Hamnet

Chloé Zhao adapts Maggie O'Farrell's award-winning novel for the screen, creating one of the most acclaimed and awarded films of the year.

Young William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) takes on a position as the new tutor for the well-to-do Hathaways to help repay his father's gambling debts. After glimpsing the Hathaways’ eldest daughter, Agnes, through the classroom window, he becomes captivated by her. Rumoured to be the daughter of a forest witch, Agnes uses her own mystical instincts to foresee William’s great success and her own death after bearing two children. When the couple unexpectedly welcome a third child, Agnes sees great misfortune hanging in the stars.

Curator's note
After beginning her career navigating the American genre film, director Chloé Zhao pivots to the English biopic with a film that plays loosely with art history, richly with Elizabethan mysticism and deeply with intense human emotion.

Adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's adored and acclaimed 2020 novel, much of the film is indebted to the writer's creative approach to the fictionally augmented biography. However, Chloé Zhao's direction casts an almost magical spell of its own, with emotions felt like a thickness in the air.

Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are breathtaking in their roles, with the former winning the Golden Globe award for Best Female Actor. Hamnet also won Best Film.