Chloé Zhao is back in the Oscar conversation in a big way.
The director’s upcoming historical drama “Hamnet” (in theaters Nov. 27), a fictionalized tale of William Shakespeare and his wife starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, won the People’s Choice Award on Sunday, Sept. 14, at Toronto Film Festival. The honor has been a strong harbinger for Academy Award success over the years: Zhao’s acclaimed 2020 American road trip piece “Nomadland” won the festival’s top prize and later took home the best picture Oscar, as have “Green Book,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave” and “The King’s Speech.”
Zhao made history as the first woman of color to win best director at the Oscars, and looks to be back in that race again at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15. Buckley and Mescal also appear to be contenders in the acting categories.
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Jessie Buckley (center) stars as Shakespeare’s grieving wife Agnes in Chloé Zhao’s historical drama “Hamnet.”
In a video statement, Zhao said the award was “especially meaningful” and thanked the festival audience for the “opportunity to come together and share our story.”
The filmmaker added that when she was younger and “very lonely” years ago, “I wrote stories and I drew manga and put them on the Internet so I could read comments. Whether they liked them or not, I felt connected to them and suddenly the world is a little bit less of a lonely place and life has more meaning. That has not changed.”
The first People’s Choice runner-up was “Frankenstein,” Guillermo del Toro’s buzzy Netflix adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece, while second runner-up went to “Wake Up Dead Man,” Rian Johnson’s third all-star “Knives Out” mystery featuring Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and more.
In its 50th iteration, the festival introduced a new honor, the International People’s Choice Award. Park Chan-wook’s Korean dark satire “No Other Choice” was the top choice in the category – raising its own Oscar odds for best international film – followed by Joachim Trier’s dramedy “Sentimental Value” and the Indian drama “Homebound,” which is executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
Other notable honorees included Baz Luhrmann’s documentary “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” the runner-up for the People’s Choice documentary award, and the horror movie “Obsession,” a People’s Choice Midnight Madness runner-up.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Hamnet’ wins Toronto Film Festival’s top award. Is Oscar next?
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