Which actor won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland?

Forest Whitaker won the Academy Award for Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland.

Kevin Macdonald’s 2006 film is set mainly in Uganda during the rule of President Idi Amin. Whitaker portrays Amin, while James McAvoy plays Nicholas Garrigan, a fictional young Scottish doctor who becomes connected to the president’s inner circle. The story uses Garrigan’s viewpoint to show how fascination with power can develop into moral compromise and fear.

Whitaker’s performance combines Amin’s public charm, theatrical confidence, and violent unpredictability. The award was presented at the 79th Academy Awards in 2007, recognizing the performance in the 2006 film. The title refers to Amin’s self-proclaimed title, “King of Scotland,” rather than to a Scottish historical monarch. The film draws on the real political atmosphere of Uganda in the 1970s, but Garrigan is not a historical person and the narrative is not a straightforward biography of Amin.