Oscars bellwether, British awards or both? The identity dilemma facing the Baftas

Few UK nominations this year as industry tries to balance attracting global attention and celebrating homegrown projects

It may be billed as Britain’s premier film awards, but when nominations for the Baftas were announced last month, the lack of British representation in the top categories was hard to ignore. Just one British actor, Robert Aramayo, appeared in the leading actor category, while there were no British nominees at all for leading actress (the UK-based Irish actor Jessie Buckley notwithstanding).

Peter Mullan was the only Briton in the supporting actor category, while representation for best supporting actress fared better, with Emily Watson, Carey Mulligan and Wunmi Mosaku nominated.

The awards, announced on Sunday, are shaping up as one of the most competitive in years. Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another leads the field across several categories, with Hamnet and Ryan Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners emerging as its closest challengers.

Experts predict Hamnet may benefit from a home-crowd advantage, but the question heading into Sunday is whether it can realistically topple One Battle After Another – or whether Bafta will once again position itself less as a national awards body than an international bellwether for the Oscars.

Last year, Conclave swept the competition, beating buzzy international contenders such as The Brutalist and Anora. In other years, widely celebrated British films including Aftersun, All of Us Strangers and The Zone of Interest have failed to break into the best film category – a pattern that continues to complicate the Baftas’ sense of identity and purpose.

“Hollywood has officially gentrified the UK awards. At this point, just rename it Oscars: London Branch,” said one X user. The film critic Guy Lodge, writing in Variety, argued that Bafta should “fly its own flag a little higher”.

For the Bafta-winning producer Rebecca O’Brien, known for her work with Ken Loach, the problem is structural. “In other countries, you have awards tailored to their national film industries, like the Goyas in Spain and the Césars in France,” she said. “The Baftas fall between two stools: it’s both a British awards show and an Oscars bellwether. It makes sense to do both, but it’s a real dilemma.”

O’Brien, who won an outstanding British film Bafta for I, Daniel Blake in 2017, said she believed the Baftas had “got the balance about right”. “You need the global films to attract the attention and the money,” she said.

“The UK punches above its weight globally. Look at the Oscar successes for the Brits over the years, which have been amazing. Our national industry is independent and supported by public funders, which helps feed the international industry with talent and skills. That’s why we have the Bifas [British independent film awards]. Maybe the Baftas have to stick to where they are.”

To navigate the dual mandate, Bafta created the outstanding British film category, first awarded in 1948. Expanded to 10 nominees five years ago, it guarantees a high-profile platform for British work. This year’s candidates span prestige cinema (Hamnet, H is for Hawk, Mr Burton), popular crowd-pleasers (28 Years Later, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy), and distinctly British independent fare (I Swear, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Pillion, Steve, Die My Love).

But only four – Hamnet, I Swear, Pillion and The Ballad of Wallis Island – have been recognised in other categories. “The problem is, you might get one or two that end up in the best film category, like Hamnet this year. Then you get the feeling the other British films have no chance, because one is already in the top category,” O’Brien said.

This year, Timothée Chalamet is widely tipped to win the best actor award for Marty Supreme in a strong category that also includes Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael B Jordan. Elsewhere, Jessie Buckley is predicted to edge out Chase Infiniti and Rose Byrne for leading actress, while Paul Thomas Anderson remains the favourite for best director.

Many eyes, however, will be on Sinners, one of the night’s most symbolically charged contenders. With multiple nominations – the most ever for a film by a Black director at the Baftas – its performance will be read as a broader verdict on recent gains in representation.

That question has hovered over the awards since Bafta launched a sweeping internal review in response to sustained criticism over the lack of Black and minority ethnic nominees. The academy reshaped its membership and voting processes, and by 2025 reported it had met most of its targets.

Delroy Lindo secured a best supporting actor Oscar nomination, but he was overlooked by the Baftas. Elsewhere, however, Akinola Davies Jr received a nomination for outstanding debut by a British writer, director, or producer for his Cannes hit My Father’s Shadow. Chase Infiniti is nominated for leading actress (no black woman has previously won in this category).

“Nominations are one thing, wins are another, so we’ll see what happens on the night,” said the film critic Amon Warmann.

“The best path is greenlighting more films from diverse film-makers with diverse casts, and [having] more people of colour in decision-making positions. That way, more films can rise to the top instead of banking on one or two.”

Clive Nwonka, an associate professor of film, culture and society at UCL, said the focus on awards could obscure deeper industry inequalities.

“The Baftas don’t have a problem with representation per se,” he said. “Over the last 15 years, there has always been some Black representation. The issue is overemphasising visibility as evidence of progress. Does a nomination or win mean there’s an equal playing field across the industry? I would argue no – the Baftas are just one element of the wider film ecology.”

Nwonka said that while Sinners may win multiple awards, the Academy has long recognised Black talent without lasting shifts. “Moonlight got multiple nominations in 2017. Will Smith won in 2022 for King Richard, Daniel Kaluuya in 2021 for Judas and the Black Messiah. But visibility alone does not equal structural change.”

He also criticised the reactive nature of awards in general. “Recognition usually comes after a moment: #OscarsSoWhite, #BaftasSoWhite, George Floyd. That makes awards an unreliable measure of change. Black film-makers and actors want to work in conditions where race is immaterial to the outcome.”