In the 2006 film Quinceañera, Emily Rios plays Magdalena, the title character’s cousin.
Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, Quinceañera follows Magdalena as her planned celebration becomes complicated by pregnancy and family conflict. Emily Rios’s performance was her film debut and helped establish the character at the center of the story.
The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, where it received major recognition. It won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Sony Pictures Classics later distributed the film in the United States.
The movie is sometimes described simply as a coming-of-age drama, but it also explores sexuality, religion, family loyalty, and gentrification in Los Angeles’s Echo Park neighborhood. It should not be confused with Spanish-language television productions that also use Quinceañera as a title.