Cork animator in dreamland ahead of Oscars
The Midleton filmmaker joined friends and colleagues from the studio she co-founded, Cartoon Saloon, for the Audi International Dublin Film Festival screening of her movie, The Breadwinner.
For the animator, it marked an impressive dress rehearsal for the Oscars on March 4, where the film has been nominated in the best animated picture category. Next week, she’ll jet to Los Angeles for the biggest night in cinema.
“I’m bringing my long-suffering husband Michael. We’ve been together for over 20 years so he’s coming with me on the night. I’ll squeeze his hand a few times and ask him to pinch me to make sure it’s real,” she said.
“It’s incredible, it’s fantastic,” she said of the film’s success so far.
“We have so many of our crew here tonight to celebrate with us. And we’re delighted to being it to ADIFF which is a wonderful festival, a really great celebration of film.”
For Twomey, who was diagnosed with cancer during the film’s production, being able to stay engaged creatively and do what she loves provided an invaluable respite.
“It did, absolutely. For me, cancer diagnosis is absolute chaos in your life. I have two young boys, and right in the middle of a production, to have somebody say something like that to you, ‘you have cancer’, you know, it’s something else.
“But honestly, working for me was a way through it. My job I can do sitting down. I can Skype people, I can email. For me it was a sense of normality in a world gone crazy.”
The Breadwinner was executive produced by Angelina Jolie, who worked with Twomey and her creative team throughout production and has become a friend.
The film tells the story of Parvana, an 11-year-old girl living under Taliban rule, who dresses like a boy to support her family following the wrongful arrest of her father.
Twomey, a passionate supporter of gender equality and parity, hopes that her film will help encourage and empower young women.
“The film is about a young girl using her voice to transform herself and those around her. It’s a very realistic film but it does use the voices of young women, of young girls.
“There are so many women behind this film: Deborah Ellis (who wrote the book on which the story is based), Angelina Jolie, Mimi Gitlin who’s one of our producers, Anita Doran (screenwriter), myself, and 50% of our crew are female. To have that kind of balance in a story is amazing, we don’t have enough of it and we need more.
“You see many young directors coming up the ranks and that’s important to encourage and it’s incredible to see.
“I think there’s an onus on every director, male and female, to encourage young women coming up through the industry. To make sure there aren’t any points in their career where they don’t feel encouraged.”
The Breadwinner will be released in Ireland by Element Pictures in May.
