Nora Twomey
She is best known as the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young, an animation studio and production company, based in Kilkenny City, Ireland.She did manual labor at a local factory but continued to draw and briefly studied fine art before she was admitted to Ballyfermot College in Dublin to their School of Animation program on the basis of her portfolio.Based on a story by Jackie Mac Donacha, a boy with his head on backwards finds only love and acceptance in his mother and has to work to gain that from the rest of his community but most of all his father.Based on the best-selling young adult novel by Deborah Ellis, an 11-year-old girl named Parvana must dress as a boy and become the titular breadwinner for her family when her father is wrongfully arrested by the Taliban.[12] She believes that a young protagonist gives children a stepping stone into more adult themes, allowing for multi layered filmmaking.[12] She attempts to make her real world depiction of Afghanistan dark, gritty and draped in realism, using brought on Afghan artist and witnesses in order to capture the culture and environment her film takes place in, conversely as half the film takes place in the titular characters mind, Twomey uses colorful geometric art based on Persian miniatures to contrast reality from imagination.[10] Twomey also weaves in smaller slice of life themes such as a child's, love for their parents, complex sibling dynamics, and femininity that are included to give more humanity to her characters.[13] In terms of style, Twomey is a huge proponent of the hero's journey and believes one should have a sound understanding of this narrative structure so they can work both within and outside of it, allowing for subversions or new interesting takes on the formula.[16] The Breadwinner earned 10 nominations at the 45th Annie Awards, including Outstanding Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production for Twomey.