Brian Cox Says the Oscars Only Celebrates Films Released ‘Between Thanksgiving and Christmas’

Brian Cox isn’t very interested in “Oscar season” these days. The acclaimed actor recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the annual awards show is “absolute nonsense” because the Academy only spotlights films that are released during awards season — or, as Cox explained, whatever is in theaters “between Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“The Oscars are absolute nonsense because everything that’s judged in the Oscars, it’s not a year’s work. It’s just the work that comes out between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” the “Succession” icon said. “I think it makes those awards a fallacy quite honestly, because there’s a lot of other good work that goes on outside of what they call Oscar season.”

When asked about portraying Winston Churchill in 2017, the same year that Gary Oldman played the same formidable prime minister in “The Darkest Hour” (and went on to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his efforts), Cox explained that his indie “Churchill” was iced out of awards.

“Our film came out in the summer, and it was a relatively independent film, so you haven’t got the power of the studios behind it,” he said. “So my film never even got a look, and I still think my performance is a better performance [than Oldman’s].”

Cox previously lamented the state of cinema as a whole, saying during the Edinburgh International Film Festival that Hollywood “is in a very bad way.” “I think it’s lost its place because of, partly, the grandiose element between Marvel, DC and all of that,” Cox said. “And I think it’s beginning to implode, actually. You’re kind of losing the plot.”

The “That Christmas” actor added that more actors are taking roles to be “making a lot of money,” with “Deadpool & Wolverine” as an example. “So it’s just become a party time for certain actors to do this stuff,” Cox said. “When you know that Hugh Jackman can do a bit more, Ryan Reynolds … but it’s because they go down that road and it’s box office. They make a lot of money. You can’t knock it.”

Cox even called out the practice of self-tapes for auditions, saying, “It’s a terrible, terrible system. I wish it stopped. I wish we could get back to the individual relationship and that’s what art is about. It’s about relationships.”

Cox will soon make his directorial debut with a feature that is “a love letter to Scotland.”