Hamnet Makes It Official: Jessie Buckley Is Now An Oscar Frontrunner

Don't call your kestral, go hunting, or make any home-brewed potions if you haven't yet seen "Hamnet" (or read the original book), because spoilers are coming!

I'm sorry to every other actress during this awards season. Truly, I am. If they want to win an Academy Award for best leading actress in a movie, they can go ahead and pack it up because the 2026 Oscar for that particular category is going to Jessie Buckley for "Hamnet." ("Hamnet" is the latest film from Oscar winner Chloé Zhao and is based on Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel; O'Farrell co-wrote the script with Zhao.)

Obviously, I'm being hyperbolic. Other admittedly early front-runners in this category — like Amanda Seyfried for "The Testament of Ann Lee" or even Chase Infiniti for "One Battle After Another," who's being put forward by Warner Bros. as a lead based on her significant screen time in Paul Thomas Anderson's film — could certainly surge ahead. Plus, Focus Features could very well decide to push Buckley in the supporting actress category, even though I think that would probably be a clear instance of what's known as "category fraud" because Buckley's face begins and ends the movie. 

Still, I'm being serious when I say that Buckley's performance is something special. As Agnes Hathaway, a wild young woman who ultimately marries Paul Mescal's William Shakespeare and starts a family with the man who goes on to become one of the most famous writers in the English canon, Buckley is magnetic, grounded, and absolutely astounding. At the very least, Buckley is going to be tough to beat as Oscar season really gets underway.

The narrative of "Hamnet" takes place over at least one full decade, if not a bit longer — and as a result, Jessie Buckley's Agnes lives roughly five lives before the movie comes to a close. When we first meet Agnes in the woods near her family home in the English countryside, she's hunting with her beloved kestral, a bird that accompanies her throughout most of her journey and is clearly a symbol of her yearning for freedom and wide-open spaces. Though she's resistant to a young Will Shakespeare's advances at first, Agnes eventually falls in love with the man — who's working as a tutor before his massive success as a playwright in London — and they have three children: daughter Susanna (Bodhi Rae Breathnach) and twins Hamnet and Judith (Jacobi Jupe and Olivia Lynes). 

When a sickness plagues the countryside while Will is in London working on a play, the family is horrified when Judith falls ill. Hamnet, bravely but arguably stupidly, crawls into his twin's sickbed and tries to pray that the gods will give him her pain ... and that's exactly what happens. Judith survives, but Hamnet dies after contracting her illness.

Suffice it to say, Agnes is, as any mother would be, wracked with inconsolable grief ... and the fact that Will was away during Hamnet's brief illness and subsequent death drives an immovable wedge between the husband and wife. Agnes is blown away, though, when she forces herself to go see Will's new play "Hamlet" in London (the names Hamlet and Hamnet, as the movie tells us in an opening title card, are basically the same). Will has made their son immortal through his play, giving a strange "purpose" to Agnes' all-consuming mourning.

Okay, let's talk about Hamnet's death. 

After frantically trying to save Judith, Agnes tries to get some rest, only to discover a fatally ill Hamnet in Judith's sickbed when she wakes up. After Will's mother, Mary (Emily Watson), gently confirms that the boy is gone, the screams and cries that rip through Agnes are relentless and horrific; there wasn't a dry eye in the house. On the one hand, Buckley's role as Agnes and the performance that follows could uncharitably be called "Oscar bait," but I think that's a bad take, and here's why. 

First of all, Buckley's time as Agnes seems fully lived in, and that's thanks to director Chloé Zhao's careful touch. Second, Buckley's performance is raw, quiet, and honest; despite the emotional highs and lows, it never feels over-performed or showy. Part of it might, and this is me editorializing wildly, be the fact that Buckley filmed "Hamnet" while pregnant. Putting all of that aside, though, the journey Agnes goes through after Hamnet's death really cements Buckley's status as a frontrunner for me.

At the end of "Hamnet," Agnes sees "Hamlet," the play her husband wrote to deal with his own grief. As she watches the play in bewilderment and confusion, you see a litany of emotions cross Buckley's face as Agnes takes it all in and realizes that Will gave his son a posthumous gift and made him immortal, giving him a life well beyond his too-short 11 years. It's stunning, moving, and satisfying ... and without Buckley, not a second of it would work, even beyond this genuinely incredible and darkly uplifting conclusion. Without Buckley behind her, Agnes wouldn't feel so real. Give her the Oscar. Please.

"Hamnet" is now playing in theaters everywhere.