The BAFTA Film Awards have a great opportunity to differ from the Oscars in one key way

When the BAFTA Film Award nominations were announced yesterday (Tuesday 27th January), there can't have been too many people shocked by most of the films and actors that made their way onto the shortlists.

Although BAFTA broke from tradition this year in announcing their nods after the Oscars than than before, in pretty much every other way the nominations still make the upcoming ceremony look more or less like a carbon copy of the Academy Awards – as is the case with so many of the "precursor" award shows that seem to serve primarily as dress rehearsals for the main event.

Sure, there were a couple of minor changes to the line-up – for example, One Battle After Another's Chase Infiniti and Hamnet's Paul Mescal made it into their respective categories after missing out last week – but for the most part it's the same names (and in a few notable instances, the same snubs) as it has been all awards season.

Of course, consensus is not necessarily a bad thing, and it's often the case that the films being honoured time and time again very much deserve their seat at the table.

But it's always felt rather pointless to me to have so many different awards ceremonies only to repeatedly see the same winners crowned at every single one.

Surely it would make more sense for each of these various voting bodies to have their own unique character and personality and opt for some slightly more offbeat picks, rather than just continuing to honour the big hitters that already look set to be rewarded with multiple Oscars?

This is why the inclusion of five nods for Kirk Jones's incredibly moving true story film I Swear – about the life of Tourette's activist and campaigner John Davidson – is so welcome.

It's exactly the kind of small British film which, like fellow nominees Pillion, The Ballad of Wallis Island, and My Father's Shadow, should be honoured by the BAFTAs and whose presence in the line-up we should celebrate. Not out of any tub-thumping sense of patriotism, of course, but because these are the kind of films which can otherwise get lost amid the more publicised awards season behemoths, and helps the BAFTAs carve out more of a distinct identity for itself.

Now, I should say that I Swear is not my personal favourite movie of the year, and there's certainly a strong argument to be made that it's neither as technically accomplished nor as formally adventurous as the likes of Sinners, One Battle After Another or Marty Supreme – it undoubtedly follows a certain crowd-pleasing formula that has been mastered by a number of other British films before it.

But it hits pretty much all the right notes in doing so, and has unsurprisingly prompted enthusiastic responses from just about all who have seen it – with the film still sitting on a perfect 100 per cent score on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing, from 30 reviews.

And regardless of what you think of the film as a whole, there can be no denying one thing: Robert Aramayo is simply outstanding in the lead role. The actor – best known for playing Elrond in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – embodies Davidson to an almost uncanny degree, delivering an incredibly charismatic and empathetic performance.

What's especially impressive is that there are so many facets to that performance. Not only was he tasked with mastering the tics which are such a prominent part of living with Tourettes, but the Yorkshireman also spoke in a near faultless Scottish accent – something which a great many notable non-Scottish actors before him have tried and failed to master. And that's before we even get to how well he performed the film's many emotional scenes with such heart and subtlety; it really is a quite remarkable lead turn.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com at this year's British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) – where he took home the Best Actor Award – Aramayo admitted that it had been "incredibly tricky" to get everything right.

"Also aging him," he explained. "Changing his experience and changing his relationship to the condition was also really difficult, so I felt like I was spinning a lot of plates.

"I knew that the accent was going to be a big one," he added. "So I worked with this amazing coach called Mary Howland, and she really helped me try and lock it down as much as we could to the Galashiels area – because the Borders accent is so specific, so we did our best to be as specific as we could."

You'd find few people who'd argue against the fact that all that preparation worked a treat.

Aramayo is up for the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the ceremony, and while adding that trophy to his aforementioned BIFA victory would be very much well deserved, I see no reason why he can't go one better.

Why shouldn't he prevail over A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet in the main best actor category as well? That would certainly be a statement from the BAFTAs, a welcome shake-up of an awards season that risks becoming a little stale.

Chalamet already looks just about certain to win the Oscar anyway – does he really need the BAFTA too?

The EE BAFTA Film Awards will take place at London's Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 22nd February 2026. I Swear is available to rent and buy on Prime Video.

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