Jessie Ware sang a moving version of Barbra Streisand’s ‘The Way We Were’ during the In Memoriam segment of the BAFTAs – watch below.
The biggest night of the year in British cinema went down at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night (February 22), with Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another being the ceremony’s biggest winner, taking home six gongs, including Best Picture and Best Director.
As is traditional, the show also included a sombre moment in which those who have passed away in the year since last year’s awards show were commemorated in a video package set to a live musical performance.
This time, Jessie Ware played an emotional version of ‘The Way We Were’, an especially poignant choice as the song was written for the 1973 romantic drama film of the same name, the male lead of which was Robert Redford, who featured as the final name honoured in the In Memoriam montage.
Jessie Ware performing “The Way We Were” during ‘In Memoriam’ segment.#EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/E2CYnG4f2x
— Enjoy The Music (@EnjoyTheMusic9) February 22, 2026
The package highlighted the sheer amount of major figures in the film industry that have been lost since early 2025 – Diane Keaton, Gene Hackman, Catherine O’Hara, Terence Stamp, Robert Duvall, Rob Reiner, Tom Stoppard, Brigitte Bardot, Lalo Schifrin, Michael Madsen and Val Kilmer among them.
The other musical performance on the show was from the singing voices of KPop Demon Hunters, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI, who played ‘Golden’ for the first time outside of the United States.
It was also a huge night for the British indie drama I Swear, which caused a major shock by winning Best Actor for its lead actor Robert Aramayo, who also took home the BAFTA Rising Star Award. Aramayo beat out A-listers such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet to win Best Actor, registering one of the biggest upsets in BAFTA history.
I Swear, which also won for Best Casting, tells the story of John Davidson, a Scottish man with severe Tourette’s syndrome, who learns to live with the condition and grows in confidence, eventually becoming a leading campaigner, advocate and educator on the subject.
Jessie Buckley took home Best Actress for her turn in Hamnet, which also won Best British Film, while Wunmi Mosaku was a surprise winner in Best Supporting Actress for Sinners, which also won Best Screenplay and Best Score.
