Hamnet – A Reel Alternatives Film Screening

Winner, People’s Choice Award, TIFF 2025
Nominated for 8  Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress
Winner, Golden Globes Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Lead Actress, Motion Picture – Drama

From Academy Award winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet. ​

In William Shakespeare’s day, the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable. This film uses that context as the basis for a tender exploration of Shakespeare’s domestic life, connecting a family tragedy to one of his most famous works. Maybe we can better understand Hamlet, Zhao suggests, if we consider that it was developed while the most famous writer in the Western canon was mourning the death of his 11-year-old son, Hamnet.​

Based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet’s main character isn’t The Bard — played here by an impressive Paul Mescal — or even the child who gives the film its name. Hamnet belongs to Agnes, Shakespeare’s thoughtful wife, played by an enthralling Jessie Buckley, who bathes the film in her warmth. Grief is a theme here, but Hamnet is not just a film about death. Early scenes of Agnes and William’s courtship are naturalistic, rendered through lush cinematography. Like any family story, this one contains joy alongside sorrow.