Fifty six year old artist Julian Schnabel may have been at the forefront of the neo-expressionist movement all through the early 1980s, his giant paintings on broken ceramic plates and his wildly energetic artworks reminding critics of Pollock and Picasso, but here we judge him as a filmmaker.
And what a sensitive one he's turned out to be. Schnabel is Best Director nominee for his third film, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, an adaptation of French editor Jean Dominique-Bauby's memoir, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon. The film tells the astonishing story of the writer, who was paralysed at the age of 43 following a massive stroke. Bauby was only left with the use of his left eye: with which he painstakingly and incredibly went on to blink out a memoir.
It's been quite the journey for Schnabel, who put slides of his artwork between slices of bread to get accepted for his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of Houston.
In the picture: Julian Schnabel poses with producer Kathleen Kennedy during the 60th annual DGA Awards in Los Angeles
Text: Raja Sen | Design: Reuben NV
Photograph: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
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