The 98th Academy Awards will be here before you know it, so I’ve been spending my free time catching up on all the Oscar-nominated films that I missed late last year. This admittedly ambitious yet fulfilling exercise recently brought me Hamnet, Chloe Zhao’s utterly heartbreaking exploration of grief and what can come from it. This outstanding drama (it was one of CinemaBlend’s top 2025 films) is competing in eight categories, but there’s one where it doesn’t belong.
No, it’s not Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, or Best Actress (Jessie Buckley is remarkable as Agnes Shakespeare), but instead the Best Music field. I’m a longtime fan of Max Richter’s work, and it pains me to say this, but his score should have been made ineligible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and it’s all because of what I think is the movie’s best scene. Let me explain…
