Consider This: Michael Fassbender in "Hunger"

IFC is opening Steve McQueen's hard hitting Hunger this Friday for an exclusive, one week only Academy qualifying run. But the official release date isn't until March of next year.

Michael Fassbinder in a scene from IFC's Hunger (3/9/09)

Now usually this is the Academy equivalent of suicide, squeezing a small film in at the last minute does it no favors. It will go un-nominated and overlooked, and cause confusion as to what year to truly identify it with. But I want to start some buzz anyway.

Not that I have that much influence on things, but Michael Fassbender's performance is nothing short of extraordinary. He does so much with so little. His character doesn't appear until halfway through the film, but he quickly becomes its core, and the focus of its title. I have never seen the wasting away of another human being on screen so shockingly potent and believable. It's absolutely stunning work, but it has zero buzz. Which means it pretty much has zero chance, not against the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Mickey Rourke, and Sean Penn. IFC hasn't even mounted an FYC campaign for it yet.

But he deserves it. Boy does he ever. It's a wrenching film, and probably too off-putting for the Academy, which also hurts his chances. It's a tough sit - a rough, graphic, take no prisoners look at the lives of IRA prisoners in Britain during the 1980s, who stage a hunger strike to gain political recognition.

It's an excellent film, a stunning debut by first time director Steve McQueen, who has coaxed a performance out of Fassbender that is utterly compelling and deserving of far more awards attention than he is getting.