Domhnall Gleeson tipped to win Oscar for Winnie the Pooh biopic

Gleeson will not start filming his role as children's writer AA Milne until later this year

Domhnall Gleeson will play Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne in Goodbye Christopher Robin (Getty Images)

Biopics and Oscars often go hand in hand. So much so, that critics are already tipping Domhnall Gleeson to take home a little gold man for his upcoming turn as AA Milne in Goodbye Christopher Robin.

Filming is yet to start on the movie about the author of the much-loved Winnie the Pooh stories, but Vanity Fair’s film critic Joanna Robinson is nonetheless convinced that Gleeson will earn a Best Actor nomination for his role.

“Whether sanitised and heartwarming or more complex, both Goodbye Christopher Robin and Domhnall Gleeson seem as though they’ll have a real shot at being part of the Oscar conversation in 2018,” she wrote.

The Irish actor, 33, has starred in a string of recent Hollywood hits including Brooklyn, The Revenant and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Notably, those three films earned 19 Oscar nominations between them at the 2016 ceremony in February.

The Academy is known to look kindly on biopics, with Eddie Redmayne winning for his performance as physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything last year. Johnny Depp was nominated for his role as Peter Pan author JM Barrie in Finding Neverland in 2005, with Goodbye Christopher Robin expected to play out similarly. Previous years have seen Julia Roberts win as activist Erin Brockovich in the 2000 biopic of the same name, Jamie Foxx triumph as soul singer Ray Charles in 2004’s Ray and Robert De Niro win for his turn as boxer Jake Lamotta in 1980’s Raging Bull.

Directed by Simon Curtis and also starring Margot Robbie, Goodbye Christopher Robin will tell the story of Milne and his son Christopher Robin, whose cuddly toys were the inspiration behind the ever popular Pooh stories. It will follow Milne’s family and their nanny Olive as they struggle to cope with the international fame brought by the books in the wake of World War One.

However, with shooting not scheduled to begin until later this year before a late 2017 release, Gleeson will have to wait until 2018 to see if all this hype proves fruitful.