Nora Twomey, Academy Award- and Golden Globe-nominated director, is the latest keynote speaker for the VIEW Conference 2018 in Turin, October 22-26.
Recently, Twomey directed The Breadwinner, based on Deborah Ellis's acclaimed YA novel about a young girl growing up in Afghanistan. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe this year, and the production also won the Audience and Jury Awards at Annecy 2018.
Twomey will discuss the team's approach to adapting the Ellis novel for the screen, the challenges and advantages of making an animated film with provocative subject matter. She will also talk about how the film portrays the long history of the Afghan people’s resiliency and the country’s deep cultural roots. The result is a colorful and rich tapestry for the screen. There are two mirrored animation styles in The Breadwinner. One is the dusty, brown reality of Afghanistan, the other is the very vibrant, fantastical world in the young hero’s dreams, designed in the cut-paper animation style.
“The story doesn’t talk down to young adults; I wanted to give a sense of the chaos of life when you live in a place where there is so much conflict,” says Twomey. “This is a film that finds hope, but is respectful for the complicated situation that exists in places like Afghanistan.”
Twomey directed award-winning short films such asFrom Darkness before going on to co-direct the Academy Award-nominated
The Secret of Kells with Tomm Moore, one of her partners at Irish animation production company Cartoon Saloon.
She was creative producer on the Netflix pre-school series Puffin Rock and head of story on Academy Award-nominated
Song of the Sea. Twomey is partner & creative director with Cartoon Saloon and has been part of the company since it set up in Kilkenny in 1999.
The international VIEW Conference, Italy’s premiere event for Computer Graphics, Interactive and Immersive Storytelling, Animation, Visual Effects, Games, and VR, AR, and Mixed Reality, brings top professionals from those fields to the beautiful baroque city of Torino, Italy for a week of talks, presentations, and workshops.