Chloé Zhao on “Hamnet,” Which Is Nominated for Eight Academy Awards
3/15/202622 min
Chloé Zhao became only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, for 2020’s “Nomadland,” and she is nominated once again for “Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same name, the film follows a young William Shakespeare and his wife, and their grief at the loss of their only son. “Hamnet” is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress, and five other awards. Speaking with Michael Schulman, Zhao talked about the origins of “Hamnet,” the centrality of nature imagery in her work, and how the I.P. in a Marvel film is not so different from adapting a literary novel.
This segment originally aired on December 5, 2025.
Further reading:
“Chloé Zhao Has Looked into the Void,” by Michael Schulman
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David Remnick· Host1:04
[gentle music] This is The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Chloé Zhao was only the second woman to win an Oscar for Best Director, and that of course was for Nomadland, a twenty-twenty film starring Frances McDormand as an itinerant worker living out of a camper and searching for work all over America. Zhao is up for Best Director yet again, and the film