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Trailer Watch: Award-Winning Life, Animated, More Than a “Film About Autism”
Directed by Academy Award-winner Roger Ross Williams, Life, Animated, won the directing award in the U.S. documentary competition at Sundance earlier this year before making the festival circuit. Based on the bestselling book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, the documentary tells the inspirational story of Owen Suskind, a young man with autism who connects to the world through animated Disney films.
The film, which just got its first trailer (above), follows Owen as he takes his first steps towards independence. Interweaving classic Disney sequences with scenes from Owen’s life, the film’s original animation provides access to Owen’s amazing imagination.
“Owen’s world and his imagination is so rich. He lives in such a positive place and he also doesn’t have that bubble we all put around himself. He is just who he is,” Williams told Filmmaker. “I wanted that sort of magical Peter Pan quality to come through in the trailer. This isn’t a film about autism. This is a universal story and a coming-of-age story about the power of film to transform.”
Life, Animated will have a theatrical release on July 1 in New York and Los Angeles and a nationwide rollout in July and August.
