Hamnet is UK’s Most Read-About Oscar Film, Despite Missing Out on Best Picture Award
by on 18th Mar 2026 in News
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet has won big with British readers despite missing out on this year’s Best Picture award at the Oscars, according to data from Taboola.
Articles about the film, which deals with the relationship between playwright William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway, attracted 1.4 million UK pageviews in the three months leading up to the awards. This makes it the most read-about film of the 2026 Oscar season.
Readership data from Taboola’s network of UK publications also showed that Marty Supreme and Sinners earned 1.1 million and 1 million UK pageviews respectively in the three months leading up to the awards.
One Battle After Another, which won the Best Picture award, attracted just 10,000 pageviews.
Meanwhile, the most read-about Best Actress and Actor nominees were Jessie Buckley, who starred in Hamnet and won the Best Actress award (1.5 million pageviews) and Timothee Chalamet, who starred in Marty Supreme (1.4 million pageviews).
Chalamet has recently been criticised in the media following comments he made about the alleged waning popularity of ballet and opera. Of the 1.4 million pageviews he received over the past three months, 400,000 of these came in the days following his controversial remarks.
Michael B Jordan, who played the lead role in Sinners, received 1 million pageviews.
"As with previous years, our figures show that the winning film isn’t always the most read about," said David Struzzi, communications lead at Taboola. "Whereas the Academy chooses their winners based on artistic merit, on the other hand promotional campaigns, big name actors, and controversies can affect which movies capture public attention."
"Publications planning coverage around the awards should take note: what interests critics isn’t always the same as what interests readers."
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