Hamnet Gets One Step Closer To Toppling One Battle After Another After London Film Fest Win

Will Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet be able to regain its footing as the obvious frontrunner by the time awards season comes to an end? The Oscar-winning director of Nomadland premiered her adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel this year, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as Agnes and Will Shakespeare, fictionalizing their lives after their son Hamnet’s (Jacob Jupe) death.

Hamnet emerged as a Best Picture frontrunner when it won the People’s Choice Award, the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. However, when Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another premiered in September 2025, it took the world by storm and became many people’s prediction to win Best Picture, leaving Hamnet with an uphill battle.

The Hollywood Reporter now reports that Hamnet has won the London Film Festival audience award for 2025, another milestone for the Shakespearean drama that is helping it gain enough momentum to potentially take down its Oscar rivals. This year, LFF’s lineup also included Wake Up Dead Man, Die My Love, Sentimental Value, and 100 Nights of Hero.

While One Battle After Another skipped over the festival circuit entirely, Hamnet has been garnering rave reviews and awards at prestigious film fests, including Telluride, San Diego, Virginia, Mill Valley, and Middleburg. Notably, Sinners, which was presumed to be the frontrunner for most of this year, is also not a major festival movie, premiering theatrically in April 2025.

In order to truly turn the tide, Hamnet will need to win a few major precursors ahead of Oscars voting closing. It could have its own moment at the Golden Globes as it will compete in the drama category, while One Battle After Another will be considered for the Best Comedy or Musical award.

Hamnet‘s main competitor at the Golden Globes will thus be Sinners, which may reveal if Ryan Coogler’s entry will see a resurgence in time for the Oscars. Yet while we wait to see if people’s enthusiasm for One Battle After Another endures or if they start to come back to Sinners, Hamnet could be quietly preparing to pull the rug out from under both of them.

Hamnet has the near-universal acclaim and some of the key festival wins that statistically say it should be a Best Picture winner, and while One Battle After Another has overshadowed the TIFF results, the race is far from over. Hamnet will release in select theaters in the U.S. on November 26, followed by its wide release on December 12.