Which 2017 biographical film about Winston Churchill stars Gary Oldman?

The 2017 biographical film about Winston Churchill starring Gary Oldman is Darkest Hour.

Directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten, Darkest Hour depicts Churchill’s first weeks as British prime minister in May 1940. The story centers on the war cabinet crisis, when Britain faced the rapid German invasion of Western Europe and debated whether to negotiate or continue fighting.

Gary Oldman’s heavily transformed performance presents Churchill as a forceful but politically vulnerable leader. The film dramatizes his speeches, meetings with King George VI, and efforts to maintain public resolve while the British Expeditionary Force was trapped at Dunkirk. Oldman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the role, and the film also received an Oscar for makeup and hairstyling.

Dunkirk is a frequent mix-up because it depicts the same 1940 evacuation from a different perspective. The King’s Speech also features a wartime British monarch, but it focuses on George VI and his speech therapy rather than Churchill’s premiership.