Anderson's films are concerned with home and family ties: the old ones we do our best to escape from, and the new ones we build for ourselves in an attempt to fill the gap. He arrived on the scene in 1996 with Bottle Rocket, a slacker comedy in which three friends plan a robbery, although not well enough. Five years later he found mainstream success with The Royal Tenenbaums, about a family of eccentric geniuses, the script of which was nominated for an Oscar. Next, in 2004, came The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, an elaborate family drama set on board an ocean–going research ship, which won mixed reviews and failed to earn back its £30 million budget. In 2009 he tried his hand at animation with Fantastic Mr Fox, which opened the London Film Festival; by 2012 he had graduated to the opening night of Cannes, with Moonrise Kingdom, about two young runaways desperate to escape their dysfunctional families.