Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Here’s a fun fact: women are more likely to be nominated – and win – an American Academy Award as Best Director of an animated feature than helming a live action film. Marjane Sartrapi, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and, most recently Nora Twomey have been nominated. Brenda Chapman and Jennifer Lee won in successive years for Brave and Frozen respectively. Significantly, Sartrapi, Nelson and Chapman have subsequently made – or are making – the transition to live action films. The route to directing animation can be straight forward. You start as ‘head of story’ as Brenda Chapman did and then convince a producer that you can shepherd a film to completion. Nora Twomey’s route was different. She co-directed (with Tomm Moore) The Secret of Kells and then spent four years to bring her animated film version of Deborah Ellis’ novel, The Breadwinner , to the screen. The film, from Kilkenny’s Cartoon Saloon, is quite literally a labour of love. It is about the love that an eleven year-old girl,...