Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet has taken the highest award on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, after premiering there earlier this week. Written by Zhao and Maggie O’Farrell, the movie stars Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Emily Watson, and David Wilmot, amongst others.
Hamnet follows a fictionalized model of William Shakespeare (Mescal) and his spouse Agnes Shakespeare (Buckley), additionally identified traditionally as Anne Hathaway, after the dying of their younger son Hamnet. It premiered to rave critiques, with Display Rant ranking the movie 10/10.
Hamnet has since gained the Folks’s Selection Award, usually seen as an indicator of which movies are in severe competition for the following Academy Awards. This win marks Zhao’s second time receiving the award, having beforehand gained for Nomadland in 2020. Notably, she would later win Greatest Image and Greatest Director for that movie on the 93rd Academy Awards.
The primary runner-up for the Folks’s Selection Award was Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro. The second runner-up is Wake Up Useless Man: A Knives Out Thriller, directed by Rian Johnson.
See the complete record of Folks’s Selection Award honorees under:
Folks’s Selection Award introduced by Rogers: Hamnet, dir. Chloé Zhao
First runner-up: Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo del Toro
Second runner-up: Wake Up Useless Man: A Knives Out Thriller, dir. Rian Johnson
Worldwide Folks’s Selection Award introduced by Rogers: No Different Selection, dir. Park Chan-wook
First runner-up: Sentimental Worth, dir. Joachim Trier
Second runner-up: Homebound, dir. Neeraj Ghaywan
Folks’s Selection Documentary Award introduced by Rogers: The Highway Between Us: The Final Rescue, dir. Barry Avrich
First runner-up: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Live performance, dir. Baz Luhrmann
Second runner-up: You Needed to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…, dir. Nick Davis
Folks’s Selection Midnight Insanity Award introduced by Rogers: Nirvanna the Band the Present the Film, dir. Matt Johnson
First runner-up: Obsession, dir. Curry Barker
Second runner-up: The Livid, dir. Kenji Tanigaki
What Hamnet’s Win At TIFF Means For The 2026 Oscars Race
Jessie Buckley as Agnes in Hamnet
Hamnet’s accolade at TIFF singles it out as an early favourite to take residence the Greatest Image Award on the 98th Academy Awards in 2026. Traditionally, the three movies that obtain both the highest prize or runner-up honors have a leg up relating to the Oscars.
A lot of the TIFF Folks’s Selection Award honorees over the previous couple of years have been Academy Award-nominated, with the notable exception of The Lifetime of Chuck. Many of those are Greatest Image nominees or winners, with others additionally receiving nominations for writing or directing.
As talked about, Zhao’s earlier Academy Award-winning movie, Nomadland, additionally took residence the Folks’s Selection Award, which means historical past may simply repeat itself. Nonetheless, del Toro is a earlier Oscar winner himself, whereas Johnson has been nominated for Screenplay twice, each for Knives Out movies.
Our Take On Hamnet’s Win At TIFF
Hamnet characters in forest
At the moment, it’s tough to inform how the 2026 Oscars race will pan out. The interval for qualifying theatrical runs for the 98th Academy Awards spans from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025, so there are nonetheless extra movies to be launched.
If one other 2025 launch positive aspects important traction, it might show to be an upset. Likewise, it’s not unusual for TIFF Folks’s Selection Award runner-ups to take residence Greatest Image, as Anora did in 2025. Nonetheless, Hamnet’s early accolades and constructive phrase of mouth are prone to tip the scales in its favor.
Hamnet
10/10
Launch Date
November 27, 2025
Director
Chloé Zhao
Jessie Buckley
Agnes Shakespeare
