'My Life as a Zucchini' or 'Ma vie de Courgette'? Here's why the 2017 Oscar nominee has two names.

Culture

My Life as a Zucchini landed an Oscar nod for animated feature film Tuesday morning, but the French-Swiss film also goes by other names: Ma vie de Courgette or My Life as a Courgette. Courgette is another name for zucchini. But to make things even more complicated, the movie has nothing to do with a vegetable. 

The film is about an orphaned boy named Icare who prefers to be called Courgette. After his mother's death, Courgette is sent to a foster home, where he befriends the other children who live there. While it's a stop-motion animated film about children, the movie features a lot of dark themes like abuse and alcoholism. 

It appears as if the title of the film was changed for American audiences, who are not familiar with the word "courgette." According to BBC America, the vegetable was originally grown in Central and South America. When it made its way to Europe, the Italians called it "zucchini," and the French named it a "courgette." The British adopted the name "courgette" from the French, while the name "zucchini" stuck in the United States when Italians immigrated to the country. 

You can check out the difference in names in the trailers for the American version and the French version, titled "Ma vie de Courgette."

Ma vie de Courgette (French version)

My Life as a Zucchini (American version)

My Life as a Zucchini is directed by Claud Barras and based on Autobiographie d'une Courgette by Gilles Paris. The movie was first released at Cannes Film Festival on May 15, and will debut in American theaters on Feb. 24.