photo from IMDb
As the 2026 awards season hits full stride, one film has emerged as the undisputed emotional powerhouse of the year. From Academy Award®-winning writer and director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet is a haunting, lyrical exploration of the love and devastating loss that served as the secret heartbeat behind William Shakespeare’s greatest masterpiece. While the world knows the play Hamlet, Zhao’s film invites us to know the boy—and the mother—who gave it its name.
From Grief to Greatness
Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel, the film centers on Agnes Shakespeare (played by a transformative Jessie Buckley) as she grapples with the sudden death of her eleven-year-old son, Hamnet, during the bubonic plague. Working alongside Paul Mescal, who portrays a grieving, brilliant William Shakespeare, Buckley delivers a performance that critics have called “feral and tender.”
Zhao eschews the typical tropes of a historical biopic, instead focusing on the sensory details of the Shakespeare family’s life in Stratford. The film captures the raw, “histrionic” ache of a parent’s grief, eventually showing how that bottomless pain was transmuted into the creative alchemy that birthed the Bard’s most enduring tragedy.
A Sweeping Success at the 2026 Awards
The film’s impact on the industry has been nothing short of historic. This past week, Hamnet solidified its frontrunner status by winning Best Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes, where Jessie Buckley also took home the award for Best Actress. The momentum continued at the Critics Choice Awards, with Buckley securing another top honor for her career-defining portrayal of Agnes.
Beyond the acting accolades, the film is being hailed as a triumph of production and direction. Chloé Zhao has already earned a nomination for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award, and the film is a Producers Guild of America (PGA) nominee for Best Film. With such a strong showing across all major guilds, Hamnet is currently the heavy favorite as we approach the final stretch of the awards circuit.
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