The Golden Globe Awards marked a defining moment for Jessie Buckley, whose extraordinary performance in Hamnet crowned a night that celebrated both cinematic ambition and singular acting talent.
Buckley’s win continues an impressive awards-season streak. She claimed the Critics’ Choice Award for her performance just last weekend and is also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, cementing her status as one of the year’s most formidable contenders. Remarkably, this was Buckley’s first-ever Golden Globe nomination.
She was nominated alongside Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love, Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value, Julia Roberts for After the Hunt, Tessa Thompson for Hedda and Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby, making her victory all the more significant in a fiercely competitive field.
Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes divide films by genre, a distinction that shaped the night’s top prizes. One Battle After Another took home best picture (musical or comedy), while Hamnet, the Shakespeare-centred drama led by Buckley, won best picture (drama). It was a powerful showing for Warner Bros. Discovery, which produced both One Battle After Another and television standout The Pitt. One Battle After Another led the night with four wins, including trophies for writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s screenplay and direction.
Hamnet, produced by Focus Features, won two awards in total, including best actress for Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes Shakespeare, a grieving mother navigating unimaginable loss.
Directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao, Hamnet reimagines the life of William Shakespeare through an intimate, historical-fiction lens. Buckley stars as Agnes Shakespeare, who falls in love with a poor Latin tutor named William, played by Paul Mescal, long before he becomes the most famous playwright in history. The film follows their love story as they marry and raise three children, until tragedy strikes with the death of their only son, 11-year-old Hamnet, from the plague. The story explores the family’s grief and how that devastating loss ultimately inspired Shakespeare’s most famous work, Hamlet.
Buckley has long proved herself one of the fiercest actors of her generation. Her previous roles in Women Talking, Wild Rose and The Lost Daughter—the latter earning her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress—have showcased a performer of rare depth and fearlessness. She will next be seen starring in The Bride! But it is her work in Hamnet that is widely tipped to dominate this awards season.
Many have described this as Buckley’s “A Star Is Born” moment. In truth, it feels far richer than that. This is not a sudden arrival, but the culmination of everything she has already demonstrated throughout her career. As much as Florence Pugh and Anya Taylor-Joy continue to impress, Buckley occupies a space entirely her own. She is a gift to the acting industry—an actor incapable of complacency or autopilot. In Hamnet, she gives herself over completely, summoning love, rage, despair, tenderness and resilience with astonishing honesty. It is a performance that deserves every accolade it receives—and no substitute will do.
Accepting her award, Buckley appeared visibly overwhelmed. “This is not a normal feeling or situation to be in,” she said. “But thank you, Golden Globes, thank you Focus and everybody who supported this film.”
She went on to thank key collaborators, including director Chloé Zhao, co-star Paul Mescal, author Maggie O’Farrell—whose novel inspired the film—and Emily Watson. Buckley also paid tribute to the hundreds of extras involved in the production. “The 400 extras; I adore you,” she said. “I would rave in that globe for the rest of my life with you. It was such an extraordinary set to be part of because we were telling the story of probably the most famous Brit that ever lived, and we had a Chinese director, a lot of Irish and mostly Polish crew.”
Elsewhere in the evening, television honours were dominated by Netflix’s Adolescence, which won four awards—the most of any TV series on the night. Creator Stephen Graham won best actor in a limited series, while Erin Doherty was named best supporting actress in a TV drama. Their 16-year-old co-star Owen Cooper won best supporting actor in a TV drama, becoming the youngest-ever winner in the category.
Other notable winners included Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Rhea Seehorn for Pluribus, and HBO drama The Pitt – which will finally arrive in the UK in the coming months.
Still, the night belonged unmistakably to Jessie Buckley, a performer whose moment feels not fleeting, but inevitable.
See the full list of winners at this year’s Golden Globes ceremony here.
