26 Facts About Nora Twomey

Nora Twomey was born on 31 October 1971 and is an Irish animator, director, screenwriter, producer and voice actress.

Nora Twomey is best known as the co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, alongside Tomm Moore and Paul Young, an animation studio and production company, based in Kilkenny City, Ireland.

Nora Twomey is best known for co-directing The Secret of Kells and directing The Breadwinner.

Nora Twomey did manual labor at a local factory but continued to draw and briefly studied fine art before she was admitted to Ballyfermot College in Dublin to their School of Animation program on the basis of her portfolio.

Nora Twomey went on to write and direct the animated short Cuilin Dualach, released in 2004.

Nora Twomey co-directed, with Tomm Moore, The Secret of Kells, an animated feature film as well as doing additional voice acting for the film.

Nora Twomey continued to work on feature films with Cartoon Saloon with 2014's Song of the Sea directed by Tomm Moore.

Nora Twomey worked as the film's head of story and voice director.

Nora Twomey next directed the animated film The Breadwinner, released in 2017.

Nora Twomey worked on the project with actress Angelina Jolie, who helped fund the project and worked as an executive producer The project was a huge success for Twomey, as she was recognized as a solo female filmmaker, and given accolades as well as being lauded by many as a source of female empowerment, all while battling cancer during production.

Nora Twomey's films are often coming-of-age films with pre-teen protagonists dealing with mythic worlds, the importance of stories and finishing them, acceptance, family, and communities.

Nora Twomey's work takes aim at the fact that life is a cycle of impermanence, and that life is always ever changing.

Nora Twomey follows a unique design perspective either using characters that are explained by their visual design, or characters whom character gives more to the overall design or her worlds.

Nora Twomey tends to use simple yet effective character designs in order to be concise about delivery.

Nora Twomey's films combine traditional and digital art but are often hand-drawn and in a visual style inspired by the worlds of her stories.

Nora Twomey's work is tailored to be enjoyed by all audiences, even though her protagonist are typically children or young adults, the stories they star in are typically considered complex and multi-layered, lending them to potentially be enjoyable and meaningful for adults as well as young adults and children.

Nora Twomey particularly loves young adults as an audience, as she is able to provide them with vivid coming of age stories that attempt to depict and age where they are coming to terms with reality, and she, unlike many filmmakers attempts to treat them with dignity by not softening the reality of her stories.

Nora Twomey believes that a young protagonist gives children a stepping stone into more adult themes, allowing for multi layered filmmaking.

Nora Twomey weaves in smaller slice of life themes such as a child's, love for their parents, complex sibling dynamics, and femininity that are included to give more humanity to her characters.

In terms of style, Nora Twomey is a huge proponent of the hero's journey and believes one should have a sound understanding of this narrative structure so they can work both within and outside of it, allowing for subversions or new interesting takes on the formula.

Nora Twomey makes the stylistic choice to stick to hand drawn 2D images despite the readily available, and cheaper 3D CGI available today, as she believes 2D can be more stylistic and withstands the test of time.

Nora Twomey became the seventh graduate of Ballyfermot College to have been nominated for an Academy Award with her work on The Breadwinner when it was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 90th Academy Awards.

Nora Twomey was nominated for an award at the Golden Globes.

Nora Twomey's work had a heavy presence at the Emile Awards, an annual event held by the European Animation Assosciation that honors European creators of animation.

Nora Twomey has won several awards according to the SDGI.

Cartoon Saloon, a studio Nora Twomey Co founded with contemporaries Paul Young and Tom Moore in Kilkenny, Ireland, has been nominated for 5 Academy awards, a BAFTA award, and several aforementioned Emmy's.