Awards season now lasts roughly three hundred months a year, and most of it feels like homework. Every studio has a “deeply important” drama, every trailer screams about nominations, and your group chat quietly ignores all of it. Hamnet and Ella McCay are the rare ones that actually seem worth tracking, not because of trophies, but because they look like movies you might want to argue about after.
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On paper, they sound like classic prestige bait: Hamnet is a literary adaptation about Shakespeare’s family, Ella McCay is a political dramedy about a young governor. In practice, both are built around point of view, character, and tone instead of Oscar-bait speechifying. The real question isn’t “can they win Best Picture,” it’s “are they worth a night out and a few spicy takes in the group chat.”
Why Hamnet Feels Bigger Than Another Dusty Period Drama
Hamnet comes from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel and Chloé Zhao, who went from Nomadland to Marvel and back to intimate drama. That combo alone tells you this isn’t going to be a museum piece. Early reactions out of the fall festivals called it one of the most emotionally brutal movies of the year, with Zhao leaning hard into grief, marriage, and how art gets born out of loss instead of just recreating Elizabethan England for costume porn.
The hook is the point of view. Instead of centering Shakespeare as tortured genius, the film reportedly leans into Agnes (Jessie Buckley) and the family, with Paul Mescal as William playing off her more than delivering monologues to the rafters. That shift matters for viewers because it turns the movie into a relationship story first and a “great man” story second. You’re watching two people try to survive the death of their child, not a Wikipedia page with nice lighting.
On the craft side, this is the kind of movie that lives or dies on performances and texture. Buckley and Mescal are both in that sweet spot where they’re awards-friendly but still feel like real humans, and early reviews have singled out the kid performance from Jacobi Jupe as a heartbreaker. Zhao’s visual style tends to favor natural light, long takes, and faces over spectacle, which usually translates to a slower, immersive watch that actually rewards seeing it in a quiet theater instead of half-watching at home.
All of that is why Hamnet is already being talked up as a major contender for acting, adapted screenplay, and possibly picture. For you, that means two things: it’s almost guaranteed a solid theatrical run in the thick of awards season, and it’s the kind of movie people will pretend they saw even if they didn’t. If you like being ahead of that conversation, this is the one to catch before it becomes shorthand for “the sad Shakespeare movie” on social media.
Ella McCay: Politics, But Make It Screwball
Ella McCay is James L. Brooks coming back to movies after a long break, which already sets expectations. This is the guy behind Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment, and he’s once again building a story around a sharp, overwhelmed woman in the middle of work, family, and chaos. Here, that’s Emma Mackey as a 30-something suddenly bumped into the governor’s office, trying to juggle policy, legacy, and a messy personal life.
The key thing: this is not a civics lesson. Early reviews describe it as old-school dramedy with screwball DNA, closer to Broadcast News than The West Wing. The ensemble is stacked (Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks, Woody Harrelson, Ayo Edebiri and more), which usually means overlapping dialogue, side plots that actually land jokes, and at least one character you end up weirdly attached to. Even the critics who are mixed on the script mostly agree it plays light on its feet when it leans into banter and character work.
That mix of humor, romance, and politics is catnip for awards voters when it works. Think of how often “smart but warm” dramedies sneak into screenplay and acting categories. For regular viewers, it just means this might be the rare political movie you can throw on without needing to know every detail of real-world policy. It’s about personalities under pressure, not recreating C-SPAN.
There’s also the nostalgia factor. Brooks returning is a story in itself, and if you’ve been following how adult-skewing movies are fighting for space, Ella McCay sits right in the lane BDDS has been tracking in pieces like its weekly new-movie rundown. It’s the kind of mid-budget, star-driven movie that used to own multiplexes and now feels like an endangered species. Even if it ends up divisive, that alone makes it more interesting than another anonymous streaming original.
Where They Fit in the Usual Awards-Season Noise
Most awards slates are clogged with biopics, “issue” dramas, and historical epics that all blur together. Hamnet and Ella McCay cut through that in different ways. Hamnet is prestige literary adaptation, sure, but it’s also being sold as a gut-punch family drama that just happens to involve Shakespeare. Ella McCay is a political story, but it’s playing in the romantic-comedy-adjacent dramedy lane instead of the “dark money will destroy democracy” lane.
In awards terms, Hamnet feels like the heavier hitter. It already picked up a big audience award at a major festival, which historically tracks well with Best Picture lineups, and the performances are being talked about in the same breath as past winners. That usually means a slower rollout, platforming in key cities before expanding, then a high-profile streaming window later. Ella McCay looks more like a player in acting and original screenplay categories if voters click with the tone.
For viewers, that translates to this: Hamnet is the one most likely to become the season’s must-have opinion. It’s the movie people will ask, “Did you survive that?” about. Ella McCay is more likely to be the “oh yeah, I liked that one” critical favorite that quietly builds a fanbase once it’s easier to watch at home. If you like to pick your spots instead of chasing every nominee, that split is useful.
How to Pick Your Watch Order
If you only have one serious movie night in you, choose based on mood, not buzz.
- Go Hamnet first if you want something emotionally heavy, visually grounded, and built around big performances. This is a “phones away, lights down” watch, best with one or two people who actually like talking about movies after.
- Start with Ella McCay if you want something looser and more conversational. It’s better suited to a casual night with friends or a date where you want laughs and character drama with just enough politics to feel current.
Practical tips: for Hamnet, know going in that it’s about grief and family; if you’re already wiped out, save it for a weekend when you can sit with it. For Ella McCay, pay attention to how Brooks stages conversations and uses the ensemble; half the fun is watching different generations of actors bounce off each other. If you like building your month around a couple of anchors instead of endless scrolling, it fits neatly next to the kind of true-story and awards picks BDDS already rounded up in its December nonfiction guide.
The clean way to treat this awards season is simple: don’t try to see everything. Pick one big swing like Hamnet and one character-driven hangout like Ella McCay, give them real attention, and let the rest of the campaign noise fade into the background. If awards season is going to eat up this much calendar space, it might as well give you a couple of movies that are actually fun to have opinions about.
