The festival, which took place in the TCL Chinese Theatre last Friday, October 22nd also saw director Nora Twomey win the audience award.
‘The Breadwinner’ follows Parvana, a girl growing up in Afghanistan in 2001. Following her father’s arrest, she dresses as a boy in order to work and provide for her family. Together with her best friend Shauzia, she risks discovery to try to find out if her father is still alive.
Cartoon Saloon have already received two Oscar nominations for their previous work - 'Book of Kells' & 'Song of the Sea'. The studio is expected to be in contention again this year with 'The Breadwinner' already the winner a number of awards and nominations in the build-up to the Academy Awards.
‘The Breadwinner’ entered production in May 2016 and is a co-production between Aircraft Pictures Canada, Luxembourg’s Melesine Productions and Cartoon Saloon in association with Angelina Jolie’s Jolie Pas Productions.
Producers are Anthony Leo (What’s up Warthogs!), Tomm Moore (Song of the Sea) and Paul Young (Puffin Rock). Executive producers are Angelina Jolie, Mimi Polk Gitlin, Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim and Gerry Shirren.
‘The Lesser Blessed’ writer/director Anita Doron co-writes the screenplay with Deborah Ellis, based on Ellis’ own novel of the same name, which was published in 2000.