Andrew Scott on Unveiling a New Short Film Award at SXSW, His ‘Hot Priest’ Legacy and Ireland’s Moment in Hollywood: ‘It’s a Really Exciting Time for Irish People’

variety.com:

Andrew Scott tells me over the phone in his lilting Irish accent. It’s a little over two weeks before the actor, who was just in Berlin premiering Richard Linklater’s upcoming “Blue Moon,” will head to Austin to attend SXSW, where he’s curated a lineup of his favorite shorts as part of a campaign with Redbreast Whiskey. “The idea is to find talent that needs to be recognized, or just to have a light shine on it in some way,” he says. “And so we collated some films and narrowed it down to six, and I suppose what I was looking for was just singular voices.” The lineup, which spans in genre from drama and comedy to docufiction, includes original works by up-and-coming filmmakers: “One Day This Kid” (Alexander Farah), “Entre Tormentas” (Frank Zayas), “Nervous Energy” (Eve Lui), “Sweetbriar”(Danny Rivera), “Brief Somebodies” (Andy Reid) and “I’m The Most Racist Person I Know” (Leela Varghese).

One of the six will receive the Redbreast Unhidden Award, alongside a financial grant, for which he’s already chosen a winner.

Aside from the campaign’s spotlight on new talent (“The most exciting part of it is just being able to be a help in some way,” Scott says), the partnership was, of course, a natural fit because of the brand’s Irish origins. “It’s a really exciting time for Irish people, certainly in my industry and a lot of the creative industries as well,” he says. “And I think there is a sort of confidence to the country at the moment, and the fact that this is an Irish whiskey really appealed to me.” He’s not overstating the moment that Irish actors have had over the past few years.