Claim: Little Miss Sunshine was filmed in Arizona.

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama road film and the directorial debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris . The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt . The film stars Greg Kinnear , Steve Carell , Toni Collette , Paul Dano , Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin , and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of US$ 8 million . Filming began on June 6 , 2005 and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California .   The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20 , 2006 , and its distribution rights were bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures for one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival . The film had a limited release in the United States on July 26 , 2006 , and later expanded to a wider release starting on August 18 .   Little Miss Sunshine had an international box office gross of $ 100.5 million . The film was nominated for four Academy Awards , including Best Picture , and won two : Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin . It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and received numerous other accolades .