Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film. The road movie plot follows a family's trip in their Volkswagen T2 Microbus to a children's beauty pageant. Little Miss Sunshine was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. It stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005 and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006, and its distribution rights were bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures for one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival. Little Miss Sunshine received critical acclaim, and had an international box office gross of $100.5 million. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won two: Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin. It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature, and received multiple other accolades.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Miss_Sunshine

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1156:

According to legend, freeholder Lalli slew Bishop Henry of Finland with an axe on the ice of the lake Köyliönjärvi in Köyliö, Finland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_%28Bishop_of_Finland%29

1843:

Honório Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná became the de facto first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hon%C3%B3rio_Carneiro_Le%C3%A3o%2C_Marquis_of_Paran%C3%A1

1946:

Favoring stronger executive power than the draft constitution for the French Fourth Republic provided, Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of the Provisional Government. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle

1969:

Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, one of the casus belli that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanullah_Asaduzzaman

2009:

In Washington, D.C., over 1 million people attended the inauguration of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inauguration_of_Barack_Obama

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

derring-do (n): [[valiant http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/derring-do

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. --Barack Obama http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Barack_Obama