Baftas 2026: How to watch, who’s nominated – everything you need to know about this year’s ceremony

It’s time to get the champagne on ice and lock in your final predictions – the biggest night in British film is back.

Stars from both sides of the Atlantic are set to descend on London as the 79th annual Baftas take place.

From which films and stars are nominated to the performances you can expect to see, here’s everything you need to know about this year’s ceremony...

This year’s ceremony will be held on Sunday 22 January at Royal Festival Hall, in London’s Southbank Centre.

As usual, the Baftas will take place earlier than their scheduled broadcast time, which means the stars of the big screen will hit the red carpet on Sunday afternoon. You can tune in to watch the arrivals on Bafta’s YouTube channel and the stream, hosted by Clara Amfo and Ali Plumb, is scheduled to start at 2.30pm.

The awards ceremony will take place in the late afternoon, before being aired on BBC One at 7pm – so if you’d rather find out the winners via the broadcast, stay off social media.

The broadcast is scheduled to last two hours.

Alan Cumming is taking up the mantle from David Tennant, who was on hosting duties in 2024 and 2025.

If you feel like you’ve seen Cumming host the Baftas before, then you are (sort of) right as he presented last year’s TV Baftas. The Scottish star is a big name on both sides of the Atlantic and presents the US version of The Traitors – so we can probably expect at least a couple of gags about the show during the ceremony.

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A whole host of critically acclaimed films from the last 12 months are up for awards, and One Battle After Another leads the pack with 14 nominations, closely followed by Sinners with 13, while Marty Supreme and Hamnet have each been shortlisted 11 times.

Jessie Buckley is being widely tipped to take home Best Actress for her star turn in Chloe Zhao’s devastating Hamnet, though she faces stiff competition from fellow nominees including Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) and Chase Infiniti (One Battle After Another).

Meanwhile, Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme) is battling it out against the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another), Michael B Jordan (Sinners) and British rising star Robert Aramayo, who took the lead in I Swear, a biographical drama about John Davidson, a Scottish man with severe Tourette's syndrome.

Paul Thomas Anderson is being hotly tipped to win Best Director, with his caper One Battle After Another also the strong favourite to win Best Film. See the full list of nominations here.

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Two special awards will also be handed out, with Dame Donna Langley set to receive this year’s Bafta Fellowship, the organisation’s highest honour.

Dame Donna is the British chairman of NBCUniversal and “will be celebrated for her prolific career and as of the most influential and respected figures in the entertainment industry”, Bafta has said.

Clare Binns, PictureHouse Cinema’s creative director, will receive the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award “to recognise her role in championing diverse and fiercely independent work on big screens around the UK”.

Let’s start with the biggest name: Paddington Bear.

The much-loved Peruvian import will be enjoying a day off from the West End production Paddington The Musical and hopping across the Thames to present the Best Children’s and Family Film prize.

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Here’s the full alphabetical list of the other famous faces who will be handing out accolades:

Aaron Pierre, Aimee Lou Wood, Alicia Vikander, Alia Bhatt, Bryan Cranston, Cillian Murphy, David Jonsson, Delroy Lindo, Emily Watson, Erin Doherty, Ethan Hawke, Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Hannah Waddingham, Karen Gillan, Kate Hudson, Kathryn Hahn and Kerry Washington.

Little Simz, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Milly Alcock, Minnie Driver, Monica Bellucci, Noah Jupe, Olivia Cooke, Patrick Dempsey, Regé-Jean Page, Riz Ahmed, Sadie Sink, Stellan Skarsgård, Stormzy and Warwick Davis.

If you’ve managed to get the KPop Demon Hunters track “Golden” out of your head, then prepare to start humming it once again.

Jae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, the voices of the film’s group Huntr/X, will be performing the song at the ceremony – and it’ll be the first time they’ve done so outside of the US.

Jessie Ware will also be taking to the stage to sing a Barbara Streisand cover during the In Memoriam tribute to famous faces we’ve lost in the past 12 months.