Little Miss Sunshine child star makes rare red carpet appearance for special occasion
This year marks the 20th anniversary of multi-award-nominated tragicomedy Little Miss Sunshine.
With an ensemble cast made up of Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano and Greg Kinnear, it’s a pretty moving film and takes on themes including family and depression.
Seemingly tying together the characters is the youngest daughter Olive, played by Abigail Breslin. Playing the role aged 10, she ended up getting nominated for an Oscar for her performance.
And Breslin just recently made a very rare red-carpet appearance (her first in nearly two years) for a rather special occasion. Her breakout role, the now 29-year-old went on to appear in the likes of Zombieland, My Sister’s Keeper and Scream Queens in the years following Little Miss Sunshine.
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On Wednesday (28 January), Breslin showed up at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival in Utah for the film’s 20th anniversary screening.
Plus, there was a bit of a reunion on the red carpet as she was joined by Dano, Collette and Kinnear.
The Nim’s Island actor even shared a selfie from inside the theatre with her co-stars as she wrote in the caption: “Another blurry selfie courtesy of ya girl.”
And fans were quick to reminisce as they said Breslin gave ‘some of the best acting’ they’ve ever seen.
“You’ll always be our Little Miss Sunshine,” others said as they called the reunion ‘everything’.
During a chat on the red carpet at Sundance (where the film first premiered back in 2006), Breslin revealed a little tribute she had made.
“I remember loving my cowboy boots and keeping those,” she said of Olive’s iconic outfit in the movie.
“And tonight I’m actually wearing a little homage of cowboy boots. Yeah, like a sly moment.”
Casting director Kim Davis travelled to ‘every English-speaking country’ in the search to find a girl to play Hoover before finding Breslin through an audition.
The daughter of a talent manager and telecommunications expert, the actor first started her career at just three years old when she appeared in an ad for Toys ‘R’ Us.
She then went on to appear in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs in 2002, 2004’s Raising Helen and also had a small role in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.
But Little Miss Sunshine was truly her breakthrough, with her co-stars saying they were ‘astounded by her seriousness of purpose during shooting’.
Her most recent role was in 2025’s The Italians.
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film
Jess Battison