals, because Princess Katherine had come too, for the best family and children award. And apparently there was one hugely parsed line about Prince William not having watched Hamnet because of his emotional state.
Unlike the rest of the internet/world, I didn't hear the n-word - that is, I could hear shouty heckling, but couldn't make it out, and didn't connect what was said in Aramayo's first speech or Cumming's apology with the likelihood that the man with Tourette's, who inspired the film I Swear was in the auditorium, and that that was one of the things that he'd involuntarily shouted out because of his condition. Full disclosure, I thought Cumming was talking about clips from the film. The Beeb has subsequently apologised for not cutting it out - when they edited other things that might have caused offence, but on balance were less offensive - and the whole issue of the edited broadcast airing after a couple of hours' delay and less analogue people already know the results has come up.
Of the presenters, I hope Stormzy brings a bit more charisma to his film roles. David Jonsson and Aimee-Lee Wood did seem to have a natural rapport as they co-presented, but Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gillian Anderson were even better, and Kathryn Hahn and Bryan Cranston’s bit was better still.
The camera had to seek out the young people (Jacobi Jupe of Hamnet was the ceremony’s tokeniest kid) for the K-Pop Demon Hunter singers’ performance. Jessie Ware sang a fabulous cover of ‘The Way We Were’ for the In Memoriam section, making the vocal her own, despite all the breaks for pictures and clips of all the big stars lost this year.
I loved that one of the K-Pop Demon Hunters singers wore what I take is traditional Korean costume, I loved the director(?) of the award-winning Family and Children film’s jewel-toned outfit, with more than a nod to Indian costumes. The colour blue (royal? electric?) did well in that the two winning actresses wore different versions. I liked Gillian Anderson’s patterned gown and Kathryn Hahn’s less revealing burgundy gown, but not so much the more structural gowns that some presenters wore.
