One battle after another leads to wins as Aramayo claims a surprise victory

Tonight’s Baftas were dominated by One Battle After Another, Sinners and Hamnet, but it was a very unexpected Best Actor win that sent shockwaves through the Royal Festival Hall.

Despite competition from Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothée Chalamet and Michael B Jordan, it was British newcomer Robert Aramayo for the British biopic I Swear – who took home the Best Actor prize, with the 33-year-old expressing enormous surprise during his speech. Aramayo also won the EE Rising Star award.

One Battle After Another was crowned Best Picture and also won Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson. Best Supporting Actor went to Sean Penn, who was unable to attend the ceremony to collect his prize.

Jessie Buckley was awarded Best Actress for Hamnet, while the film also pocketed the Best British Film award.

It was a big night for the vampire film Sinners, as Ryan Coogler won the Best Original Screenplay award and Wunmi Mosaku took home the Best Supporting Actress award.

Despite earning 11 nominations, the sports drama Marty Supreme went home entirely empty-handed.

There was also consternation during the ceremony due to outbursts made by the Tourette’s Syndrome campaigner John Davidson, whose life serves as the inspiration for I Swear. Bafta host Alan Cumming apologised for the bad language expressed by Davidson during the show, while explaining that those with Tourette’s experience involuntary tics and outbursts.

Looking ahead to next month’s Oscars, there still seems to be a consensus over who will win the Supporting categories.

When it comes to Supporting Actor, the Golden Globes went for Stellan Skarsgard, Bafta went for Sean Penn and the Critics Choice Awards went for Jacob Elordi.

Meanwhile, Bafta went for Wunmi Mosaku for Supporting Actress, Golden Globes went for Teyana Taylor, and Critics’ Choice went for Amy Madigan.

Sinners writer/director Ryan Coogler also made history tonight, becoming the first Black writer to win the Bafta for Best Original Screenplay.

Marty Supreme now ties Ken Russell’s 1969 drama Women in Love and the JM Barrie biopic Finding Neverland (2004) as the most-nominated loser in Bafta history.