{"id":615959,"date":"2026-09-06T04:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615959\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T04:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T04:58:19","slug":"telluride-awards-analysis-andrew-scott-top-tier-best-actor-oscar-race-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/615959\/","title":{"rendered":"Telluride Awards Analysis: Andrew Scott Top Tier Best Actor Oscar Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith all due respect to the performances of Matt Damon in The Odyssey and Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary, I came away from Wild Horse Nine, which had its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival<\/a> on Thursday afternoon, with the strong impression that John Malkovich was now the clear frontrunner to win the best actor Oscar. But by Friday evening, when Elsinore<\/a> had its world premiere in Telluride, I was forced to revise my hypothesis.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s because the Irish actor Andrew Scott<\/a> gives a performance for the ages in Elsinore as the Scottish actor Ian Charleson, who was best known for starring in the best picture Oscar winner Chariots of Fire, but whose most impressive accomplishment was how he insisted on continuing to act \u2014 in the role of Hamlet at London\u2019s National Theatre, no less\u00a0\u2014 even after he was diagnosed with terminal AIDS.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe response inside Telluride\u2019s Palm Theatre to the listing of Scott\u2019s name in the film\u2019s post-credits \u2014 as both a producer and the lead actor \u2014\u00a0was undeniable. It\u2019s a sensitive and shattering performance from\u00a0an actor who just keeps getting better, as demonstrated in everything from his film performance in All of Us Strangers, which premiered in Telluride three years ago, to his stage performance last year in Uncle Vanya, in which he singlehandedly juggled 10 different characters.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Oscar race, Malkovich could have a slight edge because he\u2019s older (73 versus 49), because he has been doing important work for longer and because his film is all but certain to land noms in a bunch of categories, including best picture, whereas aspects of Elsinore other than Scott\u2019s performance are more of a question mark.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wouldn\u2019t count out the possibility of noms for Olivia Colman for best supporting actress (she plays Charleson\u2019s doctor), Stephen Beresford\u2019s script for best original screenplay (even though the film\u2019s credits say it was inspired by \u201can idea\u201d from someone else), Valerio Bonelli\u2019s film editing (particularly awesome late in the film as he cuts between Charleson on stage and at home), Stefan Gregory\u2019s original score or even the film for a best picture nom. But the truth is that Scott\u2019s performance is so extraordinary that other aspects of Simon Stone\u2019s film \u2014 which The Hollywood Reporter\u2019s critic has argued<\/a> is solid but less spectacular\u00a0\u2014 could be overshadowed.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne final note. Quite a few actors and actresses have won Oscars for their portrayals of LGBT characters facing adversity and\/or tragedy, including William Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman, Tom Hanks for Philadelphia, Hilary Swank for Boys Don\u2019t Cry, Sean Penn for Milk, Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club and Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody. But none of those people were themselves gay, and indeed never has an out gay actor or actress won an Oscar. Scott could well become the first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With all due respect to the performances of Matt Damon in The Odyssey and Ryan Gosling in Project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5116,241632,93,61,60,261136,261137],"class_list":["post-615959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-andrew-scott","tag-elsinore","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-telluride-2026","tag-telluride-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}