Jay Scott

Jeffrey Scott Beaven (October 4, 1949 – July 30, 1993), known professionally by his pen name Jay Scott, was a Canadian film critic.

Early life Scott was born in Lincoln, Nebraska and was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a Seventh-Day Adventist, Scott studied art history at New College of Florida in Sarasota, and later took acting classes at the University of New Mexico.

Career Moving to Canada in 1969 as a draft evader, he settled in Calgary and began writing film reviews for the Calgary Albertan a few years later. He has also been credited as the catalyst for a major shift in the newspaper's own arts reporting style in his era, from a staid, strictly repertorial style toward more distinctive, colourful writing. He wrote for the Globe and Mail until his death, and had been working on a book about Norman Jewison. At the 1993 Toronto International Film Festival, filmmaker John Greyson dedicated his Special Jury Citation for Zero Patience to Scott's memory.

Legacy A collection of his reviews, Great Scott! The Best of Jay Scott's Movie Reviews, was published posthumously in 1994; proceeds from the book sales were donated to the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research.

In 2009, the Toronto Film Critics Association established an annual award for emerging talent in the Canadian film industry, the Jay Scott Prize, in Scott's memory. The winner of the award receives $10,000.

He is the subject of an essay, written by current Globe and Mail film critic Barry Hertz, in the 2024 book A Nation’s Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada.