The awards are starting to roll in for The Odyssey.
The film’s star John Leguizamo (Eumaeus) will receive the Distinguished Performance Award and casting director John Papsidera will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Casting Award at this year’s SCAD Savannah Film Festival. The awards will be presented at a screening of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and include a conversation moderated by Gold Derby editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum. The festival runs Oct. 24–31 in Savannah.
“John Leguizamo and John Papsidera represent two distinct but equally vital sides of the filmmaking process — the art of performance and the artistry of casting,” said SCAD School of Film and Acting dean Andra Reeve-Rabb. “John Leguizamo’s extraordinary career across film, television, Broadway, comedy and drama is a testament to the power of a singular creative voice, while John Papsidera’s remarkable body of work demonstrates the artistry and instinct behind bringing the right performers together to realize a filmmaker’s vision.”
Leguizamo stars in The Odyssey as Eumaeus, the loyal friend of Odysseus, and is currently tracking No. 3 on the Gold Derby leaderboards for Best Supporting Actor. His acclaimed film career includes Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way and Casualties of War, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!, Sidney Lumet’s Night Falls on Manhattan, Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam, and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick. He also voices Sid the Sloth in the Ice Age franchise. He has earned a Special Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, along with several Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.
Papsidera is an Emmy Award- and Artios Award-winning casting director whose career spans more than 250 film and television projects. His film credits include Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer. His television credits include Westworld, Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Lioness, Landman, Wednesday, The Night Agent, and Fallout. His work has earned 35 Artios Award nominations and six wins, as well as six Emmy nominations and two wins. In 2025, he received the Hoyt Bowers Award for excellence in casting and outstanding contributions to the casting profession.
One Battle After Another‘s Cassandra Kulukundis received last year’s casting award, the first-ever such award handed out by the festival; she went on to win the Academy Award.
Leguizamo and Papsidera join previously announced honorees for this year’s festival, including Helen Mirren (Legend of Entertainment Award), Julianne Moore (Icon Award), and Patrice Vermette (Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award).
