Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao had her London Film Festival audience completely zen ahead of the U.K. premiere of Hamnet.
The Nomadland and Eternals filmmaker was introduced by Hollywood heavyweight Steven Spielberg — a co-producer on the movie through Amblin Entertainment — ahead of the screening at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Saturday. The gut-wrenching period drama follows Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Agnes, thrown into contrasting experiences of grief following the death of their young son, Hamnet.
“When you see this, I have to just explain one thing,” the Jaws and E.T. director began. “I really believe that the earth has a heartbeat. It’s a 24/7 seismic cycle and it’s true. All of us are connected to this heartbeat which happens right under our feet, but Chloé Zhao has connected to it in a profound way because it’s where her art comes from. It’s what she plugs into. It’s what she brings to the set every day. It’s what she anoints and brings to her cast every day.”
“And I really believe that when you see Hamnet,” continued Spielberg, “you’ll be able to feel the seismic heartbeat of the earth because of Chloé Zhao.”
Zhao entered the theater to raucous applause and spoke spiritually about the making of Hamnet, a film she co-wrote with Northern Irish writer Maggie O’Farrell based on O’Farrell’s 2020 novel of the same name.
“I feel immense gratitude because today we finally bring Hamnet home,” said the Chinese creative, visibly emotional. “Making this film on this island with this village has given me a deep, deep feeling of belonging, of community, of safety, and I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it before. And it helped me through a very difficult time in my life.”
After she had finished speaking, silence fell across the room as Zhao led a meditative session with the thousands of audience members — as well as Mescal, Buckley and producer Sam Mendes on stage — who breathed in and out, palms to chest in rhythm with the director. She did the same ahead of the movie’s TIFF outing last month.
Mescal caught up with The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet ahead of the screening. “Thank God that we were both in Telluride at the same time,” said Mescal about meeting Zhao, who told THR at TIFF that she could only envision making Hamnet once she’d met the Irish talent.
“I loved the book so much,” the Gladiator II and Aftersun actor added. “And [Telluride] was one of those times where I shamelessly was putting myself in position for a film,” he confessed. “I was like, ‘I really think this would work,’ and I’m very glad that Chloé agreed to.”
On the swift awards buzz that the movie has garnered out of screenings at Telluride and TIFF (THR‘s current standings have both leads as frontrunners for Oscar nominations), Mescal said: “It’s something that’s out of your hands when you’re making it, but it does correlate to something. I’t’s correlating to an appetite for audiences to want to talk about it. And what will be will be,” he continued, “but I’m definitely proud that people are recognising the film that we made and not seeing a different film. That’s always the great fear.”
The BFI London Film Festival 2025 runs Oct. 8-19.
