Every Time the BAFTAs Chose a Lead Winner the Oscars Didn’t Even Nominate

When Robert Aramayo won the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role in February 2026, it’s fair to say it came as something of a shock, given he was up against Hollywood heavyweights like Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet. Whether he goes on to scoop an Oscar nomination next year will have to remain to be seen—but if not, this certainly wouldn’t be the first time that the BAFTAs have not only split from the Academy Awards, but honored a performer who wasn’t even Oscar-nominated at all.

The BAFTAs used to recognize British and international performances in two separate acting categories, but in the nearly six decades since those two were combined in a single Lead Actor and Actress award in 1968, more than a dozen performers have found themselves picking up a BAFTA, without even catching the attention of the Academy at all. From furthest back to most recent, here are all the actors and actresses who have ticked this peculiar awards-season box.

1. Robert Redford (1970)
2. Walter Matthau (1973)
3. Stéphane Audran (1973)
4. Judy Davis (1980)
5. Maggie Smith (1984)
6. Sean Connery (1987)
7. Anne Bancroft (1987)
8. Maggie Smith (1988)
9. John Cleese (1988)
10. Philippe Noiret (1990)
11. Hugh Grant (1994)
12. Robert Carlyle (1997)
13. Jamie Bell (2000)
14. Scarlett Johansson (2003)
15. Joanna Scanlan (2021)

Robert Redford (1970)

The BAFTA rules used to allow performers to receive a single nomination for work across multiple films, and in awarding Robert Redford the Best Actor award in 1970, they singled out no less than three: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Downhill Racer, and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here. Incredibly, none of these attracted the Academy's attention that year, with Redford having to wait until 1974 for his first Oscar nod for his performance in The Sting. His Butch Cassidy and Willie Boy co-star Katharine Ross, meanwhile, likewise won the Best Actress BAFTA that year for her work in both movies, despite not picking up an Oscar nomination either.

Walter Matthau (1973)

Like Robert Redford before him, Walter Matthau won the Best Actor BAFTA in 1973 for his work in multiple films—crime drama Charley Varrick and the Carol Burnett comedy Pete 'n' Tillie. Neither one was recognized by the Oscars (although his Pete 'n' Tillie co-star Geraldine Page earned the third of her record four Supporting Actress nods that year).

Stéphane Audran (1973)

Legendary French actress Stéphane Audran was another performer whose work in multiple films earned her the BAFTA for Best Actress in 1973, recognizing both Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and the French crime drama Just Before Nightfall.

Judy Davis (1980)

To date, Australian acting royalty Judy Davis has been nominated for two Oscars (for A Passage to India and Husbands and Wives), but her lead role in the 1979 drama My Brilliant Career wasn’t one of them. The film earned her the Best Actress BAFTA the following year, ahead of stiff competition from Shirley MacLaine (Being There), Bette Midler (The Rose), and Meryl Streep (Kramer vs. Kramer). That year’s Best Actress Oscar, meanwhile, went to Sally Field in Norma Rae, who, vice versa, wasn’t nominated for the BAFTA.

Maggie Smith (1984)

Dame Maggie Smith won four Best Actress BAFTAs in her lifetime, more than any other actress to date. She also picked up two Oscars from a total of six nominations, but her BAFTA-winning performance in the bizarre yet quintessentially English comedy A Private Function (which tells the story of a mild-mannered chiropodist who steals a prize pig during the food rationing era that followed World War II) was not one of them.

Sean Connery (1987)

Sean Connery was nominated for (and won) just one Oscar in his entire career, picking up Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables in 1987. In the same year, he picked up the Best Actor BAFTA for a completely different film, the medieval mystery The Name of the Rose. An adaptation of Umberto Eco’s classic novel, neither the film nor Connery’s performance earned a single Oscar nomination.

Anne Bancroft (1987)

Anne Bancroft was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar a total of five times, winning for The Miracle Worker in 1963. Her performance in the British drama 84 Charing Cross Road earned her her third BAFTA award in 1987, a year in which none of the Best Actress BAFTA nominees—Bancroft, Emily Lloyd (Wish You Were Here), Sarah Miles (Hope and Glory), and Julie Walters (Personal Services)—earned an Oscar nomination.

Maggie Smith (1988)

The only name to appear twice on this list, Dame Maggie Smith won her fourth and final Best Actress BAFTA in 1988, beating the previous year’s Oscar-winner Cher (in Moonstruck) for her performance in the period drama The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne.

John Cleese (1988)

Monty Python legend John Cleese picked up an Oscar nod for his screenplay to A Fish Called Wanda in 1988, but his lead performance in the film—which won him the BAFTA, ahead of the likes of Michael Douglas in Fatal Attraction and Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam—went unnoticed by the Academy. Oddly, his Wanda co-star Kevin Kline earned a Lead Actor nomination alongside him at the BAFTAs, but ended up in the Supporting Actor category at the Oscars, where he won his first and (to date) only Academy Award.

Philippe Noiret (1990)

Legendary French actor Philippe Noiret saw off stiff competition from Sean Connery (The Hunt for Red October), Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July), and Robert De Niro (Goodfellas) to win the Best Actor BAFTA for Cinema Paradiso in 1990. The coming-of-age comedy drama won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but none of its stars were recognized alongside it.

Hugh Grant (1994)

Classic British comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral earned a pair of Oscar nominations in 1994, for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Back on home turf in the UK, though, the film picked up ten BAFTA nominations, with Hugh Grant winning the 1994 Best Actor award ahead of the likes of Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. In fact, no less than five members of the Four Weddings’ cast picked up BAFTA nods that year, with the film racking up double nominations for both Supporting Actor (Simon Callow and John Hannah) and Supporting Actress (Charlotte Coleman and Kristin Scott Thomas, who also won).

Robert Carlyle (1997)

The 1997 comedy The Full Monty became the highest-grossing film of all time in the United Kingdom, until Titanic broke its record just a few months later. The film also fared well at the US box office and went on to pick up four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, and Score. None of its cast was among the Oscar nominees, however, despite lead actor Robert Carlyle winning the BAFTA that year (ahead of Ray Winstone in Nil by Mouth and Kevin Spacey in LA Confidential).

Jamie Bell (2000)

Billy Elliot star Jamie Bell set a BAFTA record in 2000, when he became the youngest Best Actor winner in history at the age of just 14—seeing off competition from Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys), Tom Hanks (Cast Away), Geoffrey Rush (Quills), and eventual Oscar-winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator). Bell missed out on an Oscar nomination for his role, but Billy Elliot earned nods for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress (Julie Walters). 

Scarlett Johansson (2003)

Scarlett Johansson was effectively a shoo-in for the 2003 Best Actress BAFTA, given that she received two nominations in the same category that year. Although she was also nominated for Best Actress for The Girl with the Pearl Earring, it was her breakout role in Lost in Translation that won her the award, beating Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Volume 1, Naomi Watts in 21 Grams, and British acting legend Anne Reid in The Mother. Of the five performances that BAFTA recognized this year, however, only Naomi Watts went on to receive an Oscar nomination too (losing to Charlize Theron in Monster).

Joanna Scanlan (2021)

2021 was a doozy of a year in the Best Actress category on both sides of the Atlantic. In the same year that Jessica Chastain took home the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, British actress and writer Joanna Scanlan took home the BAFTA for her role in the acclaimed drama After Love. To date, this was the last time a lead BAFTA has gone to an actor or actress who was not nominated for an Oscar—but oddly, not a single actress this year picked up nominations at both ceremonies.

So not only was Jessica Chastain not nominated for a BAFTA alongside her Oscar, but none of her fellow Best Actress nominees (Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Penélope Cruz in Parallel Mothers, Nicole Kidman in Being the Ricardos, and Kristen Stewart in Spencer) were either. And while Joanna Scanlan didn’t receive an Oscar nod despite her BAFTA win, neither did any of her fellow BAFTA nominees—Lady Gaga (House of Gucci), Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza), Emilia Jones (CODA), Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World), and Tessa Thompson (Passing). Ultimately, the two ceremonies chose to honor a total of eleven entirely different performances in 2021.  

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