The Dolby Theatre rose to its feet to recognize the new queen of acting. Jessie Buckley won the Oscar for Best Actress on Sunday for her leading role in ‘Hamnet’, the film adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s best-selling novel.
With this triumph, the Irishwoman not only secures her place among Hollywood’s elite, but also breaks with the betting pools that predicted more media figures as winners.
The weight of Agnes Shakespeare
The Oscar for Best Actress goes to Jessie Buckley.
It was the clearest Oscar of the night, she had won EVERYTHING.Well deserved. #oscarspic.twitter.com/o5VMFoEVKy
– R E P L I C A N T (@Roybattyforever) March 16, 2026
In Hamnet, Buckley plays Agnes, the mystical and resilient wife of William Shakespeare, in a story that moves away from the Bard’s settings to focus on the grief of a mother who loses her son to the plague.
Buckley’s performance has been described by experts as a “force of nature,” managing to convey the agony and beauty of loss without the need for great artifice, relying fully on the expressiveness of her gaze and her mastery of silence.
Under the lens of Oscar winner Chloé Zhao, Buckley achieved what few actors do: humanize a historical figure who for centuries was barely a footnote in her famous husband’s biography.
A trio of “heavyweights
Admiring her new friend. Jessie Buckley wins Best Actress for HAMNET! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/oP3bHtAVOk
– The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 16, 2026
Jessie’s path to the statuette was arguably the most difficult of the night.
The Best Actress category was a veritable carnage of talent at these awards.
Jessie Buckley beat Emma Stone, who was seeking her third Oscar with the surrealist Bugonia; a renewed Kate Hudson, who surprised in Song Sung Blue; Australian Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You) and Nordic muse Renate Reinsve, who dazzled in the Norwegian film Sentimental Value.
The Irishwoman’s triumph is seen as a victory for cinema that prioritizes emotional depth over commercial spectacle.
His name now joins that of great legends, consolidating a career that began on the West End stages and today reaches the top of the world.
The speech of the new sovereign
Jessie Buckley wins Best Actress in a Leading Role at #Oscars for “Hamnet” pic.twitter.com/mQXcFRrt09
– Deadline (@DEADLINE) March 16, 2026
Visibly moved, Jessie Buckley took the stage wearing a design that evoked the simplicity of her character.
“This award is for all the women whose stories were erased from the history books to make room for men. Agnes taught me that love and grief are two sides of the same coin,” she said through tears, dedicating the award to her native Ireland and her production team.
With this Oscar, Jessie Buckley ceases to be “the promise” to become the brightest reality of contemporary cinema.
An unforgettable night where art, finally, was the great protagonist.
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