The winners of the Bowmore Scottish Screen Awards will be decided by you, the readers of The Sunday Times, over the next three weeks. This week Brian Pendreigh profiles the actors and actresses nominated for these coveted prizes Scottish film actors seemed to be everywhere last year. The most talked-about movies had a Scot somewhere near the top of their cast lists, with diminutive newcomer Billy Boyd as Pippin in The Lord of the Rings, bulky veteran Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Ewen Bremner as an unlikely action hero in Pearl Harbor. After a string of disappointments, Ewan McGregor bounced back in Moulin Rouge, and even Shrek had a Scottish accent.

Scots are holding their own on the world stage and the quality of performances was recognised in nominations for McGregor and Tilda Swinton in the Golden Globe awards, which take place tonight in Los Angeles and are regarded as an accurate indicator of Oscar winners. Never in the five years of the Bowmore Scottish Screen Awards has there been such a wealth of performances from which to choose the nominees. But an expert panel, including representatives of The Sunday Times, Morrison Bowmore Distillers and Scottish Screen, has hammered out short leets for best Scottish actor, actress, film and film-maker of the year.

Once again, Ecosse readers have the final say in choosing the winners and the first 1,000 postal voters will each receive a miniature of Bowmore Islay single malt. One voter, chosen at random, will also be invited with a friend to attend the awards lunch.

The growing importance of the Bowmore awards was reflected in the attendance at the lunch last year of best actor Robert Carlyle, best actress Valerie Edmond and Bob Last, one of the producers of top film The House of Mirth.

The Film Personality of the Year award was subdivided last year into separate categories for actor, actress and film-maker.

This year, Scottish actors have played everything from the Archangel Gabriel (Billy Connolly) to Count Dracula (Gerard Butler), from mathematicians (Dougray Scott in Enigma) to megalomaniacs (Iain Glen in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), from poets (John Hannah as William Wordsworth in Pandaemonium) to footballers (Ally McCoist in A Shot at Glory). As a footballer, McCoist is the odd one out, but his performance was compared favourably with that of co-star Robert Duvall.

While actors of the calibre of Carlyle, Peter Mullan, Brian Cox and Alan Cumming failed to make the men's leet, Swinton, Shirley Henderson and Laura Fraser are all nominated for the second year running for the best actress award.

Although our top actresses may be few in number, they stand comparison with the best in the world. Swinton may find herself on a similar list due out next month from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her performance as a distraught mother in the thriller The Deep End.

There is little doubt the talent is out there and can, given the opportunity, shine as brightly as Oscar himself.

Best actor

BILLY BOYD

Before becoming an actor, Boyd was a bookbinder at Collins in Bishopbriggs and put covers on The Lord of the Rings, though he never read it. Coming from a working-class Glasgow family, acting never seemed a viable career option and it was only after completing his apprenticeship that he applied to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. He worked regularly in theatre, but there were no significant film roles before The Lord of the Rings.

To vote for Billy Boyd 09063 670 551

ROBBIE COLTRANE

Coltrane was author JK Rowling's choice for Hagrid, the bearded giant who lives on the edge of the woods in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. He ensured Hagrid was one of the film's most fully realised creations, following Rowling's advice to imagine him as "one of those really big Hell's Angels that gets off a motorbike and starts talking about his garden".

To vote for Robbie Coltrane 09063 670 552

ALLY McCOIST

Unusually for a footballer, McCoist seems as comfortable with words as with a ball. He is not exactly playing against type as ageing football star Jackie McQuillan in A Shot at Glory. McCoist's name meant nothing to many reviewers at the Toronto film festival. "I was shocked to learn that he is actually a professional soccer player and not an actor," wrote one. "It's by far the best performance I've ever seen by a professional athlete." Anyone who can hold their own alongside Robert Duvall must have something more than a cheeky smile.

To vote for Ally McCoist 09063 670 553

EWAN McGREGOR

Star Wars did not stretch McGregor as an actor. Much more challenging was the role of the impoverished writer and bereaved lover in Moulin Rouge. It is about as subtle as Elton John's flower bill, but the performances of McGregor, Nicole Kidman et al bring to it the poignancy of a tragicomedy.

To vote for Ewan McGregor 09063 670 554

DOUGRAY SCOTT

The sullen Fifer missed out on the chance to appear in Trainspotting because he was tied up with Soldier, Soldier on television. He could only watch as the careers of his contemporaries took off. But he made the most of subsequent opportunities and returned to Scotland to play the code-breaker hero of Enigma - he had just the right anguished statement for the mathematician he played.

To vote for Dougray Scott 09063 670 555

Best actress

LAURA FRASER

Fraser was originally up for the role of the fair maid in the medireview romp A Knight's Tale. It might have seemed ideal for the wide-eyed Glaswegian, who was billed in The Man in the Iron Mask simply as "bedroom beauty". But it is typical that she should end up as Heath Ledger's blacksmith rather than his lover, for she can bring an earthy quality to her work. She learned to shoe a horse for her role, though nobody was looking for realism in a film whose aim was to sell medireview jousting to an audience raised on MTV and WWF.

To vote for Laura Fraser 09063 670 556

SHIRLEY HENDERSON

The diminutive Fifer with the dark hair and heavy eyebrows was Spud's unfortunate girlfriend in Trainspotting but, when the film became a huge hit, media attention focused on the boys and Kelly Macdonald. Henderson's intense characterisations have ensured that she has been in demand in recent years, appearing as a drunken Gilbert and Sullivan singer in Topsy-Turvy and a feisty single mum in Wonderland. She was more widely seen in Bridget Jones's Diary, playing Bridget's friend, Jude.

To vote for Shirley Henderson 09063 670 557

UNA McLEAN

Now in her seventies, McLean is an institution, as much a part of the Scottish cultural landscape as the Broons and the Bay City Rollers. She made her professional stage debut in the 1950s, acted with the Citizens' Theatre and has appeared in everything from Shakespeare to panto. She has been in musicals, comedy and serious drama and had her own television show. Peter Capaldi's Strictly Sinatra gave her a rare chance to appear on the big screen playing Dainty, a superannuated gangster's moll, complete with vulgar jewellery, a cackle to send shivers down spines on Halloween and a soft spot for an old-fashioned ballad.

To vote for Una McLean 09063 670 558

KIRSTY MITCHELL

The Glaswegian actress's film experience was restricted to blink-and-you'll-miss-her roles in Small Faces and The Acid House when she auditioned for the female lead in A Shot at Glory. There seemed little prospect of an early change in fortune when she admitted hating football. But that was just the attitude the film-makers wanted. Duvall took her under his wing and even taught her to tango. Now 27 years old, her career has since taken off with appearances in several big international productions, including the American mini-series Attila.

To vote for Kirsty Mitchell 09063 670 559

TILDA SWINTON

The darling of London's chattering classes, Swinton was a regular fixture in Derek Jarman's arthouse films and famously slept in a gallery as a human still life. Her appearance in The Beach a couple of years ago marked a move towards more mainstream fare. The slim redhead with beautifully sculpted features was also seen in multiple roles in Robert Lepage's offbeat thriller Possible Worlds. She made a bold decision when she agreed to star in The Deep End as the mother of a grown-up son, covering up for her offspring after discovering his gay lover's corpse. At the age of 41 she says the roles are now becoming more interesting. An old-fashioned thriller, The Deep End was referred to, only half-jokingly, as "housewife noir". It gave her the chance to get inside a decidedly ordinary character.

To vote for Tilda Swinton 09063 670 560

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