It may come as a shock to hear that Mel Gibson has been given an award for anything he's done lately considering the recent Mel-Gate fiasco. However apparently some businessmen in the Latin community have managed to see some good in Mel after seeing clips from his new film Apocalypto. Here's more:

Gibson received an award from the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Association today for his "vision and courage" in making his epic tale set in the ancient Mayan Indian empire, a movie filmed in Mexico and with an all-Hispanic cast.

Showing a conference of Latino business leaders excerpts of the movie, the actor-director described the making of "Apocalypto" as a "badge of honour for the Latino community"

He said he spent eight months casting the movie, choosing performers - some of them Mayans - who mostly had never acted before. The movie has no star names and most of the crew, including make-up and costume artists and set designers, also were recruited in Mexico.

"It was tantamount to being at the Super Bowl and getting your quarterback from the audience," he admitted. "But they scored touchdown after touchdown. I don't know why no one has gone down there before."

Could this movie be a comeback for Mel? It's hard to tell with just this one event but it's a start. For more pics of Mel winning what might be one of the first of many (or last) awards of his career just read more

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