Everybody
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 03: (L-R) Actors Kate Beckinsale, Robert De Niro and Drew Barrymore arrive at the AFI FEST 2009 screening of Miramax' "Everybody's Fine" at the Chinese Theater on November 3, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for AFI) (Getty Images)

Will Robert De Niro add another Oscar to his matched set for his role in the new family drama "Everybody's Fine"? Only time will tell, but if the audience at the film's world premiere held during the AFI Fest at Grauman's Chinese Theater on Tuesday night has its way, he will. For they gave him a standing ovation before the movie even unspooled!

Bob Gazzale, the AFI president and CEO, got the lovefest started by gushing. "How lucky we are to be alive when these extraordinary artists are making films?" he asked, then introduced director-writer Kirk Jones. Jones in turn brought out beauties Kate Beckinsale and Drew Barrymore, who play sisters in Jones' very personal film, then called De Niro "the best dad in the world," as the legendary actor took to the stage.

De Niro, modest and soft-spoken as always, embraced the gals and then embarrassedly said, "I hope everybody likes it."

No worries there, as the audience that included James Frain ("The Tudors"), who also stars in the movie, as well as Samantha Morton, Alex Meneses, and John Savage, De Niro's long-ago co-star in "The Deer Hunter," cheered and applauded as the credits rolled.

An intense story of serious dysfunction between a father and his children (Sam Rockwell also stars as his son) that centers on the inability of the two generations to communicate on any level, "Everybody's Fine" is likely to bring Robert De Niro some awards accolades as the season's nominations begin to roll in next month.

The positive buzz for the film continued at the after party, held in the new old-fashioned speakeasy space at Hollywood & Highland known as h.wood, as Kate Beckinsale, hubby Len Wiseman, and daughter Lily Sheen snuggled in an upstairs booth. Hopefully they communicate better than the family does in "Everybody's Fine"!