Chloé Zhao's Hamnet Wins TIFF People's Choice, Boosts Oscar Buzz

Chloé Zhao's Hamnet won the top prize at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, taking the festival's People's Choice Award and strengthening its standing as an Oscar contender. The festival, which ran from September 4 to 14, announced Hamnet as the most popular film among attendees; the film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival a week earlier.

The audience-voted prize has long been watched as an awards-season bellwether, and Hamnet's victory places it squarely in early Best Picture conversation. The film, an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel about William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes and the personal tragedy that follows, stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, with Joe Alwyn and Emily Watson among the supporting cast, according to festival materials. Zhao becomes the first director to win the People's Choice Award twice, having previously taken the honor in 2020 for Nomadland.

Other audience awards at the 11-day festival reflected a wide range of international and genre filmmaking. Park Chan-wook's dark comedy No Other Choice won the International People's Choice Award and was cited as South Korea's Oscar submission. Barry Avrich's The...