Angelina Jolie is facing some serious award nods for her second stint as a feature film director in 'Unbroken', and while filmmaking seems to be something this Hollywood superstar is naturally gifted it, she admits it was never on her to-do list.

Angelina Jolie at Hyatt Hotel in Berlin 
Angelina Jolie never thought directing was on the cards

Having won countless awards including an Academy Award in her prolific acting career, Angelina Jolie is without doubt one of the brightest stars Hollywood has to offer. She is just as well known for her extensive humanitarian projects, namely regarding sexual violence in military conflict zones and has done more than her fair share of charity trips and million dollar donations. It was perhaps this that took her to her 2011 feature filmmaking debut 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' which dealt with an issue close to her work: the Bosnian conflicts.

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'I hadn't planned on directing at all', she admits. 'I figured that one day I would stop acting and spend time at home with my kids. I ended up directing the film almost by default because I was shy to let it go anywhere else.' Fast-forward three years later and she has befriended Olympian turned war hero Louis Zamperini (now recently deceased) for another significant and touching project based on his life and World War II experiences as a prisoner of war.

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'There's so much pain in the world', Jolie contemplates. 'I feel that we need stories like this today - the journey of a man finding his way through darkness and into the light - stories that can help us, inspire us, show us something remarkable and make us feel positive about life.' 

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The Coen brothers co-wrote the screenplay for 'Unbroken', which has been adapted from the original biographer Laura Hillenbrand's book of the same name. It is set for release on December 25th 2014.