As BAFTA gears up for the U.K. film industry’s biggest night on Sunday, it’s only right that it should add a fixture of British cinema to the exclusive guest list.
BAFTA said on Thursday that none other than Paddington Bear will be in attendance at the 2026 Film Awards this weekend, where he will present the award for best children & family film. Four nominees make up this category: Arco, Boong, Lilo & Stitch and Zootropolis 2.
Paddington’s inclusion has no doubt been helped by the success of Paddington The Musical, currently running at London’s Savoy Theatre, where performer Arti Shah plays the beloved character on stage in a bear suit, while James Hameed provides the voice and operates animatronic facial expressions from off-stage.
Paddington joins a host of recently-announced presenters at the BAFTA Film Awards, including Aimee Lou Wood, Bryan Cranston, Cillian Murphy, David Jonsson, Delroy Lindo, Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Olivia Cooke, Patrick Dempsey, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Hudson, Miles Caton, Kate Hudson, Emily Watson, and Stellan Skargård.
KPop Demon Hunters singing trio EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami have also been unveiled as performers at the London ceremony, their first live show outside of the U.S., and British singer-songwriter Jessie Ware will cover Barbra Streisand during the In Memoriam segment.
And among the list of nominees attending are Jacob Elordi, Leonardo DiCaprio, Timothee Chalamet, Chloé Zhao, Teyana Taylor, Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Benicio del Toro, Jesse Plemons, Odessa A’Zion, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Rose Byrne.
Anderson’s political thriller One Battle After Another leads the BAFTAs pack, going in with 14 nods, narrowly edging out Ryan Coogler’s vampire film Sinners with 13. Chloé Zhao’s Shakespearean heartbreaker Hamnet and Josh Safdie’s ping-pong caper Marty Supreme earned 11 BAFTA nods each, while Joachim Trier’s drama Sentimental Value and Guillermo del Toro’s gothic epic Frankenstein earned eight BAFTA noms. Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy Bugonia and comedy Kirk Jones’ Tourette Syndrome advocate dramedy I Swear received five each.
Read the full list of nominees ahead of the BAFTA Film Awards this weekend.
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