A heartbreaking story created by Chloé Zhao had its world premiere in August 2025 and has brought to tears millions of viewers. The film, based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who wrote the script with Zhao, depicts the backstory of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

A combination of romance and tragedy, set in the 16th century, the film not only has a deep meaning but also explains why, even after 400 years, Shakespeare and his writings are still remembered, adored, and discussed.

Under the cover of the story of Shakespeare’s family, the movie presents the most universal human experiences – joy, trust, love, pain, misery, and the ability to come into an understanding. What the film captured is that all these feelings remain the same throughout time and contemporary audiences can identify themselves with the characters.

When William (Paul Mescal) and his wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley)lose their beloved son Hamnet, each of them grieves over him in a different way. This sets them apart, and their up -until-then perfect marriage goes through a deep crisis. Only when Agnes sees the tragedy – Hamlet – written by William, she understands his feelings.

Even though the couple went through extremely challenging experiences, they managed to stay together. Arguably, nobody could have shown the mother’s pain and feelings better than Buckley – her expression and screams made one genuinely shiver.

The greatest surprise of the cast was 13-year-old Jacobi Jupe, who starred as Hamnet Shakespeare, the son of England’s greatest playwright. Jupe’s career started only in 2021, when he was officially cast in Peter Pan & Wendy. Later, he appeared in a miniseries Before, but Hamnet is definitely his breakout movie. For his role, he already received the Astra Film Award for Best Young Performer and two other nominations.

Another surprise came from camerawork and editing – some scenes lasted no less than five minutes, showing careful planning on how the camera is to work on set, and delivering a truly immersive experience. Behind that amazing work stands a Polish cinematographer, Łukasz Żal, previously working on other acclaimed movies, including Ida and Loving Vincent.

The way he led this movie was intriguingly unexpected – in the most heart-wrenching moments, the vast majority of operators would do close-ups on the protagonists. Żal, instead, presented them from an observer’s perspective. In an interview he said: “It’s not only about registering something, but always trying to capture something. Chloé was always saying that.” To achieve that, he employed an intriguing colour palette, so from the beginning the blues belonged to William, and the reds to Agnes.

These achievements in various areas of filmmaking do serve the story, and the result is astonishing. We believe Hamnet deserves to receive all the awards, and it turns out that the award juries agree with us, as Jessie Buckley won the Golden Globe as well as the Critics’ Choice award for Best Actress. Hamnet was also recognised with a Golden Globe for the Best Motion Picture, defeating Frankenstein and Sinners.

For us, it would be a massive surprise if Hamnet would not break the bank during the upcoming Academy Awards gala in March – it is more than a film, it is a masterpiece.