BIUTIFUL star Javier Bardem received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards for his moving portrayal of Uxbal, a father and husband struggling to make ends meet.
The Alejandro Gonzales Iñaritu film is also in the running for Best Foreign Film submitted by Mexico. Watch 2 clips from Oscar nominee BIUTIFUL.
This is Javier Bardem's second Oscar nomination. In 2007, he took home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his villaneous portrayal in the Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country For Old Men. This year, he is up against odds on favorite Colin Firth (The King's Speech), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), and James Franco (127 Hours),
BIUTIFUL takes place in the underworld of modern Barcelona, Spain where illegal immigration is a problem for local authorities. Javier Bardem is UXbal, a single father struggling to support his two children while dealing with his bipolar ex-wife. Uxbal is a conflicted man who makes a living dealing cheap labor. He also moonlights as a ghost whisperer who can communicate with the recently deceased for money. His guilt of using African and Chinese immigrants for profit haunts his soul. To make up for it, he helps out the undocumented workers who considers friends but it leads to serious consequences for everyone. When he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, his life takes on a different meaning and he becomes even more desperate to leave his children and immigrant friends in a better place. The title of the movie comes from his daughter's drawing in which she misspells 'beautiful.'
