Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of the play of the same name by William Shakespeare. It was adapted, directed by and starring Laurence Olivier and was his second film as director, as well as the second of the three Shakespeare films he directed (the 1936 As You Like It had starred Olivier, but had been directed by Paul Czinner). Hamlet was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is also the first sound film of the play in English. Olivier's Hamlet is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor (for Olivier) and the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice International Film Festival. However, it proved controversial among Shakespearean purists, who felt that Oliv
