- Jessie Buckley wins Best Actress for role in Hamnet.
- Buckley becomes first Irish actress to win Academy Award.
- Actress defeated nominees including Emma Stone and Kate Hudson.
- Hamnet earned eight nominations but won one Oscar.
Jessie Buckley won the Academy Award for Best Actress on Sunday night for her role as Agnes Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, becoming the first Irish actress in the Academy's 98-year history to win the prize and completing a clean sweep of every major awards ceremony of the 2025-26 season.
The 36-year-old actress from Killarney, County Kerry, beat Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue), Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) and Emma Stone (Bugonia) to claim a prize that had been considered a near-certainty since Hamnet debuted at Telluride last autumn.
She had previously won the Golden Globe, BAFTA, SAG-AFTRA Actor Award and Critics Choice Award a clean sweep not achieved in the Best Actress category since Renée Zellweger for Judy in 2020.
Buckley's performance as Agnes the wife of William Shakespeare and mother of the film's titular son, whose death from bubonic plague at age 11 frames the story received near-universal critical acclaim, with reviewers calling it "fierce," "luminous" and "devastatingly human." The Hollywood Reporter described her as stunning in a performance that "grounds a character who could have seemed too ethereal in raw, naked feeling."
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The Speech: Mothers, Ireland and 20,000 Babies
The Dolby Theatre audience rose to a standing ovation as Buckley took the stage in a striking Chanel dress with a dramatic horizontal red sash. She opened with a burst of laughter before collecting herself.
Buckley's parents, siblings and husband Freddie Sorensen attended the ceremony after Ireland's government paid for her family's flights from Killarney. She thanked her parents "Mum, Dad, thank you for teaching us to dream, and to never be defined by expectation, but to carve from your own passion" and made a warmly received aside about Sorensen and their eight-month-old daughter Isla, who had no idea of the significance of the evening.
"You, Fred, I love you, man. You're the most incredible dad. You're my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you," she told him from the stage.
A Career-Best Performance
Hamnet, produced by Steven Spielberg and adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel, earned eight Oscar nominations in total including Best Picture and Best Director for Zhao. Buckley was the film's sole winner on the night.
She described the production as transformative, singling out co-star Emily Watson for the advice she said shaped her approach: "The best advice you always give to me is to always go back to the well of just being human."
Buckley also paid tribute to Zhao and O'Farrell directly. Zhao had told IndieWire that she cast Buckley early, saying: "I knew her work. I had a feeling that she wouldn't be afraid. There was no vanity in her."
In the press room backstage, Buckley reflected on the defining scene of her performance a guttural scream when Agnes' son takes his final breath. "It wasn't in the script. In the third take, that scream just came out," she said. "That scream was like a scream that was ancient."
Richard Baneham, from Tallaght in Dublin, also won Best Visual Effects for Avatar: Fire and Ash on the same night, making him only the second Irish citizen after Daniel Day-Lewis to hold three Oscars.
