Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#14293
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Ian Dillon represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 30 years in, and Ian is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Ian Dillon appears in 12 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Ian. Young Washington is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, quiet performance, transformation. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, comedy, music. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with John Carney, Jon Erwin, Richard Linklater and others, Ian Dillon helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Young Washington (2026) as Soldier (uncredited) · Once Upon a Time in a Cinema (2026) as Chip Van Owner · Power Ballad (2026) as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Career snapshot
Ranked #14293 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
12
1996–2026
Career length
30 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
Young Washington
Average Nutevio score
5.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.2
Young Washington
Most frequent director
John Carney
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With John Carney
Most common genre
Drama
9 titles
Average runtime
1h 25m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Michael Collins — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.9
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Michael Collins.
Most productive era
2020s
11 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.71 film | 6.08 films |
| Thriller | 6.71 film | 6.01 film |
| Comedy | — | 6.34 films |
| Crime | — | 6.01 film |
| Romance | — | 5.91 film |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1996Michael Collins
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Bloody Sunday Spectator (uncredited).
Highest rated performance · Career peak · Most recent film
2026Young Washington
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once. The current state of the argument, as Soldier (uncredited).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
12 of 12 films
as Soldier (uncredited)
Directed by Jon Erwin
as Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Directed by John Carney
as Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited)
Directed by Richard Linklater
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Soldier (uncredited)
Young Washington (2026)
Performance score7.9
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Soldier (uncredited) gives Ian Dillon a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Chip Van Owner
Once Upon a Time in a Cinema (2026)
Performance score7.8
Once Upon a Time in a Cinema asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Chip Van Owner is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Power Ballad (2026)
Performance score6.8
Power Ballad asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Wedding Guest (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited)
Blue Moon (2025)
Performance score6.6
Blue Moon asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Soldier (uncredited)
Start here. Young Washington is the clearest statement of what Ian Dillon does — accessible, 122 minutes, and rated 8.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Ian at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Freud's Last Session (2023)
Keeps the drama register of Young Washington but asks for a colder reading of it.
Blue Moon (2025)
Keeps the drama register of Freud's Last Session but asks for a colder reading of it.
Once Upon a Time in a Cinema (2026)
Keeps the drama register of Blue Moon but asks for a colder reading of it.
Power Ballad (2026)
Keeps the drama register of Once Upon a Time in a Cinema but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Neil Jordan
Director
1 film together
Notably Michael Collins
Elizabeth Banks
Director
1 film together
Notably Cocaine Bear
Ali Liebert
Director
1 film together
Notably Christmas in Notting Hill
Mary T Lynch
Director
1 film together
Notably Baptism Troubles
Richard Linklater
Director
1 film together
Notably Blue Moon
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together
Notably Young Washington
John Carney
Director
1 film together
Notably Power Ballad
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jon Erwin
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Young WashingtonJohn Carney
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Power BalladNeil Jordan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Michael CollinsRichard Linklater
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Blue MoonElizabeth Banks
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cocaine BearAli Liebert
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Christmas in Notting HillMary T Lynch
Director
1 film together · 0.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Baptism TroublesSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Blue Moon
as Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Michael Collins
as Bloody Sunday Spectator (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Ian Dillon has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
30 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
9 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Blue Moon
as Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Cocaine Bear
as Hospital Cleaner (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Young Washington
as Soldier (uncredited)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Once Upon a Time in a Cinema
as Chip Van Owner
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Blue Moon
as Elizabeth’s Mothers Friend (uncredited)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Freud's Last Session
as Inkling (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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