Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American tragicomedy road film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (in their directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Michael Arndt. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, all of whom play members of a dysfunctional family taking the youngest (Breslin) to compete in a child beauty pageant. Abigail Breslin’s breakout performance in the film earned her an Academy Award nomination. The film tackles themes of family, depression, self-acceptance, and finding meaning in absurd conditions. It was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million.^[1][3] Filming began on June 6, 2005, and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.