How BAFTA film voting works: rounds, rules and 2027 dates

BAFTA film voting works in three rounds. Members first vote to draw up longlists, then vote again to choose the nominees, and finally vote once more to pick the winners. For the 2027 EE BAFTA Film Awards, Round One voting opens on 4 December 2026, nominations are announced on 19 January 2027 and the ceremony takes place in London on Sunday 21 February 2027. Most categories are decided by BAFTA’s film voting members. A few depend on specialist juries, and one, the EE Rising Star Award, is decided by the public.

This guide explains how BAFTA film voting works as of October 2026. It is based on the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ published rules for the 2027 awards, which will be the 80th edition of the ceremony. Rules are reviewed every year, so check the official rulebook for later editions.

Who votes in the BAFTA Film Awards

BAFTA describes its film awards as peer-voted. According to the academy, the voters are a global membership of about 8,300 film voting members and industry practitioners. Together they decide every category except the EE Rising Star Award.

Voters are not one undivided crowd, though. In the early rounds the membership is split into groups with particular expertise:

• Craft chapters. Each has at least 100 voters and votes in the early rounds of its own field: directing, writing, performance, casting, documentary, original score, cinematography, production design, costume design, make-up and hair, editing, sound and special visual effects.
• Opt-in chapters. Members who sign up to them vote in Film Not in the English Language and Animated Film.
• Juries. Small panels, normally between seven and 12 people, decide Outstanding Debut and Family Film from start to finish. They also select the documentary and casting nominees, add names to the acting longlists, and choose half of the nominees in Best Film and Outstanding British Film.

How BAFTA film voting works, round by round

Round One: the longlists

Before voting opens, each member is given a “viewing group” of roughly 15 entered films, allocated at random, and is expected to watch them. Because the allocation is random, voters see titles they might not have chosen for themselves. Voting is ranked. A voter’s first choice earns 10 points, with fewer points for each lower preference, and in most categories members can rank up to 10 titles. The highest-scoring films and people make the longlist.

Round Two: the nominations

Once the longlists are published, the viewing rules get stricter. A member may vote in a category only after watching every longlisted film in it. Votes are ranked again, this time usually up to five places, with five points for a first preference. The top scorers become the nominees.

Round Three: the winners

In the final round the whole voting membership can vote in every category except Outstanding Debut and Family Film, which stay with their juries. Each voter casts one vote per category and the nominee with the most votes wins. The viewing rule applies again: anyone who has not watched all the nominated films in a category must abstain from it. If two contenders tie in an earlier round, the tie is broken first by counting how many votes each received, whatever their ranking.

How the main categories are decided

The three-round framework is the same across the awards, but the numbers and the mix of members and juries differ from category to category.

• Best Film: every voter takes part in Round One, which produces a longlist of 20. The five highest-ranked films are nominated automatically, and a nominating jury then chooses five more from the films placed sixth to 20th, giving 10 nominees in total. All voters choose the winner.
• Outstanding British Film: works the same way, with a longlist of 20, five nominees from the members’ vote and five from a jury.
• Director: the directing chapter votes. Up to 11 directors are longlisted, with parity between women and men guaranteed, and six are nominated. Directors who identify as non-binary and score within the qualifying range also go through to the longlist.
• Acting categories: the chapter vote fills the first five longlist places in each category. A longlisting jury then picks five more performers from those ranked sixth to 15th. Each acting category has six nominees.
• Documentary: the documentary chapter draws up a longlist of 10, and a jury chooses the five nominees.
• Film Not in the English Language and Animated Film: opt-in chapters produce longlists of 10 and eight, and nominate five and four films respectively.
• Family Film and Outstanding Debut: decided entirely by juries. Family Film has eight longlisted and four nominated. Outstanding Debut has 10 longlisted and five nominated.

Which films can enter the 2027 BAFTAs

To be considered, a feature must run for at least 70 minutes and must have had its first UK cinema release between 1 January 2026 and 19 February 2027. Films Not in the English Language and documentaries get an extra month, until 19 March 2027, but they cannot use that extension to qualify for Best Film.

The release has to be a genuine commercial one. BAFTA sets three thresholds:

• Most categories: at least 10 commercial screenings in the UK across at least seven days in total, or the equivalent of 70 screenings.
• Films Not in the English Language and documentaries: at least one commercial screening across at least seven days, or the equivalent of seven screenings.
• Best Film: more than 50 commercial screenings across at least seven days, or the equivalent of 350 screenings.

BAFTA’s Film Committee decides whether a release counts as meaningful, and screenings put on only to qualify are disregarded.

Outstanding British Film has extra tests. A film must score at least 60% of the available nationality points for its key creative team and must have a British director or writer. BAFTA counts UK passport holders, and people who have lived in the UK for at least six years, as British. Entrants must also meet the BFI Diversity Standards by passing three of the five standards, two of which (C and E) are compulsory, and must have bullying and harassment and sustainability policies in place.

What has changed for the 2027 awards

BAFTA announced several rule changes when entries opened on 22 July 2026:

• The Outstanding British Film longlist grows from 15 to 20 titles. If fewer than 60 films are entered, no more than a third will be longlisted.
• Members of the Casting chapter now vote with the Acting chapter in the first two rounds of the four performance categories.
• The Children’s & Family Film category is now simply Family Film. Its rules are otherwise the same.
• The guidance on artificial intelligence has been updated. The awards recognise human creative work regardless of the tools used, and BAFTA may ask entrants to explain any use of generative AI and how much human creative input was involved.
• Films uploaded to BAFTA View, the academy’s streaming platform for voters, must have a descriptive subtitled version from the day they go live. This replaces a previous 10-day allowance.
• Entrants must state whether their productions were committed to working standards aligned with those of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). This is not compulsory for 2027, but BAFTA expects it to become a requirement later.

Emily Stillman, who chairs BAFTA’s Film Committee, said the changes were designed to keep the awards even-handed and thorough, and to reflect the full range of people working in film today.

BAFTA 2027 timeline: key dates

These are the published dates as of October 2026. Voting deadlines close at 18:00 GMT.

• 29 October 2026: Stage One entries and Outstanding Debut entries closed.
• 10 November 2026: categories and viewing groups published.
• 19 November 2026: Stage Two and payment deadline.
• 4 December 2026: entered films list published; Round One opens at 10:00 GMT.
• 29 December 2026: Round One closes for the acting categories.
• 4 January 2027: Round One closes for all other categories.
• 7 January 2027: longlists published; Round Two opens.
• 14 January 2027: Round Two closes.
• 19 January 2027: nominations announced.
• 26 January 2027: Round Three opens.
• 16 February 2027: Round Three closes.
• 21 February 2027: EE BAFTA Film Awards ceremony in London.

For a reminder of how the system played out in practice, see our coverage of the 2025 BAFTA film nominations and of how British talent fared on the night.

Frequently asked questions

Who votes for the BAFTA film awards?

BAFTA’s film voters, a global membership of about 8,300 film voting members and industry practitioners according to the academy. Craft chapters and juries shape the longlists and nominations in particular categories, and the full membership chooses most of the winners.

Can the public vote in the BAFTAs?

Only for the EE Rising Star Award. A jury of film and entertainment media experts draws up the list of contenders and the public then votes for the winner. The award is aimed at emerging performers, usually aged between 18 and 32, who have already made several films.

Do BAFTA voters have to watch the films?

Yes. In Round One members are expected to watch their randomly allocated viewing group. From Round Two onwards they may vote in a category only if they have seen every longlisted, and later every nominated, film in it. Otherwise they must abstain.

When are the 2027 BAFTA nominations announced?

On Tuesday 19 January 2027. The longlists come out earlier, on 7 January 2027, and the winners are revealed at the ceremony on 21 February 2027.

How many films are nominated for Best Film?

Under the 2027 rules there are 10 Best Film nominees: five chosen by the members’ vote and five picked by a jury from the rest of the 20-film longlist.

Sources: BAFTA, EE BAFTA Film Awards 2027 rules (accessed 28 October 2026); BAFTA, 2027 EE BAFTA Film Awards opens for entries (22 July 2026); AwardsWatch, BAFTA changes for 2027 awards (2026).