Oscars 2026: Jessie Buckley Wins Best Actress for Hamnet, Creates History for Ireland

Actor Jessie Buckley won the Best Actress award at the 98th Academy Awards for her performance in Hamnet.

This is Buckley’s first Oscar win. She triumphed over a strong field that included Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, and Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value.

With her victory, Buckley becomes the first Irish winner of the Best Actress Oscar. Previous Irish nominees in the category include Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, Lady Bird and Little Women, as well as Ruth Negga for Loving.

In Hamnet, Buckley, 36, plays Agnes Shakespeare, the wife of playwright William Shakespeare, portrayed by Paul Mescal. The film is directed by Chloé Zhao and is based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell.

“Thank you to the incredible women that I stand beside,” she said. “I am inspired by your art and your heart, and I want to work with every single one of you.”

Buckley reported that Ireland had paid for flights for her family to be with her, and then thanked her father for “teaching us to dream and to never be defined by expectation to carry from your own passion”.

She then thanked her partner, Fred, saying: “I love you, man. I love you. You’re the most incredible dad. You’re my best friend and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you.”

Buckley became pregnant with her daughter, Isla, a week after filming on Hamnet ended. Now eight months old, “with absolutely no idea what’s going on … and probably dreaming of milk”, she addressed her daughter, saying: “This is kind of a big deal.”

She added: “I love you and I love being your mum and I can’t wait to discover life beside you.” Addressing Zhao and O’Farrell, whose novel was adapted, Buckley said that getting beneath the skin of the character she played in the film, and the “journey to understand the capacity of a mother of love is the greatest collision of my life”.

Buckley concluded: “It’s Mother’s Day in the UK today. So I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart. We all come from a lineage of women who continued to create against all odds. Thank you for recognising me in this role. This is the greatest honour. I can’t even believe it.”

Buckley had previously been nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Lost Daughter. During the current awards season, she won Best Actress honours at the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards, Critics Choice Awards and the Actor Awards.

Buckley also drew attention during the awards circuit after comments about disliking cats when speaking about an incident involving her then boyfriend’s pets. Speaking on a US chat show the following day, she clarified her remarks.

“I am a lover of cats. I woke up this morning [thinking]: does the world think that I really don’t love cats? And it’s really weighed on me all day. I felt sick.”