LONDON (AP) — Politically charged thriller “One Battle After Another” and blues-steeped epic “Sinners” lead the race for Sunday’s British Academy Film Awards as the two movies jostle for awards-season supremacy.
Oddsmakers suggest Shakespearean family tragedy “Hamnet” could beat them to best picture if British film industry voters respond to the emotionally rich story, earthy English setting and intense performances of Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s historical novel.
“One Battle” has 14 nominations, including best picture and acting nods for five of its cast. “Sinners” is just behind with 13, while “Hamnet” and the ping-pong odyssey “Marty Supreme” each have 11 nominations.
Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining of “Frankenstein” and Norwegian family drama “ Sentimental Value” each got eight nominations.
The British prizes, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, often provide hints about who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held this year on March 15. In the Oscar nominations, “Sinners” leads the race with a record 16 nominations, followed by “One Battle After Another” with 13.
Stars including Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close and Ethan Hawke are expected on the red carpet outside London’s Royal Festival Hall before a black-tie ceremony hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming.
Cumming, who hosts the U.S. version of reality show “The Traitors,” pledged to strike a “balance between celebration and mischief.”
The BAFTA best film nominees are “One Battle After Another,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “Sinners” and “Sentimental Value.” The BAFTAs also have a distinctly British accent, with a separate category for best British film. Its 10 nominees include “The Ballad of Wallis Island,” “Pillion,” “I Swear” and “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.”
Directing contenders are Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle,” Josh Safdie for “Marty Supreme,” Ryan Coogler for “Sinners,” Yorgos Lanthimos for dystopian tragicomedy “Bugonia,” Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value” and Zhao for “Hamnet.” Zhao will be the first female director to win two BAFTAs if she takes the prize. She won the directing award in 2021 for “Nomadland.”
Best leading actor nominees are bookies’ favorite Timothée Chalamet for “Marty Supreme,” Leonardo DiCaprio for “One Battle After Another,” Ethan Hawke for Broadway biopic “Blue Moon,” Michael B. Jordan for “Sinners,” Jesse Plemons for “Bugonia” and Robert Aramayo for playing a man with Tourette’s syndrome in biographical drama “I Swear.”
The leading actress category includes the strongly favored Jessie Buckley for her performance as Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in “Hamnet.” She’s up against Rose Byrne for “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Kate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue,” Chase Infiniti for “One Battle After Another,” Renate Reinsve for “Sentimental Value” and Emma Stone for “Bugonia.”
“One Battle” actors Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn are all nominated for supporting performances.
The Associated Press was recognized in the best documentary category with a nomination for Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing Ukraine war portrait “2000 Meters to Andriivka, ” co-produced by the AP and Frontline PBS.
Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8,500 members of the U.K. academy of industry professionals. Contenders for the Rising Star award – the only prize decided by public vote and a reliable picker of future A-listers – are Infiniti, Aramayo, “Sinners” star Miles Caton and British actors Archie Madekwe and Posy Sterling.
Donna Langley, the U.K.-born chairwoman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, will be awarded the British Academy’s highest honor, the BAFTA fellowship.
The ceremony airs on BBC in the United Kingdom starting at 7 p.m. (1900GMT) and on E! in the U.S. at 8 p.m. EST.
Completed British Academy Film Awards masks at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
A completed British Academy Film Awards mask sits on a workbench at the FSE Foundry in Braintree, England on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan said early Sunday it carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants it blames for recent attacks inside the country.
Islamabad did not say in precisely which areas the strikes were carried out or provide other details.
In Kabul, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan carried out strikes inside Afghanistan. In a post on X, Mujahid said the strikes targeted civilians in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, killing and wounding dozens of people, including women and children.
Mujahid accused Pakistan’s military of carrying out the strikes to compensate for what he described as security weaknesses inside the country.
In comments before dawn Sunday, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted what he described as “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted in the border region.
In October, Pakistan also conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
Tarar said Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region,” but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.
The latest development came days after a suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. The blast caused part of the compound to collapse, killing 11 soldiers and a child, and authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.
Hours before the latest border strikes, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the nearby Bannu district in Pakistan's northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel. After Saturday’s violence, Pakistan’s military had warned that it would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible would continue “irrespective of their location,” language that suggested rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.
Tarar said Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that the recent attacks , including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting on the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”
He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken.
He said Pakistan urges the international community to press Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.
Pakistan has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who returned to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
Relations between the neighboring countries have remained tense since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan.
A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held, but talks in Istanbul failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.
Afghan reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.
Local residents stand next to a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Local residents gather as bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A man inspects a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Local residents and civil defense workers look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
