LONDON — Politically charged thriller “One Battle After Another” won six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building momentum ahead of Hollywood’s Academy Awards next month.

Blues-steeped vampire epic “Sinners” and gothic horror story “Frankenstein” won three awards each, while Shakespearean family tragedy “Hamnet” won two, including best British film.

“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s explosive film about a group of revolutionaries in chaotic conflict with the state, won awards for directing, adapted screenplay, cinematography and editing, as well as for Sean Penn’s supporting performance as an obsessed military officer.

“This is very overwhelming and wonderful,” Anderson said as he accepted the directing prize. He paid tribute to his longstanding assistant director, Adam Somner, who died of cancer in November 2024 a few weeks into production.

“We have a line from Nina Simone that we used in our film, ‘I know what freedom is: It’s no fear,'” the director said. “Let’s keep making things without fear. It’s a good idea.”

Bookies’ favorite Jessie Buckley won the best actress prize for playing grieving mother Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in “Hamnet.” Buckley, 36, is the first Irish performer to win a best actress prize at the awards, known as BAFTAs.

She dedicated her award “to the women past, present and future who taught me and continue to teach me how to do it differently.”

In a major upset, Robert Aramayo won the best actor category for his performance in “I Swear,” a fact-based British indie drama about a campaigner for people with Tourette syndrome.

The 33-year-old British actor looked stunned and called the victory over Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothee Chalamet “absolutely mad.”