Britain’s biggest celebration of film – the BAFTAs – take place this Sunday, honouring the best movies of the last year.
With a brand-new host, two special live musical performances, and a red carpet packed with celebrities, it’s set to be a star-studded night with plenty of surprises in store.
Image: Pic: BAFTA/Marc Hoberman
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this year’s BAFTA Film Awards.
Where are they being held?
The ceremony will take place at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre.
Sky News will be liveblogging winners as they’re announced, ahead of the televised ceremony which will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 7pm on Sunday night.
Image: Cillian Murphy is J Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. Pic: Universal Pictures
Gothic fairy-tale Poor Things has 11 nods, while Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon and German-language drama The Zone Of Interest both have nine nods.
French courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall, 70s nostalgia-fest The Holdovers, and Bradley Cooper’s labour of love Maestro all have seven nominations.
All Of Us Strangers, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, has six nominations, while Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn both have five.
Despite being the highest-grossing film of 2023, Barbie failed to make it into the best film category, and Gerwig is also absent from the directing category. It’s likely the film’s fictional heroine would have had something rather pointed to say about those omissions…
Which stars are likely to take home a gong?
If past achievements are anything to go by, Golden Globe wins earlier this year for Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy and Poor Things actress Emma Stone set them both in good stead.
Image: Emma Stone in Poor Things. Pic: Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures
And he’s Britain’s most successful working director, but Christopher Nolan has never won a BAFTA for best film or best director, so many feel this could be his year.
With many of the other categories wide open, one that many of the critics are calling is best supporting actress, with The Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph considered to be the runaway favourite for both a BAFTA and an Oscar win next month.
Image: Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. Pic: Focus Features/Seacia Pavao
Whether audience-favourite Ryan Gosling will snap up best supporting actor is less easy to foretell.
However, his nomination in this category has received less of a frenzied response than the same nod at the Oscars, mainly due to the fact that Margot Robbie does have a BAFTA nod for best actress, while she was locked out of the Academy Award shortlist.
Image: Jacob Elordi
In the Rising Star category – the only award voted for the public – actor Jacob Elordi‘smuch-talked about performances in Saltburn and Priscilla – would seem to give him more than an even chance of taking home the prize.
Who’s hosting?
David Tennant will host this year’s event for the first time.
Image: David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Doctor Who. Pic: BBC
Clearly feeling laid back about the challenge, he said: “It’ll either work and everyone will be terribly nice about it or it’ll be a total disaster and I’ll never be asked again. Either way – it’s fine.”
The 52-year-old Scottish star has said he won’t be “roasting” any of the stars on the night – an approach that has received mixed results at the BAFTAs in the past.
Last year, the awards ceremony was hosted by Saltburn actor Richard E Grant and This Morning host Alison Hammond, and the year before by Australian actress and comedian Rebel Wilson.
Tennant says he hopes it will be an “evening of generosity and joy,” and has also hinted that his former Doctor Who co-star Catherine Tate might make a surprise appearance.
Image: Dua Lipa. Pic: Matt Crossick/Global/Shutterstock
Who’ll be presenting the awards?
Famous faces giving out awards include David Beckham, Dua Lipa, Hugh Grant, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Gillian Anderson and Daisy Edgar Jones.
And while All Of Us Strangers co-star Andrew Scott was a notable absence from the best actor contenders, he will present a prize on the night.
Ellis-Bextor will be performing her 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor, which has become a viral hit since featuring in the closing finale of Saltburn.
Ted Lasso star Waddingham will also give a live musical performance, with details of her turn a closely guarded secret.
Image: Sophie Ellis-Bextor.Pic: Richard Jones
Will any other prizes be handed out?
The Bafta Fellowship – the film academy’s highest honour – will be presented to actress Samantha Morton.
Over a three-decade career (and counting), her credits have spanned British indie productions to Hollywood blockbusters, starring in movies including Under The Skin, The Minority Report and The Whale.
Previous BAFTA Fellow include Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor and Steven Spielberg.
Image: Samantha Morton. Pic: Ian West/PA Photos
BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema will be presented to June Givanni.
She is a pioneering film curator, writer and programmer of African and African diaspora cinema.
Givanni founded The June Givanni PanAfrican Archive (JGPACA), a volunteer-run archive comprising over 10,000 rare and unique artefacts documenting the development of filmmaking across Africa and the African diaspora, including in Britain.
Sky News will be liveblogging winners as they’re announced, from around 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon – follow it all live on our site.
A member of Irish-language rap group Kneecap has been charged with a terror offence.
Liam O’Hanna, or Liam Og O Hannaidh, has been charged with displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah, a proscribed organisation, the Metropolitan Police said.
The 27-year-old from Belfast – who performs under the stage name Mo Chara – is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 June.
It comes after counter-terror police assessed a video reported to be from a Kneecap concert.
The charge relates to a flag that O’Hanna allegedly displayed at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, London, on 21 November last year.
The mother of Cassie Ventura has told a court she felt “physically sick” when her daughter told her Sean “Diddy” Combs had threatened to “release two explicit sex tapes” after discovering his long-time girlfriend was dating someone else.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, the seventh day of the trial, Regina Ventura said she did not initially understand the email Cassie sent her in December 2011, saying, “The sex tape threw me, [Diddy] was trying to hurt my daughter.”
The email said Combs was planning to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi.
Regina said the family took out a home equity loan and paid Diddy $20,000 to recoup money he had spent on Cassie “because he demanded it,” angry that Cassie was now dating Cudi.
She said the money was returned days later.
During her evidence, jurors were shown photographs of bruises on Cassie’s body Ms Ventura said were taken when her daughter returned home for Christmas in 2011.
Regina’s time on the stand was fairly brief, as the defence declined the opportunity to question her.
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Image: Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi, who dated Cassie in 2011. Pic: Reuters
Prosecutors say Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, forced women to take part in days-long, drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” from 2004 to 2024, facilitated by his large retinue of staff. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty.
The rapper faces five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Image: Combs and Cassie pictured in 2015. Pic: Reuters
Last week, the prosecutors’ star witness, Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs for over a decade, spent four days giving evidence.
Combs’s legal team has sought to show jurors that his relationship with Ventura was complicated, and while they acknowledge he was an abusive partner, and had substance issues, they say the sex acts described by the prosecution were consensual.
A male exotic dancer nicknamed “The Punisher” also gave testimony, telling jurors that in the autumn of 2012, Cassie contacted him asking him to “create a sexy, erotic scene” Diddy, and using the pseudonym “Janet”.
Image: Male exotic dancer Sharay Hayes, aka The Punisher. Pic: Reuters
Sharay Hayes said he went on to have eight to 12 more encounters with the couple, having sex with Cassie, while Diddy watched from a distance.
He described the hotel rooms as routinely being dressed with electric candles and sheet-covered furniture, and says Cassie told him not to “acknowledge” her husband, and to “try not to look at him and no communication”.
He says Diddy would often wear a cap, and he could not see his face, but he later realised it was the famous rapper.
“The Punisher” mentioned using a “considerable amount of baby oil” during the performances, saying “[Diddy] wanted us to keep our bodies covered, to shine”.
He later described the acts as “a fetish type thing,” and while he said he believed Cassie was fully consensual, he also said he “did occasionally see her sigh or wince” and said she would frequently look at Diddy “for cues”.
Paid between $1,200 (£900) and $2,000 (£1.500) for each performance, he said he was not called back after struggling to get an erection during one encounter.
He said he never saw Diddy use drugs or saw filming during any of the performances.
Car park dispute with Suge Knight
David James, Diddy’s ex-personal assistant, also completed his evidence and testified that he never saw physical violence between Cassie and his former boss.
Image: David James, Combs’s former assistant. Pic: Reuters
James, who worked for Diddy for two years, said he left Diddy’s employment after he realised his “life was in danger” following a dispute in a car park with rival record label owner Suge Knight, which culminated in Diddy bringing three handguns to try to find Knight and his entourage.
He also detailed an altercation between Diddy and his personal chef, Jourdan Atkinson, and said he refused to file a police report after Diddy told him to say “Chef Jourdan hit him first”.
The final person to give evidence was a special agent responsible for planning the March 2024 raids on Combs’s Miami home on Star Island.
Steve Gannon showed photos of items taken during the raid, including sex toys, high heels and loaded guns, and explained how an armoured vehicle was used to break down the mansion’s front gate to gain entry while the family was away on a trip.
Combs has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since September and faces at least 15 years or possibly life in prison if convicted.