The latest trailer for Angelina Jolie's highly anticipated new film Unbroken was recently released as critics hint at a possible Oscar nomination.
The film, which is set for December 25 release, tells the true story of former Olympic track star Louis Zamperini, who survived a plane crash during World War II. After spending 47 days on adrift on a raft, he was captured by the Japanese and forced to spend years as a prisoner of war in internment camps.
After his release, Zamperini experienced severe post-traumatic stress disorder before becoming a born-again Christian. Before his death in June of 2014, Zamperini found great success as an inspirational speaker--and returned to Japan to see the prison guards who had tried to kill him.
"The most important thing in my Christian life was to know that I not only forgave them, verbally, but to see them face-to-face and tell them that I forgave them," Zamperini explained at the time.
Directed by Angelina Jolie and written by the Cohen brothers (True Grit, No Country for Old Men) the film stars English actor Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini while Dohmnall Gleeson acts as Zamperini's co-pilot, Russell Allen Philips. The movie is adapted from the best-selling novel by Laura Hillenbrand.
Jolie and Zamperini reportedly became close friends "over the development of the film, as the filmmaker has listened to the war hero recount the incredible incidents of his life over many months of preparation." Zamperini commemorated their friendship by giving Jolie "a golden running shoe pendant, a prize from one of his earliest races," which she wore every day while shooting in Australia.
Last year, When she accepted her honorary Oscar, Jolie thanked Zamperini, who was sitting front row in the audience right next to Brad Pitt, and declared him her "hero."
This year, Jolie may once again receive an Oscar. Even though the film won't be released until Christmas day, critics are already hailing it as an award-season favorite.
"The Oscar race is over. Or at least that's the way the new trailer for Angelina Jolie's second directorial effort, "Unbroken," makes it seem," writes Huffington Post movie critic Matthew Jacobs.
"Unbroken" has everything voters love: history, war, inspirational undertones. It looks wonderful."
