Little Miss Sunshine

"A family on the verge of a breakdown."

2006 1h 42m EN

🙌

7.7

BANGER

★7.7TMDB · 8,111

ComedyDrama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

“A family on the verge of a breakdown.”

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Cast

Greg Kinnear
Richard Hoover
Toni Collette
Sheryl Hoover
Steve Carell
Frank Ginsberg
Paul Dano
Dwayne Hoover
Abigail Breslin
Olive Hoover
Alan Arkin
Edwin Hoover
Bryan Cranston
Stan Grossman
Beth Grant
Nancy Jenkins

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Valerie Faris
Writers: Michael Arndt
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $101M — a 12.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 20 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Valerie Faris, shot by Tim Suhrstedt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by DeVotchKa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Pamela Martin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette and Steve Carell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A family on the verge of a breakdown.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0449059 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Valerie Faris directs. Tim Suhrstedt behind the camera. DeVotchKa scores. Pamela Martin cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Grossed $101M — a 12.6× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
2Released 20 years ago.
3Directed by Valerie Faris, shot by Tim Suhrstedt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by DeVotchKa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Pamela Martin shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette and Steve Carell carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A family on the verge of a breakdown.".
8IMDB entry: tt0449059 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 14 themes, including "california", "husband wife relationship", "sibling relationship", "literature professor".

The technical file

Cinematography: Tim Suhrstedt
Original score: DeVotchKa
Editing: Pamela Martin
Production design: Kalina Ivanov
Costume design: Nancy Steiner
Makeup / hair: Nicole Sortillon Amos
VFX supervisor: Adam Avitabile
Sound: Terry Rodman
Stunt coordinator: Thomas Robinson Harper
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $8,000,000
Box office: $100,523,351
Return: 1257% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
César Award for Best Foreign Film
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Grand prix du Festival de Deauville

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Valerie Faris

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Community reviews

What people are saying

zombieakacris2019-11-17
★ 7/10
"Fuck a lot of woman kid, I have no reason to lie, not just one. A lot of women." Description: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. Review: Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 dramatic comedy that delivers all around. With solid cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carrell an oscar winning performance by Allan Arkin and Bryan Cranston and Dean Norris in Albuquerque pre Breaking Bad and a great script Little Miss Sunshine is a film that I missed when it first came out but glad I got around to it. Kinnear is the loser husband to Collette's Sheryl and Carell is her gay suicidal brother. Dano plays her quiet son and Arkin the heroine addicted dirty Grampa. Breslin's character Olive qualifies for the Little Miss Sunshine competition and it's a race to beat the clock as the family takes a road trip from Albuquerque to California filled with unexpected surprises and personal revelations. The films ending solidifies the families bond and leaves us wanting to see hopefully another chapter in the families life down the road. No Pun intended. Little Miss Sunshine is defiantly worth checking out if you have not already or just a rewatch as a reminder of how good it is.
CinemaSerf2024-03-14
★ 7/10
Alan Arkin might have got the Oscar but it's Greg Kinnear who steals this for me. Talk about a pain in the proverbial! He is "Richard", a rather pompously self-motivated man who is trying to sell his nine point plan for success to "Grossmann" (a fleeting appearance from Bryan Cranston). Meantime, his young daughter "Olive" (Abigail Breslin) is continually practising for the eponymous pageant under the aegis of her foul-mouthed, cocaine-snorting, grandfather (Arkin) and beside her whacky brother "Dwayne" (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence and hates everyone and everything. He just wants to join the air force. There's also a surprise guest in their home. "Uncle Frank" (Steve Carell). Now he's just got out of the ER having tried to kill himself after his student boyfriend dumped him for another Proust-spouting, but wealthier, scholar! At the helm, trying to keep this family from complete self-destruction is "Sheryl" (Toni Collette) and that task becomes distinctly more difficult when young "Oilve" is awarded a spot in the national finals - in California. Dad can't go, mum can't drive, brother couldn't care less - but "Olive" is determined so into a clapped out VW camper-van they all reluctantly pile and off on a mini road trip. This entertainingly addresses plenty of their demons, allows for a little tragedy to galvanise attitudes and ultimately, for me anyway, demonstrates clearly the ghastliness of those hideous ceremonies that stink of precociousness and gushing parental aspiration. The journey on four wheels is as much a metaphor for that being taken by all in their push-start jalopy, and with Kinnear really getting under my fingernails at just about every turn it's a much quirkier and more thought-provoking comedy that leaves very little out of bounds. Collette also looks like she is having some fun as they deliver a pithily delivered script that does entertain (and begs the question: why would she ever have married "Richard" in the first place?). Thank heavens for granddad and his musical tastes. Oh, and his porn, too...!