Donna Langley Honored with BAFTA Fellowship as 2026 Awards Spotlight British Wins
Dame donna langley, NBCUniversal Entertainment’s chairman, was presented with BAFTA’s highest accolade, the Fellowship, at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards in London. The award underlined BAFTA’s stated rationale about her leadership amid industry change and came on a night that also delivered major wins for British cinema.
Donna Langley Receives Fellowship
Dame Donna Langley was handed the Fellowship prize at the BAFTA Film Awards in London in recognition of what BAFTA described as “transformative leadership in the face of rapid change and disruption” at NBCUniversal Entertainment. BAFTA cited Langley’s role on films including Oppenheimer, Bridget Jones and Straight Outta Compton. The audience was shown a video reel of leading filmmakers she has worked with, and the honour placed her among previous fellows such as Dame Helen Mirren, Sidney Poitier, Mel Brooks, Sir Ridley Scott, Thelma Schoonmaker, Kathleen Kennedy and Ang Lee. The most recent recipient before Langley was Warwick Davis at the 2025 BAFTA Film Awards.
Prince William Presents Prize
Prince William presented the Fellowship and praised Langley’s “tireless” advocacy for British storytelling and for championing movies that have “shaped culture. ” After receiving the prize, Langley told the audience that “we are facing moments of change and disruption today, ” and urged the industry to keep making popular art that helps people understand the world and “reminds us that decency is a superpower. ” She added that the future of the business is something the industry shapes through the risks it takes and the people it backs, and called for continued adaptation, resilience and making room for new voices.
Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan Endorsement
Leading directors contributed on-screen remarks. Steven Spielberg praised Langley as a peacemaker, dealmaker and creative-rights advocate who is forward-looking on business, technology and ideas, saying she believes movies and audiences belong in movie theatres and describing her patience as a bonding agent. Christopher Nolan called her a deserving recipient and highlighted her combination of filmmaker-friendly creative insight and commanding leadership, noting her grasp of the filmmaking process and her focus on the audience.
Alan Cumming Hosts at Royal Festival Hall
The 2026 BAFTA Film Awards took place at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, with Alan Cumming hosting the ceremony for the first time. The event’s programme included the full list of winners for the night.
Robert Aramayo, One Battle After Another and Jessie Buckley Among Winners
The ceremony also underscored strong moments for British cinema. Robert Aramayo took both the best newcomer award and the best actor award, described as a crowning of a strong night for British film. One Battle After Another won best film. Hamnet registered success among the ceremony’s accolades, with Jessie Buckley winning best actress.
Broadcast Highlights, Online Items and Notices
A short highlights video of the BAFTAs was released, running 00: 01: 54. The broader video listings associated with the BAFTA highlights included a sequence of brief items with run times: a piece on the killing of drug lord 'El Mencho' (00: 01: 07); an inside press briefing as Trump criticises a Supreme Court tariffs ruling (00: 00: 56); giant tortoises returning to a Galápagos island after nearly 200 years (00: 00: 31); a viral monkey named Punch rejected by its mother and given a stuffed orangutan (00: 01: 22); a segment on what happens next for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (00: 01: 00); footage titled The day Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested (00: 01: 14); an explainer on why more Americans have not been charged in the Epstein case (00: 01: 03); a skier describing 'panic' as an avalanche hit Italian slopes (00: 01: 23); Lunar New Year 2026 celebrations around the world (00: 01: 29); and a clip of an Italian town’s carnival that features flying oranges (00: 00: 30).
The BAFTA website page copy included the instruction: Click here if you are not redirected automatically. Copyright material for the highlights package bore the notice Copyright © 2026, followed by the statement that the is not responsible for the content of external sites and an invitation to read about its approach to external linking.
The coverage that announced Langley’s Fellowship also included practical audience-facing items: a prompt to sign up for Breaking News Alerts and newsletters, and a notice that comments on the host site are monitored with guidance to remain on topic and not to impersonate anyone. A longer sign-up notice referenced terms of use and a privacy policy but was truncated in the provided context and is unclear in the provided context.
What makes this notable is the confluence of recognition—an institutional Fellowship awarded publicly by a senior royal figure—and a night of awards that emphasized British talent, a combination that ties industry leadership to contemporary British successes on-screen.
