Passes the Bechdel test
Little Miss Sunshine
2006. Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, written by Michael Arndt.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
15 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 10 scenes out of 127. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
When 7 year-old Olive Hoover learns that she's qualified for the the little Miss Sunshine contest the entire family sets off in their VW camper van for the trip from Albuquerque to California. The family includes her reasonably sane mother Sheryl; her father Richard, a motivational speaker who is stressing over whether his book will be published; her brother Dwayne who is into Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence and hasn't said a word in 9 months; her grandpa Edwin Hoover who likes to cuss; and her uncle Frank Ginsburg - Sheryl's brother - who recently tried to commit suicide. Along the way, the van breaks down, Richard learns his book won't be published and they forget Olive at a gas station. They face grief along the way but they get Olive to the pageant on time - even if the pageant itself doesn't quite go as planned.
- Released
- 18 Aug 2006
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 80 / 100
- Awards
- Won 2 Oscars. 73 wins & 112 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Richard 227 lines, man
- Sheryl 186 lines, woman
- Frank 139 lines, man
- Olive 92 lines, woman
- Grandpa 45 lines, man
- Dwayne 30 lines, man
- Kirby 11 lines, man
- Trooper 11 lines, man
- Linda 10 lines, woman
- Official 10 lines
Full cast, 43 people
- Greg Kinnear as Richard Hoover
- Toni Collette as Sheryl Hoover
- Steve Carell as Frank Ginsberg
- Paul Dano as Dwayne Hoover
- Abigail Breslin as Olive Hoover
- Alan Arkin as Edwin Hoover
- Bryan Cranston as Stan Grossman
- Beth Grant as Nancy Jenkins
- Wallace Langham as Kirby
- Matt Winston as Pageant MC
- Julio Oscar Mechoso as Mechanic
- Marc Turtletaub as Doctor #1
- Jill Talley as Cindy
- Brenda Canela as Diner Waitress
- Chuck Loring as Convience Store Proprietor
- Justin Shilton as Josh
- Gordon Thomson as Larry Sugarman
- Steven Christopher Parker as Teen Boy #1
- John Walcutt as Doctor #2
- Paula Newsome as Linda
- Dean Norris as State Trooper McCleary
- Lauren Shiohama as Miss California
- Mary Lynn Rajskub as Pageant Assistant Pam
- Jerry Giles as Funeral Home Worker
- Geoff Meed as Biker Dad
- Joan Scheckel as Judge
- Mel Rodriguez as Officer Martinez
- Casandra Ashe as Girl in Hallway
- Alexandria Alaman as Pageant Contestant
- Alissa Anderegg as Pageant Contestant
- Brittany Baird as Pageant Contestant
- Cambria Baird as Pageant Contestant
- Brenae Bandy as Pageant Contestant
- Kristen Holaas as Pageant Contestant
- Maliah Hudson as Pageant Contestant
- Destry Jacobs as Pageant Contestant
- Lindsey Jordan as Pageant Contestant
- Shane Murphy as Pageant Contestant
- Annabelle Roberts as Pageant Contestant
- Sydni Stevenson-Love as Pageant Contestant
- Nicole Stoehr as Pageant Contestant
- Lauren Yee as Pageant Contestant
- Terry Bolo as Pageant Worker (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 127
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 4 to 6 | 2 | 0 |
| 7 to 9 | 3 | 2 |
| 10 to 12 | 3 | 1 |
| 13 to 15 | 11 | 0 |
| 16 to 18 | 50 | 70 |
| 19 to 21 | 2 | 0 |
| 22 to 24 | 14 | 15 |
| 25 to 27 | 8 | 10 |
| 28 to 30 | 39 | 55 |
| 31 to 33 | 2 | 8 |
| 34 to 36 | 3 | 19 |
| 37 to 39 | 2 | 19 |
| 40 to 42 | 3 | 25 |
| 43 to 45 | 4 | 8 |
| 46 to 48 | 7 | 7 |
| 49 to 51 | 5 | 5 |
| 52 to 54 | 8 | 10 |
| 55 to 57 | 3 | 5 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 to 63 | 0 | 14 |
| 64 to 66 | 3 | 1 |
| 67 to 69 | 14 | 8 |
| 70 to 72 | 4 | 5 |
| 73 to 75 | 7 | 19 |
| 76 to 78 | 9 | 12 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 17 |
| 82 to 84 | 1 | 2 |
| 85 to 87 | 10 | 16 |
| 88 to 90 | 33 | 51 |
| 91 to 93 | 0 | 3 |
| 94 to 96 | 15 | 3 |
| 97 to 99 | 3 | 1 |
| 100 to 102 | 4 | 5 |
| 103 to 105 | 5 | 13 |
| 106 to 108 | 0 | 7 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 2 |
| 112 to 114 | 0 | 13 |
| 115 to 117 | 3 | 6 |
| 118 to 120 | 15 | 16 |
| 121 to 123 | 10 | 2 |
| 124 to 126 | 6 | 23 |
| 127 to 127 | 0 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
OLIVE: What happened to your arms? SHERYL: Olive ...
OLIVE: Your accident ... SHERYL: Honey ...
SHERYL: She's gonna find out anyway. Go on, Frank. OLIVE: Why were you unhappy?
SHERYL: Spring break. Jeff had custody for· two weeks. Olive made it to the top of the Regionals down there. OLIVE: I was second place.
OLIVE: Aaahhhhhhh! ! ! Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhh! ! ! Little Miss Sunshine! Little Miss Sunshine! Little Miss Sunshine!!! SHERYL: Fuck ... !
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 38 are women's.
312 lines from women, 503 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
15 women and 18 men in the cast. 4 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 850.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 33 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 32% of the words (2,639), men 68% (5,496). Women have 38% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
31
Two men
46
Exhibit F: behind the camera
6 of the 16 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 38% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Valerie Faris (woman), Jonathan Dayton (man)
- Written by
- Michael Arndt (man)
- Produced by
- David T. Friendly (man), Peter Saraf (man), Ron Yerxa (man), Albert Berger (man), Marc Turtletaub (man)
- Shot by
- Tim Suhrstedt (man)
- Edited by
- Pamela Martin (woman)
- Music by
- DeVotchKa (gender not listed), Mychael Danna (man)
- Production design by
- Kalina Ivanov (woman)
- Costumes by
- Nancy Steiner (woman)
- Cast by
- Justine Arteta (woman), Kim Davis-Wagner (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
5 women, 9 men, 11 not listed
-
Sound
5 women, 14 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 13 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 5 men, 8 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
7 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 3 men, 6 not listed
-
Directing
3 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 44 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Abigail Breslin 10, Toni Collette 33, Beth Grant 56
Men
Paul Dano 22, Matt Winston 36, Wallace Langham 41, Greg Kinnear 43, Steve Carell 43, Bryan Cranston 50, Alan Arkin 72
Exhibit H: the money
It made 12.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $8 million
- Box office
- $101 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 127 scenes and 850 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
