'Hair Love' filmmakers honored by LA City Council for movie's positive impact

DOWNTOWN L.A. (KABC) -- The Oscar winning animated short film "Hair Love" tells the story of a little girl trying to make her hair look great for a special day. The filmmakers behind "Hair Love" were invited to L.A. City Hall, where they were honored for their work during a special ceremony led by Councilman Curren Price Jr.

"Hair Love" director Matthew A. Cherry launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to help get this movie made.

"We really just did this project to do something that young people could see themselves in," said Cherry. "Animation is an important medium. It's, often times, one of the biggest movie franchises that come out. And I think if we can get more representation in animation, it'll just trickle down to all the other forms of filmmaking."

MORE: 'Hair Love' got its start with Streetlights, an LA non-profit focused on diversity

The 92nd Academy Awards will feature a slew of actors and filmmakers, including one nominee who got his start thanks to a non-profit program in Los Angeles.

"To me, I've been making animated movies for a long time but never has one really impacted the community in this way," said producer Karen Rupert Toliver. "And so I'm glad that we're being received for that because we really can--hopefully, it will encourage more people to make more movies that are powerful like this and show the impact it has on the community.:

Toliver believes there is something else important about what this movie has to say.

"We have two sons, two black teenage sons, that are going to go out in this world," said Toliver. "And I realized this was really an opportunity to really present positive images of black men so that people can really start to think about them different when they walk this earth."

"Hair Love" currently has more than 23 million views on YouTube.

MORE: Texas teen who was told his dreadlocks violated school dress code invited to Oscars by 'Hair Love' team

Deandre Arnold, the Texas teenager making national news after he was told his dreadlocks violated his school's dress code, will attend the Oscars courtesy of the team behind the Oscar-nominated short film "Hair Love."