“Elsinore” with Andrew Scott headed for the Oscars: the new trailer calls him an “emotional powerhouse”, the film opens in cinemas on 20 November

Focus Features has released the new trailer for “Elsinore”, the biographical drama directed by Simon Stone, in which Andrew Scott plays Scottish actor Ian Charleson in the last year of his life — a role that, as HuffPost writes in the article published on 30 September, puts the actor seriously in the race for next year’s Oscar awards. The film opens in cinemas on 20 November.

Charleson, known to audiences from “Chariots of Fire” (1981), died in 1990, at the age of 40, from AIDS complications. “Elsinore” follows him as he prepares to play Hamlet in the theatre — the last stage performance of his career. Alongside Scott are Olivia Colman in the role of doctor Margaret Johnson and Billie Piper as casting director Patsy Pollock, who cared for Charleson in his final days. The film’s screenplay was written by Stephen Beresford.

Reviews after the world premiere at the Telluride Festival and the screening in Toronto have called Scott an “emotional powerhouse” and “stunning” in this role, while Vulture has described it as “his best performance so far”. American media have already listed the actor among the potential candidates for the next Oscar — a nomination that would be the first of his career.

For Scott’s fans, the acclaim comes as a belated redress: the lack of a nomination for his stunning performance alongside Paul Mescal in the 2023 romantic drama “All of Us Strangers” was widely considered one of that year’s biggest oversights. “Elsinore” is also the first film Scott has produced himself — a “deeply personal” project for him, as he has said, because it speaks about theatre, the representation of gay actors in the 1990s and family.