The Palm Springs International Film Awards has revealed that Focus Features’ HAMNET will receive the prestigious Vanguard Award this January, recognizing the collective achievement of a film’s cast and director when their collaboration produces something truly exceptional. Director Chloé Zhao, along with actors Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, are all expected to attend the ceremony on January 3, 2026, at the Palm Springs Convention Center, with the festival itself running from January 2 through 12. Presented by Kering and sponsored by Entertainment Tonight, the event promises to celebrate one of the year’s most emotionally powerful cinematic experiences.
The Academy Award-winning Zhao brings her distinctive sensibility to this adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s celebrated novel, crafting a deeply observed meditation on love’s fragility and art’s capacity to transform suffering into transcendence. The film traces the relationship between an impoverished Latin tutor named William Shakespeare and the free-spirited Agnes, whose passionate attraction ignites a torrid affair that evolves into marriage and a family with three children. Their bond faces its greatest test when William’s theatrical ambitions pull him toward London’s stages while Agnes remains behind, shouldering the weight of domestic life alone. When devastating tragedy strikes their family, the couple’s once-unshakeable connection fractures under grief’s unbearable pressure, yet from this shared anguish emerges the raw emotional material that will eventually crystallize into Shakespeare’s immortal masterpiece, HAMLET.
Festival Chairman Nachhattar Singh Chandi emphasized the profound honor of presenting this year’s Vanguard Award to HAMNET, calling it one of the most resonant films of the year and praising Zhao for bringing such weighty subject matter to the screen with remarkable grace. The extraordinary performances delivered by Buckley and Mescal establish the film’s deeply human core, grounding its exploration of artistic genius in the messy, painful reality of lived experience. The recognition celebrates HAMNET‘s exceptional achievement in cinematic storytelling, acknowledging how it transforms a historical footnote into something universal and achingly immediate, revealing how the greatest art often emerges from our deepest wounds.
He`s baaaack!
@piercebrosnanofficial returns in MOBLAND season two with Helen Mirren and everyone`s favourite bad boy, Tom Hardy, premiering Sep 18 only on @paramountplus.
Watch now via link in bio 🔗︎
Domhnall Gleeson is back in THE PAPER Season 2!
Ned isn`t just central to the newsroom drama anymore, he`s now the editor of the Toledo Truth Teller, steering the team through two major investigations: a fire death and a tornado aftermath.
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Martin McDonagh is back 🎬
The Galway and Sligo-rooted writer-director behind IN BRUGES and THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN has unveiled the trailer for WILD HORSE NINE and is headed to @tiff_net.
In cinemas November 6th. Who`s ready? 👇
Caitríona Balfe is heading back to television 👁️
The OUTLANDER star teams with Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón for ASCENSION, a psychological horror thriller for Apple TV, playing Rose, a documentary filmmaker probing a mysterious 20th-century cult... only to find something far more sinister waiting beneath its teachings.
Full details via 🔗︎ in bio!
Phoenix rising 🔥🎬
CILLIAN MURPHY and wife Yvonne McGuinness have got the green light to bring Dingle`s beloved Phoenix Cinema back to life — not just as a cinema, but as a full-blown creative hub for west Kerry.
Full details via 🔗︎ in bio!
Aisling Bea is going to Mars 🚀
The Irish actress and BAFTA TV winner has joined the cast of STARMAN, starring alongside Brendan Fraser and Jeff Daniels, playing defiant Irish photographer Julia Hanley opposite Fraser`s stranded astronaut.
Full details via 🔗︎ in bio!
Irish director Lenny Abrahamson (NORMAL PEOPLE, ROOM) is set to direct YOU ARE HERE.
The eight-part screen adaptation of David Nicholls` best-selling novel will star Claire Foy (THE CROWN) and Matthew MacFayden (SUCCESSION)
Full details via link in bio 🔗︎
Barry Keoghan heads back into Irish indie territory with LEMONADE 🍋
First-look images and details have landed for Kim Bartley`s narrative feature debut, a story about first loves, second chances, and the ties that make a family.
Full preview via link in bio 🔗︎
We`ve lost a national treasure 💔
Oscar-winning singer-songwriter, Glen Hansard, has died as a result of a motorcycle accident in Dublin this morning.
THE COMMITMENTS and ONCE star leaves behind a monumental cultural legacy on screen and stage.
Full tribute via link in bio 🔗︎
