The 2026 BAFTA night did not belong to spectacle. It belonged to stillness, the kind that falls over a room when history quietly shifts. I Swear was not the loudest contender heading into the British Academy Film Awards, yet by the end of the evening, it had become its defining story.

The film’s star, Robert Aramayo, left the ceremony carrying two statuettes, the EE Rising Star Award and Best Actor. The film’s third victory, in Best Casting, confirmed what insiders already knew: this was an ensemble triumph, not an isolated performance.

But Who exactly makes up this award-winning cast? And how did this ensemble shape a story powerful enough to sway BAFTA voters?

The cast of I Swear did not perform the story, they inhabited it. They did not dramatize Tourette’s, trauma, or advocacy, but humanize it.

Robert Aramayo as John Davidson: Known globally for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Aramayo delivered perhaps the most restrained performance of his career, earning himself the Best Actor at BAFTA, announced in a category filled with industry titans, drew audible gasps across the Royal Festival Hall.

As Davidson, he charts the difficult years of the 1980s, when Tourette's syndrome was widely misunderstood, with a raw physicality that never tips into caricature.

Maxine Peake as Dottie Achenbach: A stalwart of British drama (Silk, Peterloo), Peake brings grounded intensity. Her presence stabilizes the narrative, firm, unsentimental, fiercely compassionate.

Shirley Henderson as Heather Davidson: Henderson, whose career spans Trainspotting to Harry Potter, plays John’s mother with quiet devastation. She captures the parental confusion of that era, loving yet navigating a system with little understanding.

Scott Ellis Watson as Young John Davidson: His portrayal bridges innocence and early social alienation, establishing the emotional architecture Aramayo later expands upon.

Peter Mullan as Tommy Trotter: The veteran actor (Ozark, Tyrannosaur) injects grit into the institutional side of the story, representing a society slow to understand neurological difference.

Supporting players including Paul Donnelly, Steven Cree, and Douglas Rankine deepen the film’s Scottish authenticity.

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BAFTA has historically gravitated toward British-rooted narratives, stories embedded in regional identity and social realism. I Swear fits that tradition, while also transcending it. 

Yes, I Swear (2025) is rooted in the real life of John Davidson, a Scottish man who became a prominent voice for Tourette's syndrome awareness after enduring years of misunderstanding during the 1980s. The film draws directly from documented accounts of Davidson’s adolescence and early adulthood, when Tourette’s was still widely mischaracterized in Britain as behavioral misconduct rather than a neurological disorder.

A defining turning point, and the film’s emotional fulcrum, is his eventual formal diagnosis in early adulthood. In reality, importantly, the film does not attempt to chronicle his entire life. Director Kirk Jones ends the movie at the point where his advocacy begins to gain traction, a deliberate structural choice. 

In that sense, I Swear is less a cradle-to-grave biopic and more a study of awakening, the moment an individual reframes difference as identity, and silence as a platform.

Prince William and Princess Catherine Grace the BAFTA 2026 Red Carpet in Coordinated Burgundy

Did I Swear deserve its sweep, or was there another film that should have taken the night? Share your thoughts in the comments.