LOS ANGELES—Artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel won two Golden Globes last night—for best director and foreign language film—for his film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Schnabel's win for best director defied industry expectations that the award would go to Joel and Ethan Coen for their widely lauded No Country for Old Men. Also nominated were Tim Burton, Ridley Scott, and Joe Wright. In the best foreign film category, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which details the inner life of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a stroke and near-total paralysis at the age of 43, bested 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days; The Kite Runner; Lust, Caution; and Persepolis.

Instead of the usual black-tie, red-carpet dinner event, last night's ceremony was scaled back to what amounted to a press conference attended by reporters and PR agents due to fears that the striking Writers Guild of America would picket the event. Schnabel told the Los Angeles Times that he was at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York when his name was called. "I loved standing there in baggage claim watching on TV," he said.