79th British Academy Film Awards

• 1. Introduction

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  The 79th British Academy Film Awards ran for three hours on the 22nd of February 2026, yet British viewers saw only two. The ceremony took place at the Royal Festival Hall, part of London's Southbank Centre. It honoured the best films of 2025, including documentaries and foreign-language work screened in British cinemas. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts presents the prize, and most people simply call it the BAFTAs. The edit that shrank the evening would become the story. Some material vanished from the broadcast, including a joke and part of a winner's speech. Something else stayed in, and it caused a storm. How did a film awards night end with a government committee asking questions? Why did a debate about British films turn into one about broadcast delays, involuntary tics and who a ceremony is for?

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• 2. Records and Shutouts

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  Sixteen mentions on the longlist made One Battle After Another the most longlisted film in BAFTA history. The longlists appeared on the 9th of January 2026. Hamnet and Sinners followed with fourteen each. Nominations came on the 27th of January, announced from BAFTA's headquarters at 195 Piccadilly by David Jonsson and Aimee Lou Wood. Jonsson had won the previous year's EE Rising Star Award. One Battle After Another again led with fourteen nominations. Sinners had thirteen. Hamnet and Marty Supreme each had eleven. Two of those totals carried historic weight. Hamnet became the most-nominated film by a female director. Sinners became the most-nominated film by a Black director. The winners' list then rewarded the leader. One Battle After Another took six awards. Frankenstein and Sinners won three each. Hamnet and I Swear took two apiece. Sinners also became BAFTA's most-honoured film by a Black director. Marty Supreme had a far harsher night. It won none of its eleven nominations, which tied the record for the most losses at a single ceremony. Among the acting winners, Robert Aramayo took Best Actor for playing John Davidson in I Swear. Wunmi Mosaku won Best Supporting Actress for Sinners.

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• 3. A Stage Full of Guests

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  Alan Cumming stood on the stage as host for the first time. He followed David Tennant, who had hosted in 2024 and 2025. BBC One and iPlayer carried the show at 7 p.m. GMT. In the United States the E! network aired it for the first time, as a pre-recorded special. Earlier years had been streamed there on BritBox. Viewers in Australia could watch on HBO Max. The entertainment was unusually global. The singing voices behind Huntrix, the fictional group in Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters, performed "Golden". Those singers were Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. It was their first live performance outside the United States. BAFTA's Emma Baehr said the film had made "a phenomenal impact on the hearts and minds of audiences of all ages around the world" since its June 2025 release. Later, Jessie Ware sang "The Way We Were" over the In Memoriam montage. It honoured figures including Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, Val Kilmer and Robert Redford. The evening's honorary prizes had been announced earlier. Donna Langley received the BAFTA Fellowship and Clare Binns received the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award. William, Prince of Wales, attended as BAFTA president, with Catherine, Princess of Wales. It was her first appearance since 2023.

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• 4. Fewer Brits, Louder Complaints

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  Rebecca O'Brien, the producer known for her work with Ken Loach, sees an identity problem. "In other countries, you have awards tailored to their national film industries, like the Goyas in Spain and the Césars in France," she said. In her view, the BAFTAs "fall between two stools: It's both a British awards show and an Oscars bellwether." The 2026 nominations gave that complaint fresh evidence. Only one British actor, Robert Aramayo, appeared in the leading actor category. The leading actress list had no British nominee at all, unless one counts Jessie Buckley, the Irish actress who is based in the UK. Peter Mullan was the only Briton nominated for supporting actor. The supporting actress category looked healthier. Mosaku, Carey Mulligan and Emily Watson were all nominated there. Variety's Guy Lodge asked a sharper question: "If the BAFTAs aren't for the Brits, who are they really for?" He argued that the awards had become a handy guide to the Oscars. Then he wrote: "But shouldn't they mean more in their own right?"

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• 5. The Cuts the BBC Made

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  Akinola Davies Jr. won the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, for My Father's Shadow. His speech ended with a dedication to people whose parents migrated for their children's sake. He named economic migrants, conflict migrants and people living under occupation or dictatorship. He urged them to "Archive your loved ones. Archive your stories yesterday, today, and forever." He ended by naming Nigeria, London, the Congo and Sudan, and added "free Palestine". The BBC removed that closing section. Viewers instead saw him thank his family and his brother Wale for "nurturing this spark". A BBC spokesperson said the live event had to shrink to fit its slot. The same happened to other speeches, and every edit was made "to ensure the programme was delivered to time". Deadline Hollywood offered context for the caution. The BBC had been stung by a national scandal the previous summer, when it streamed a Glastonbury act chanting "death to the IDF". Its executives and the outside producers at Penny Lane Entertainment wanted no repeat. Davies Jr. responded the next day. He called the cut "a shame" but said he was proud to have used the moment. Cumming's joke tying Zootopia 2's themes of lies and corruption to American politics was also dropped.

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• 6. The Shout in the Auditorium

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  The first prize of the night was Best Special Visual Effects. Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, both Black actors, presented it. During their presentation, John Davidson shouted a racial slur. Davidson is a Scottish campaigner for Tourette syndrome, and the film I Swear is about his life. He has coprolalia, a form of the condition that produces involuntary obscene or offensive words. He had several tic-related outbursts that night. Before the recording began, an announcement in the auditorium had warned guests about involuntary tics. Davidson later wrote that the audience applauded this warning, and he felt welcomed. BAFTA says it repeated the warning throughout the evening. Cumming apologised for any "strong language", while thanking the room for its understanding. Davidson left the hall of his own accord after about half an hour. Then came the broadcast. The BBC normally uses a two-hour delay to strip out material like this, but the slur went out. The BBC first apologised for not cutting it. A second apology followed, saying its producers "didn't hear" the word. The team supervising the show worked from a truck, and other offensive language had been removed. The recording stayed on iPlayer overnight, and the BBC then said it would remove the word from that version. Deadline Hollywood reported that a representative of Warner Bros. Pictures, the studio behind Sinners, complained to BAFTA within minutes. The studio reportedly received assurances that the concern would reach the BBC.

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• 7. Anger, Empathy and Argument

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  Delroy Lindo said later that he and Jordan "did what they had to do" on stage. He wished that "someone from BAFTA spoke to them afterwards". Production designer Hannah Beachler said Davidson had also aimed slurs at her and another Black guest. She called the situation "almost impossible" to address and said Cumming's "throwaway apology" made it worse. Jamie Foxx called the moment "unacceptable". Wendell Pierce called it "infuriating" and said BAFTA put Davidson's needs ahead of the feelings of Jordan and Lindo. Tourettes Action, a UK charity, pointed the other way. "Tics are involuntary," it said. They are "not a reflection of a person's beliefs, intentions, or character." Aramayo, who played Davidson in I Swear, said Tourette's is not "shouting obscenities" or "being abusive". Variety's Clayton Davis said Davidson, Jordan, Lindo, the Tourette's community and Black people all "deserved better". He faulted the organisers for not briefing participants and for calling the outburst "strong language". Stuart Heritage of The Guardian wrote that BAFTA "must get rid of their two-hour delay and broadcast live". Critics also asked how the BBC could trim walks to the stage and political remarks yet miss the slur. Politician Dawn Butler asked the BBC for an "urgent explanation". Jumaane Williams, New York City's Public Advocate and a man with Tourette syndrome, offered both criticism and compassion. "BAFTA could have censored the damn thing," he said.

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• 8. Statements and Reckonings

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  Davidson's own statement said he was "deeply mortified" if anyone thought his tics were intentional. He said he left the auditorium because he knew his tics were causing distress. BAFTA apologised "unreservedly" to Jordan and Lindo and praised their "incredible dignity and professionalism". On the 24th of February, it told members that a "comprehensive review is underway". In his first interview afterwards, with Variety, Davidson said he had been told any swearing would be edited out. He noted that he had made four documentaries with the BBC. He also questioned the decision to put a microphone just in front of his seat. On the 28th of February, the 57th NAACP Image Awards gave Jordan and Lindo standing ovations. Lindo called it "a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive." Cumming posted a longer apology on the 2nd of March, saying he was sorry for the pain Black people felt. He also criticised the BBC for choosing "to both broadcast slurs and censor free speech". Deadline Hollywood described a tense meeting between the BBC and Warner Bros., after a first requested meeting never happened. The studio wanted to know why the word stayed on iPlayer for fifteen hours.

  On the 6th of March, BBC Director-General Tim Davie answered the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in a letter to its chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage. He called the slur's survival a "genuine mistake" and said the BBC took "full responsibility". Nobody in the broadcast truck heard the first outburst, he wrote, so no editorial decision was made to keep it. The second outburst was caught, though. It came while Wunmi Mosaku accepted her award, and the edit team removed it at once. The error followed. When reports of a slur arrived, including from BAFTA, the editors assumed they had already dealt with it. On the 8th of April 2026, the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit published its findings. It ruled that including the outburst "had no editorial justification" and breached editorial standards, though the breach was unintentional. The BBC sent letters of apology to Davidson, Jordan and Lindo. BAFTA's own review, announced in February, still has no outcome in the source.

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