Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley Wins Academy Award® for Best Actress in a Leading Role
The star of Chloé Zhao’s powerful drama wins every major Best Actress award.
At the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, Jessie Buckley won the Academy Award® for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her riveting performance in Hamnet. Buckley’s Academy Award® is the crowning prize for the actress who also won a BAFTA, a Critics’ Choice Award, a Golden Globe, and an Actor Award for her performance. In accepting the award, Buckley spoke to the spirit of motherhood. “To get to know this incandescent woman, and journey to understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life," Buckley said. “It's Mother's Day in the UK today. I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart.”
Buckley’s award also marks the first Academy Award® for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Focus Features. Over the years, ten remarkable performances have been nominated for Best Actress: Julianne Moore for Far From Heaven in 2003, Naomi Watts for 21 Grams in 2004, Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 2005, Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice in 2006, Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right in 2011, Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything in 2015, Ruth Negga for Loving in 2017, Cynthia Erivo for Harriet in 2020, Carey Mulligan for Promising Young Woman in 2021, and Cate Blanchett in TÁR in 2023. This year, three actresses from Focus films were nominated—Buckley, Emma Stone (Bugonia), and Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)—with Buckley ultimately winning the award.