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'Hamnet' wins TIFF's People's Choice
Award
[September 15, 2025]
By JAKE COYLE
“Hamnet,"
Chloé Zhao’s drama about William Shakespeare's marriage and the death of
their 11-year-old son, won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto
International Film Festival on Sunday, putting it on an enviable track
to Academy Awards contention.
Winners of
the top honor at TIFF have historically almost always gone on to land a
best-picture Oscar nomination. That was the case every year since 2012,
until the streak was likely snapped last year when “The Life of Chuck”
won the award. Mike Flanagan’s Stephen King adaptation wasn't released
until the following June, and isn't expected to figure into the Oscar
race.
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This image released by Focus Features shows Jessie Buckley, left, and
Paul Mescal in a scene from "Hamnet." (Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features
via AP) |
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“Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie
Buckley as Agnes Shakespeare, has drawn an especially emotional
reaction in its screenings at the Telluride Film Festival and at
TIFF. The film, adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, is
about how grief, following the death of their son, Hamnet, may
have inspired Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, “Hamlet.”
The film, which Focus Features will release in theaters Nov. 27,
is likely to return Zhao and her two stars to the Academy
Awards. Zhao's 2020 drama “Nomadland” won best picture and best
director for Zhao. It, too, won the People's Choice Award in
Toronto.
Festival attendees vote for People's Choice Award. The
runners-up were a pair of Netflix releases: Guillermo del Toro's
“Frankenstein" and Rian Johnson's ”Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives
Out Mystery."
The audience award for international film went to Park Chan-wook's
“No Other Choice.” In the festival’s Midnight Madness section,
the audience prize went to Matt Johnson “Nirvanna the Band the
Show the Movie.” The prize in the documentary category was
awarded to Barry Avrich's “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate
Rescue.”
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