No one's going to dispute that 'Persepolis' deserves to compete for an Academy Award. Just not necessarily this one. As Jerry Beck of Cartoon Brew pointed out, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has never nominated any animated film from the short list for the Best Foreign Film award. Instead, the film is up for Best Animated Feature. The autobiographical 2D coming-of-age story of a girl growing up in Iran won big in the Cannes Film Festival and among critics, so it's a heavyweight in this year's category.

The previous Oscar preview covered a straightforward nomination: a solid storyline with points for technical skill and artistic feats. Unfortunately for AMPAS, controversy is typical for the animated nominees. On one hand, 'Persepolis' has a good chance of winning. On the other hand, it's supposedly losing out in a less important field. Like the main character Marjane Satrapi traveling between Western Europe and her native Iran, there is plenty of grumbling about animation being marginalized in its own category. One even has to qualify 'Persepolis' as the only 2D entry; as being based on a graphic novel; and -- a less surprising warning for American audiences -- as an animated film that is not necessarily for children.

Just the same, 'Persepolis' isn't as bleak as the black-and-white art, the subject matter, and the critical acclaim may suggest. Marjane is spunky. Her interests evolve from Bruce Lee to the Bee Gees to Iron Maiden. Her rage comes out bitingly sarcastic, and her inner voice is at once idealistic and cheesily romantic. She's the girl who talks back and she loves her family dearly; what's more, I think most people who know this generation will connect with it on more levels than just the universal.

I have only one quibble with this exquisite film. I wish it had been cut into two volumes, as with the graphic novel. The first part is going to be a culture shock for anyone who hasn't experienced a multi-generational oppressive regime. Clean as every black line, it's a textbook example of revolution and counter-revolution, right out of the poli sci exam and into the life of an eight-year-old girl. Marjane is relentlessly inquisitive as her father contextualizes Iranian history in sequences resembling paper cut-out puppets. She keeps going even as social control, purges, and the Iran-Iraq War sweep through her life and family.

"No matter where you come from," Marjane told The Today Show, "A girl is a girl, a mother is a mother, a father is a father."

When the teen Marjane is sent to Europe for her own safety, the film begins to plod, if only because the graphic novel roots started showing. I could have used a deep breath between "volumes." Now living in France, the writer and artist Marjane doesn't waste her creative freedom by being too wry and distant; her teenaged years are told with an unflinchingly honest voice. Your mileage may vary, but I think this second part is what needs to be screened for children. Since Marjane was written for children, the first violent, terrible section can come through clearly for older, more mature kids.

The animation is as evocative as the heart and soul of the story. Smoke from cigarettes, the casual art of anti-Western propaganda and old Persian architecture, the slinky snakelike movements of busybody informants, the realistic head-banging -- all the art is in the service of expressing the drama of each situation. It's the tale of dual struggles for freedom. Iran's citizens struggle for it on a deeply basic level. Marjane struggles for it as a woman, an artist, and a person, whose life's turning points are in airports, constantly in transition.

'Persepolis' also embodies the freedom of the animated form, which allowed this story to be told. (Speaking of independents, do not miss the nominees in the Short Form category, which could be in theaters or via legitimate downloads.) See the original French version with English subtitles, or see if it's out in English with Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, Gena Rowlands, and with Chiara Mastroianni (as Marjane) and Catherine Deneuve (as Mother) reprising their roles in French. A film experience like this is a privilege, literally -- it's on the black market in Iran.