The biopic, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the AFI Fest this weekend, fueling the fire for an awards compaign.
Julian Schnabel's portrait of the French Elle editor who was completely paralyzed at the age of 43 after suffering a devastating stroke and who then wrote a book by communicating through blinking his eyelid has been getting buzz as a dark horse candidate for Best Picture in the impending awards race.
Although completely in French, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was disqualified from competing as Best Foreign Language Film because of its American director and producers. We're not sure how the Academy will or will not warm to a French language movie for a mainstream category. But let's just say, we've seen it and we think it deserves any and every nomination it's up for.
Source: AFI.