On Feb. 22, 2026, BBC aired the 79th annual British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs). With such a competitive awards race this year, all eyes were on this show, which was only amplified afterwards with the controversy involving Tourette’s activist John Davidson. This year had a lot of praise for “Sinners,” a huge Best Actor upset with Robert Aramayo taking home the prize, a record-tying amount of losses for “Marty Supreme” and controversial editing choices in regards to speeches.
This awards season has been particularly unpredictable, with titles such as “Sinners,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another” and “Hamnet” all vying for the top spots. This suspense has been especially heightened since every batch of awards so far has had significantly different slates of winners, so there are still no definitive favorites for the Oscars.
The BAFTAs were no different. The biggest upset was for Best Actor, with Aramayo of “I Swear” beating out heavy contenders like Timothée Chalamet, Michael B. Jordan and Leonardo DiCaprio. Aramayo also won the publicly-voted Rising Star award. This big loss was not the only one for Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme.” Despite being nominated for 11 awards, the film took home zero wins, tying “Women in Love” (1969) and “Finding Neverland” (2004) for the record for most losses. This was particularly unexpected because director Josh Safdie was the most nominated individual of the night, being up for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film.
On the other hand, “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” fared much better. “Sinners” had 13 nominations and took home three wins, making it the most decorated film by a Black director in BAFTAs history. Ludwig Göransson won Best Score, Wunmi Mosaku won Best Supporting Actress and Ryan Coogler became the first Black person to win Best Original Screenplay. “One Battle After Another” was the biggest winner this year, which was nominated for 14 awards and took home six. It earned Best Film, Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Editing.
Best Actress and Outstanding British Film both went to “Hamet,” with the former being awarded to Jessie Buckley.
However, the awards themselves have been largely overshadowed by the choices BBC made about what to edit out and the public controversy that ensued. The ceremony occurred two hours before it was actually shown on television, allowing time for the network to edit down the show. Many speeches were cut, particularly ones that said anything political.
After winning Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer, Akinola Davies Jr and Wale Davies gave a speech that included, “To those watching at home, archive your stories. For Nigeria, for London, the Congo, Sudan, free Palestine.” This was entirely cut, garnering a lot of backlash online.
The biggest point of discussion though, was in regards to Davidson’s tics. While Jordan and “Sinners” co-star Delroy Lindo were on stage presenting an award, the white Davidson shouted out an involuntary racial slur due to the effects of his Tourette’s syndrome. BBC chose to not edit this out, despite the fact that it was in a quiet moment and removing it would not have disrupted the ceremony. While the incident was involuntary due to Davidson’s Tourette’s, many people were unsatisfied with how BAFTA and BBC handled it. No initial apology was presented by either organization, though they (along with Davidson) have since apologized.
The competitive fight for awards at the BAFTAs this year has been largely overshadowed by the network’s interference (or lack thereof) into the ceremony, with many people online wishing that BBC would have operated with more care and sensitivity towards marginalized groups.
