Beijing-born director Zhao, who won an Oscar with 2020’s Nomadland, won the Toronto People’s Choice award at the film festival in Canada
Hamnet, a devastating period drama about the life of William Shakespeare and his family, won the top prize on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The heart-wrenching film stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes – played by Jessie Buckley – contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England.
It comes from Beijing-born director Chloé Zhao, who directed 2020’s Oscar-winning Nomadland. Securing the Toronto award, on top of glowing reviews, confirms Hamnet as another Academy Award front runner.
The film is based on a novel by Maggie O’Farrell, which colours in the gaps of the little we know about the Shakespeares.
