LOS ANGELES — “Hamnet,” Chloé Zhao’s tender portrait of love and loss and the cathartic power of art, had just finished screening at the Telluride Film Fesitval, and on my way out the door, I cut through the lines for the restrooms, where women (and some men) were openly weeping, one moviegoer sobbing so hard that a friend had to prop her up against the wall to keep her from collapsing in the walkway.

Later the woman who was sitting next to me in the theater approached me at a party. “I just wanted to thank you for not crying,” she said. “I didn’t want to be the only unfeeling monster in the room.”

The fall film festivals — Venice, Telluride and Toronto — have wrapped, and out of the dozens of awards season contenders that were unveiled, it’s safe to say that “Hamnet” emerged as the big

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