Clare Binns, the Creative Director of Picturehouse Cinemas and Picturehouse Entertainment, will receive the honorary Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema award at this year’s BAFTAs.
“I was totally blown away when I heard that I was getting this award,” Binns said in a statement.
“I’m so thrilled not just for myself but for everyone who has worked with me throughout my career and for those who continue to support the mission to welcome audiences into local cinemas across the UK, who are just getting on with the job of giving film the home it deserves.”
Binns began her career as a cinema usher in the early 1980s. Working her way up to projectionist and then manager at the Ritzy cinema in London, she went on to operate a network of UK cinemas under Zoo Cinemas before joining Picturehouse in 2003.
Previous Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema recipients, first awarded in 1979, include MediCinema, Andy Serkis, June Givanni, Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlson, the National Film and Television School, Curzon, Angels Costumes and BBC Films.
The 2026 BAFTA Film Awards ceremony will be hosted by Alan Cumming on 22 February. The BAFTA longlists were published last week. Leading the pack is Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling comedy One Battle After Another with a record 16 mentions.
One Battle raked in mentions on all the major BAFTA categories, including Best Film, Best Director, and Adapted Screenplay. The film’s dominant showing continues in the performance categories, with newcomer Chase Infiniti landing on the Leading Actress longlist, Leonardo DiCaprio on the Leading Actor longlist, and Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Teyana Taylor on the respective Supporting longlists.
The previous record for BAFTA longlist mentions was 15, met by Emilia Perez in 2025, All Quiet on the Western Front in 2023, and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, and Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon in 2024.