Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award on September 14, an audience vote that often signals awards-season strength. Festival organizers announced the result at a weekend ceremony following packed screenings for the Shakespeare drama starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.
This year’s runners-up were Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The festival also handed audience prizes across new and returning categories: Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice received the International People’s Choice Award, Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue topped the documentary vote, and Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie led Midnight Madness.
Hamnet adapts Maggie O’Farrell’s novel about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, through a story of grief and creative aftershocks. The film premiered earlier in the season before arriving in Toronto, where coverage highlighted its emotional reception.
The People’s Choice Award has a notable track record with the Academy Awards, including Zhao’s own Nomadland, which took the same TIFF prize before winning best picture and best director. While outcomes vary year to year, the audience vote is closely watched by distributors and awards strategists because it reflects broad public response from festivalgoers rather than a jury.
Focus Features plans a limited theatrical release for Hamnet on November 27, followed by a nationwide expansion on December 12, placing the film squarely in the late-year corridor for prestige debuts. The studio has positioned the film with a campaign centered on Buckley and Mescal’s performances and Zhao’s return to intimate period storytelling.
