While Sinners and One Battle for Another will likely duke it out for most wins at the 2026 Oscars, Hamnet is still a shoo-in for at least one award: Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Throughout awards season, Jessie Buckley has picked up nearly every precursor trophy ahead of the Academy Awards for her role as Agnes, the wife of a young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). Barring a total upset, she is expected to win her first Oscar on Sunday, March 15, when the ceremony airs live on ABC. (Buckley was previously nominated in the supporting actress category for her work in 2021’s The Lost Daughter.)
During her victory speech at SAG’s Actor Awards on March 1, Buckley gave a shout-out to her Hamnet costar Emily Watson, noting that Watson’s debut film, Breaking the Waves, inspired her to become an actor.
“Breaking the Waves made me whisper to myself, ‘That’s what I want to do,’ and to share those scenes with you in Hamnet, I will cherish that for the rest of my life,” Buckley said. “Your wild imagination, your brave, untethered womanhood, your ferocious gentleness is a guiding light to me. And the best advice that you always give to me is to always go back to the well of just being human.”
Keep scrolling for more info about Hamnet ahead of Oscar night:
What Is ‘Hamnet’ About?
Hamnet is based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Maggie O’Farrell. The book and the film dramatize the life of a young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jessie Buckley), as they mourn the loss of their young son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe).
As Shakespeare pursues his career as a playwright in London, Agnes stays home in Stratford with the couple’s surviving children, daughters Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and Judith (Olivia Lynes), and her husband’s family. The couple become increasingly distant from one another as Shakespeare works on the play that will become his masterpiece Hamlet.
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in ‘Hamnet.’ Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Who Stars in ‘Hamnet’?
Hamnet stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, while Jessie Buckley plays his wife, Agnes. Bodhi Rae Breathnach appears as their eldest daughter, Susanna, and Olivia Lynes and Jacobi Jupe play twins Judith and Hamnet, respectively.
Through much of the film, Shakespeare and his family reside with his parents, played by Emily Watson and David Wilmot. Joe Alwyn, meanwhile, appears as Agnes’ brother, Bartholomew, who lives with their stepmother and half-sisters on a nearby farm.
In the film’s heart-wrenching final scene, Jacobi’s real-life brother, Noah Jupe, appears as the actor playing Hamlet in the first performance of the play at the Globe Theatre.
Is ‘Hamnet’ Based on a True Story?
Hamnet is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, which is in turn loosely inspired by the life of William Shakespeare and his wife, Anne Hathaway (also known as Agnes). Both the film and the book note at the beginning that “Hamlet” and “Hamnet” were considered the same name in Elizabethan England. While some scholars agree that is true, O’Farrell took numerous liberties with other portions of the story.
Both the movie and book document the early days of Shakespeare and Agnes’ relationship, implying that they fell in love while he was working as a tutor for her family. As in Hamnet, Agnes was pregnant with her first baby when she married Shakespeare, but it is not known whether they were truly in love or forced to marry because of the pregnancy.
Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, died at age 11 and was buried in August 1596, but his cause of death is not known. While he dies of bubonic plague in the film and book, parish records did not specify.
The film also posits that Shakespeare coped with Hamnet’s death by composing Hamlet, which was written between 1599 and 1601. Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt wrote about the possible link between the play and Hamnet’s death in an influential 2004 essay, but there is no surviving evidence to indicate this is true — it’s all purely speculation. The same is true of the film’s notion that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet’s father in the play’s original production. While it is known that Shakespeare did perform in his own plays, there’s never been confirmation that he starred as the ghost.
What Are Critics Saying About ‘Hamnet’?
Hamnet has an 86 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and an audience score of 93 percent. Numerous reviews highlight the film’s raw exploration of grief, which is anchored by Jessie Buckley’s turn as Agnes.
“Buckley’s performance is ferocious and astounding, starting off strong and somehow picking up power as the movie goes along,” critic Alissa Wilkinson wrote in The New York Times. “There’s something so sonorous in her low, melodic voice that in the moment when she loses it entirely, in silent, screaming paroxysms of grief, it smacks you right in the gut.”
New York Magazine’s Bilge Ebiri, meanwhile, called the movie “devastating, maybe the most emotionally shattering movie I’ve seen in years,” adding, “The book was overwhelming too, and going into a film about the death of a child, one naturally prepares to shed some tears. Still, I did not really expect to cry this much.”
What Oscar Nominations Did ‘Hamnet’ Receive?
Hamnet is nominated for eight awards at the 2026 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Directing for Chloé Zhao. Zhao previously won best director in 2021 for her film Nomadland, becoming the first woman of color to take home the trophy.
Jessie Buckley is nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role and is widely considered the favorite for the award, having already picked up wins at SAG’s Actor Awards, the BAFTA Awards, Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards.
Hamnet’s other nominations are Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) for Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, Best Music (Original Score) for Max Richter, Best Casting for Nina Gold, Best Costume Design for Malgosia Turzanska and Best Production Design for Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton.
How to Watch ‘Hamnet’
Hamnet is available to stream on Peacock as of Friday, March 6.
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