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LOS ANGELES, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Marion Cotillard was surprised by her Academy Award nomination for Two Days, One Night. The 39-year-old actress is up for Best Actress for her depiction of factory worker Sandra Bya in the Belgian-Italian-French drama. The critically-acclaimed film premiered in Belgium and France in May, but is playing in just five U.S. theaters.
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"That was really unexpected," she told USA Today of the Oscar nod. "It's a mix of shock and extreme joy. I'm even happier because the movie has just come out in the U.S. The attention it got from the critics, that made me very happy ... I'm so happy people saw this movie."
Cotillard was previously nominated for Best Actress in 2008, and won for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Her win marked the first time an Oscar was awarded for a French-language role, and the actress said the two nominations are "totally different experiences."
"I would say that the connection is that a few years ago, when I won, I really enjoyed the present time," she related. "Today, it's kind of the same thing. I never expected to be nominated. I really live things in the present, without any pressure, and that feels very good."
Two Days, One Night follows Sandra as she attempts to convince her co-workers to not accept a bonus to replace her job. The movie was directed by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, a team Cotillard is happy to take to the Academy Awards.
"This was the first time for the Dardenne brothers, and I was very sad when we didn't make it to the short list of foreign language films, and I thought that was it," she recalled to the L.A. Times. "Now I'm going to take this movie to the Oscars!"
Cotillard has appeared in such films as A Very Long Engagement, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. She is scheduled to star with Michael Fassbender in a Justin Kurzel adaptation of Macbeth, and provide voice roles in The Little Prince and A Rigged World.
