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Hamnet’ Enters Oscars Weekend With Eight Nominations, Jessie Buckley Favored

Chloé Zhao frames the acclaim as validating for a film that has stirred discussion over its sentiment and historical license.

Overview

  • Zhao says awards recognition feels like being seen by her peers, though she cautions against relying on it as the sole validation.
  • The film earned eight Academy Award nominations, including best picture, director for Zhao, and adapted screenplay with Maggie O’Farrell, with the ceremony airing Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.
  • Commentary in The Independent and Radio Times urges a best picture win and positions Buckley as the likely best actress winner.
  • Some reviewers label the drama “emotionally manipulative,” while historians argue it downplays the centrality of religion in Elizabethan life.
  • Co-written by Zhao and O’Farrell, the adaptation centers Shakespeare’s family through Agnes’s perspective, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal with a score by Max Richter.