Little Miss Sunshine is an American comedy-drama film. It is one of the more successful American independent films, released in 2006. The film is also the directorial debut of husband and wife Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was also written by first time writer Michael Arndt.
Although this is an independent film, which usually consisting of an unknown cast, this film includes several famous actors and actresses such as Steve Carrell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collete, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin. This pushes away from the typical independent film techniques of casting unknown actors, however this particular independent film is not one that was received by the public in the usual way such as film festivals and dvd. This film was picked up by major Hollywood studio, Fox Searchlight Pictures, who bought the rights to distribute the film and released it into cinemas, making it a complete success.
There are a few different reasons as to why Little Miss Sunshine is classed as in independent film. One being the controversial matters shown in the film, such as the pageant world and how it sexualises and glamourises children in an unconventional way. Many of the girls shown in the film being genuine pageant contestants who dressed in costumes and performed real acts from their own previous pageants. This issue is something that would not necessarily be shown in Hollywood box office films as it is seen as shocking and a bad representation of society with winning being their ideal life goals.
Another reason Little Miss Sunshine is independent is due to the production of the film, done by Big Beach Films. As previously stated, the directors and screenplay writer are both performing their debut with this movie and are not well known, successful and wealthy, which are usually the traits that major Hollywood production companies look for in directors and writers. Also, this film is not a big budget film with large sets and technology used. Instead, this film was made with a budget of around $8 million and was filmed in Arizona and Southern California over a period of 30 days, which is and incredibly short amount of time to film compared to the months that it takes for mainstream Hollywood films. Yet another reason this film is seen as independent is due to the way it was released. Being low budget and not yet having the support of a major Hollywood studio company, the film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on the 20th of January 2006, a well known film festival used to display many indie films. August however, is when the film expanded to a wider release, due to being picked up by Fox Searchlight Pictures for over $10 million and 10% of all gross revenues, and being one of the biggest film deals in the festivals history.
This it what makes the film one of the most successful indie films in recent times. Overall, the film grossed over $100 million worldwide, which compared to the films production costs of $8 million is an astounding success
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