A Sunday evening on the South Bank, and the last major vote before the Academy Awards
The British Academy Film Awards are presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The statuette is a theatrical mask, and the awards are recognised internationally as the highest honour in British cinema — the film equivalent of the BAFTA television awards, the Olivier Awards for theatre, and the BRIT Awards for music. They have carried the EE name in their official title since 2013.
The ceremony has moved several times. It was first held at the Odeon Luxe cinema in Leicester Square, then at the Royal Opera House from 2007 to 2016, the Royal Albert Hall from 2017 to 2022, and the Royal Festival Hall within the Southbank Centre from 2023. The seventy-ninth ceremony was held there on 22 February 2026, hosted by Alan Cumming and broadcast on BBC One.
The ceremony is not open. Seats are allocated to nominees, their guests, the studios, and the broadcaster, and they are not sold. We would rather state that plainly than take a brief we cannot deliver on. Anyone offering seats to the room is offering something that does not exist.
What surrounds it is a different matter. London in the second half of February carries a concentrated programme of screenings, receptions, and industry hosting, and the city’s restaurants and private rooms run at their highest pressure of the winter. The awards timeline is public and useful for planning: longlists in early January, nominations towards the end of the month, and the ceremony on a Sunday in February.
Almost every award is voted by the Academy’s membership. The exception is the EE Rising Star Award, presented since 2006, which is the only category voted for by the British public — its nominees are announced separately in January, and past winners frequently go on to present the following year’s nominations from BAFTA’s headquarters at 195 Piccadilly.
The other award that sits outside the competitive categories is the BAFTA Fellowship, given for an outstanding contribution to film or television over a career. Between them the two say a good deal about how the organisation sees itself: one award decided entirely by the audience, and one decided entirely by the Academy, at opposite ends of a career.
Tell us what you need from the London fortnight and we will arrange what genuinely exists
Clients who follow film generally find that the festivals give what the ceremonies cannot. We arrange Venice and Toronto in September and Berlinale in February, all of which have genuine public and industry programmes. For those who want a ceremony week regardless, we arrange Los Angeles around the Golden Globes in January.
February is not the month most people would choose for London, and that is precisely why the fortnight works. The city is quieter than in summer, the hotels have availability that they do not have in June, and the cultural programme is at its strongest — the theatres are in mid-season, the museums have their winter exhibitions, and restaurants that are impossible in summer can be arranged with enough notice.
The industry element sits on top of that rather than replacing it. Unless you are part of it, the awards themselves will occupy one evening of a two-week stay, and the rest of the time is simply London in winter, which is an underrated proposition.
For clients whose business is the industry, the calculation is different and the value of being in the city during the fortnight is obvious. In that case the work is scheduling, hosting, and movement rather than tickets, and we treat it as a corporate arrangement.
In February. The seventy-ninth ceremony was held on 22 February 2026
At the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has been since 2023
No. Seats go to nominees, studios, and the broadcaster. The ceremony is not open to the public
No. Television has its own separate ceremony at a different point in the year
The EE Rising Star Award, presented since 2006. It is the only publicly voted category
Longlists in early January and nominations towards the end of that month
The 80th ceremony is expected in February 2027, continuing the BAFTAs’ traditional late-winter scheduling.
The BAFTA Film Awards February slot positions the ceremony just ahead of the Oscars each awards season.
The BAFTA Royal Festival Hall setting on London’s Southbank has hosted the ceremony since 2023, replacing the Royal Albert Hall.
Nominations are typically revealed in mid-January, roughly a month ahead of the February ceremony.
The last major vote before the Academy Awards, decided on a Sunday night in London
