Wunmi Mosaku: wunmi mosaku shows 'ancestral power' with Bafta win
wunmi mosaku said she was "really shocked" after winning the Best Supporting Actress Bafta for her role in Sinners. The 39-year-old, born in Nigeria and raised in Manchester, described finding "a part of myself in Annie" and an "ancestral power and connection" she had thought she had lost while trying to fit in as an immigrant.
Wunmi Mosaku on ancestral power
At the winners' press conference Wunmi Mosaku said: "I found a part of myself in Annie, a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and connection, parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in. " She added that "It always feels good when you feel like your story and your experience is being represented with integrity and creativity. "
Her win and background
Mosaku, who moved with her family from the historic Nigerian city of Zaria to Manchester when she was a one-year-old baby, is the first black British winner of the supporting actress category at the Bafta film awards. She said she had been "really shocked" when announced the winner, adding: "I was like, 'That can't be right'. I was really shocked and I lost my breath and couldn't quite believe it. " She is pregnant and also thanked her daughter, saying "you are my greatest teacher. "
On-screen role and Sinners
Her award recognised her portrayal of Annie, a Hoodoo priestess and wife of Smoke (Michael B Jordan), in Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Mosaku described Sinners as a film that in its 10 months since release has become an instant classic: part musical, vampire thriller, romance epic and period drama set against the blues in a Jim Crow-era Mississippi Delta. She said of the film: "It’s about capitalism and it’s about the cost of freedom, " and asked, "Do you stay in your truth… or do you go where the money is, where the power is?" The film has been both a box-office smash and a critical darling, and Mosaku has met people who have seen the film more than 20 times.
Reactions, past awards and roles
Mosaku has been tipped for an Oscar for her portrayal of Annie. Her Bafta film award comes nine years after she won the same category at the TV Baftas for her role in the drama Damilola, Our Loved Boy, about the death of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, who was stabbed while walking home from a library in London. When that programme aired in 2016 she said: "I grew up on an estate in Manchester and people I've known from school have died in gang trouble and I always thought, 'If I'd been on a different estate at a different time, it could have been me'. " She has also appeared in the TV dramas Luther and Black Mirror and in Marvel movies.
Baftas night and wider winners
The Baftas night saw One Battle After Another win Best Film, defeating Hamnet and Sinners. Robert Aramayo was named Best Actor for I Swear, and Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for Hamnet. The ceremony opened with a long list of films accompanied by a Goldfrapp song and featured a red carpet montage of people many had never seen at the awards before, including one person who threatened to vomit. During the red carpet someone yelled "Is the monarchy in peril?" at Prince William; he described One Battle After Another as "weird, " said he had not seen Sinners because it was "a bit dark, " and mentioned he liked F1. The red carpet also included a video of Timothée Chalamet walking the carpet, and a high-profile public moment in which Paul Mescal and Gracie Abrams, who have been dating since about 2024, made their relationship public with a cheeky kiss; Mescal wore Prada and Abrams wore a beaded floral look from Chanel. Other red-carpet moments noted included fashion choices by Teyana Taylor and Archie Madekwe.
Craft and early influences
Mosaku has said she was inspired to become an actress after watching the 1980s musical film Annie "every single day after school, " which led her to research the movie's cast and to discover drama schools. Finding that Salford-born actor Albert Finney, who played Daddy Warbucks, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London influenced her path. In the run-up to the 2026 Baftas she described being on day five of what she called a "14-day week, " juggling interviews while having hair and make-up done and even trying to secure tickets to the play All My Sons at the Wyndham Theatre. She laughed: "Well, it’s a revelation to me that I can’t do an interview smoothly whilst having hair and make-up done. "
Mosaku noted the public response to her performance, saying she had been pleased to see "the response of black women feeling seen, loved, valued, treasured, and the power of our ancestry and the spirituality. " She added: "For me, seeing that response made me realise how lonely I felt and all of a sudden these women were in my life who I'd never met, I felt a kinship to. " Wunmi Mosaku and Jack O'Connell have won praise for their roles in Sinners, which also secured a Bafta for Best Original Screenplay.
Unclear in the provided context: additional details about future plans beyond the award night.
