The Winners and Controversies of the 2026 BAFTAs and IFTAs
By Declan Boyle-Shields
The 79th British Academy Film Awards were broadcast by the BBC on the 22nd February 2026 and hosted by the truly wonderful Alan Cumming. The main winner of the night was One Battle After Another, taking home the awards for Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Sean Penn, Best Editing for Andy Jurgensen, and Best Cinematography for Michael Bauman. Marty Supreme surprisingly won no awards, despite having been nominated for 11. However, although One Battle After Another was the most longlisted film in BAFTA history, and Marty Supreme experienced a notable snub, neither were the main talking point following the broadcast.
I’m sure by now practically everyone and their mother has weighed in and written their very own think-piece on the discourse surrounding the ceremony. For those left unaware, one of the films nominated for the award show was I Swear, a biographical drama following the life story of John Davidson, a prominent Scottish campaigner for awareness of Tourette syndrome. The film earned the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Robert Aramayo’s breath-taking performance, and Davidson himself, as the executive producer, was invited to the awards show, and due to the very condition that the film details, he had involuntary verbal tics throughout the ceremony, most notably, shouting out an inflammatory racial slur while Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting the award for Best Visual Effects.
The fact that the broadcast version found the space to cut out political comments on the state of contemporary America from host Alan Cumming, and a section of filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s speech where he called for a free Palestine, but still managed to broadcast Davidson’s involuntary offensive tic, has left many outraged. The BBC has since declared that they would carry out an investigation into their reporting on the BAFTAs. What lingers, however, is a broader question about the responsibility of broadcasting and editorialising. Award ceremonies can often function as streamlined, glossy industry self-congratulation; however, sometimes the choices in what we deem as politically neutral and appropriate for broadcast are more exposing than we may think.
Meanwhile, the 22nd Irish Film & Television Awards also took place recently, broadcast by RTÉ on the 21st February. Although it didn’t have a BAFTA-level controversy, the IFTAs still have a lot to say about the contemporary state of Irish film and television. The film Christy, confusingly sharing its name with a more famous American film released the same year, received the most IFTA nominations this year, winning 4 of the 11 awards the film was nominated for. Christy’s strong showing suggests continued support for distinctly Irish storytelling that resists commodifying its Irishness for an international audience.
Jessie Buckley, who also won a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role, took home the IFTA for Best Actress as well, continuing what seems to be an award season sweep for her role of Agnes Shakespeare in Hamnet, a film which also won the awards for International Film and Script (Film). The international acting awards were given to Emma Stone for Bugonia and to Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, continuing One Battle After Another’s dominance over this year’s award season.
Taken together, this year’s BAFTAs and IFTAs were less about gold statues and more about optics, narrative control, and cultural positioning. One became quickly overshadowed by questions of broadcast ethics and editorial framing, while the other signalled an industry becoming increasingly assured of its own identity. The 2026 BAFTAs will no doubt be remembered for the controversies that took place during the ceremony as opposed to the actual awards won on the night. The 2026 IFTAs, on the other hand, may not generate any viral headlines, but they quietly show the direction the Irish film industry is headed. One ceremony exposed the fragility of live cultural spectacle, turning complex issues of racism and disability into a bite-sized, controversial spectacle, whereas the other shows the steady rise of a national industry growing more confident in its voice.
After the ceremonies have ended, what we’re left with is the revelations about ourselves and the culture we consume, cautious and irresponsible institutions, an increasingly politically charged landscape, increasingly globalised industries, and the film industry trying to navigate it all in real time. Awards season is thought to feel like a celebration, but this year in particular felt like a mirror held up to this year’s society, for both good and bad.
Reference
[1] BAFTA, (2026). “EE Bafta Film Awards: 2026 Results”. Available at: https://www.bafta.org/awards/film/
