Andrew Scott's 'Elsinore' Premieres at Telluride, Eyes Best Actor — SkimNews
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- Andrew Scott premiered 'Elsinore' at the Telluride Film Festival, portraying Ian Charleson, the 'Chariots of Fire' actor who died of AIDS in 1990 at 40 while playing Hamlet at London's National Theatre.
- Focus Features is distributing 'Elsinore,' which Variety says could make Scott the first openly gay man to win the best actor Oscar — he has never been nominated despite his role in 'All of Us Strangers.'
- Olivia Colman delivers a supporting turn as Charleson's doctor, with the review comparing her to a 'Maggie Smith' era performance; Billie Piper plays a casting director in what the review calls a stealth supporting contender.
- Focus Features has launched five best actor winners from fall-festival biopics over 25 years — Adrien Brody, Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey, Eddie Redmayne, and Gary Oldman — every one of which landed best picture nominations alongside the acting win.
- The WGA designated Beresford's screenplay as original despite a 'based on an idea by Ethan Silverman' credit, sidestepping a 'Barbie'-style categorization dispute.
- Focus won its first best actress Oscar last winter with Jessie Buckley for 'Hamnet,' the story of the family loss behind 'Hamlet' — giving the studio back-to-back Shakespeare-adjacent Oscar vehicles.
- Variety frames 'Elsinore' as an Oscar-proof archetype, citing Tom Hanks in 'Philadelphia,' McConaughey in 'Dallas Buyers Club,' and Hopkins in 'The Father' as past Academy favorites who played characters staring down death.
- IndieWire's review praises Scott's 'towering performance' but argues the film can't overcome AIDS-movie awards-bait clichés — a framing tension with Variety's more bullish Oscar read.
Why it matters: Focus Features has now targeted 'Elsinore' — a real-life AIDS-era Hamlet story starring an un-nominated Andrew Scott — as its sixth best-actor biopic Oscar play in 25 years, each of which previously converted into a win and a best picture nomination; if Scott wins, he breaks a decades-long Academy barrier as the first openly gay best actor recipient.
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