The Breadwinner - 1 nomination

Animated Feature - Nora Twomey and Anthony Leo

The Breadwinner is animated Yentl set in Afghanistan.  Just kidding, but only sort of.  Little Parvana lives with her family - her mother and one-legged father, her older sister, and her baby brother.  They are very poor and doing everything they can to make ends meet.  Parvana's father is a teacher, and he wants his daughter to learn, even though it is expressly forbidden by the Taliban.  He tells her stories and this world of imagination brings them close to each other.  

One day, the Taliban arrest Parvana's father, which means that the family has no man to go to the market, to earn a living; girls can't even go outside without male accompaniment.  So Parvana sees no choice but to transform herself into a "boy" so that she can run the errands of the household and try to earn some money to support her family.  She finds a close friend who has done the same.  To bolster her own resolve and to help encourage her friend and her family, she tells her father's tales of courage and resolve.

This story is lovely (though the movie is a little slow), and the animation is beautiful, particularly when Parvana is weaving her tales.  Visually, the movie has all of the color and drama that only animation can accomplish, and the most notable scenes are the ones where the story looms large and the colors and beauty of the animation loom larger.

Though I did like The Breadwinner, if you have limited time to see Oscar nominated films, this is one you could skip.